CMC Research Paper: An Analysis of Linguistics Deviations Used In A Facebook Status Posted By A Public Figure

Introduction

Background of Study

The number of Facebook users have increased by years. Its users vary from different age groups. For the past few years, Facebook has become one of the most popular social media amongst people around the world. Since it is used widely for various reasons such as education, business, and social events, it has become a part of everyone’s necessity. Nevertheless, Facebook has been used by some people as a platform to express feelings beyond boundaries since it includes virtual interactions. For example, the usage of taboo words or explicit contents is spread in split seconds without limitations, resulting in social problems, lack of respects towards each other, cyber bullying and illegal schemes.

In today's world, with the usage of Facebook and other social media, world leaders can communicate with their people and received complains through social media without any filtering of words occurred. The problem came in when some of the users start posting threats and inappropriate content towards these leaders where everyone can read and create their own assumptions. This study aims to give an insight on how people would interact with a public figure or leader in online communication. This study also investigates the language used and the degree of formality and informality adopted by Facebook users when communicating with the public figure.

Purpose of the Study

This research aims to identify the degree of formality and informality used in a Facebook status posted by a public figure by looking at the occurrence of linguistics deviation in sentences, specifically in the post itself and the comment sections.

Framework for Analysis: Linguistics Deviation

Linguistics deviation is a style of writing that goes against the norms or the standard of writing. It happens when the writer decided not to follow the standard rules of a language, in this case, English language. Supported by Levin (1963), he stated that language deviation is defined as some irregularity that occurred in a pattern of a language; a disruption of which constitutes the deviation. In other words, language deviation can be defined as the use of language that does not follow the ordinary rules of the standard language, which is the normal English. A writer could violate the rules of the language that they are using in many ways through linguistics deviations. There are different types of linguistics deviations depending on what rules are broken and at which level of the language it occurs (Leech, 2014).

There are lexical, semantical, orthographical, grammatical, phonological and several other deviations. First, a lexical deviation occurs when there is an invention of new ‘words’ or neologism. This new word could be made up of two existed words being mixed together. For example, ‘brunch’ can be a lexical deviation as it is the result of a combination of words between ‘breakfast’ and ‘lunch’. Second, semantical deviation is the deviation of meaning. Semantical deviation is sometimes associated with ‘nonsense’ or ‘absurdity’. Most of the time, semantical deviation is used in poetry and literary text for creative purposes. Third, as for grammatical deviation, it usually occurs when a writer intentionally wants to deviate from using the correct grammar or the writer is lack of grammar knowledge. Grammatical deviation can further be divided into morphological and syntactical deviation. For example, a poet such as E. E. Cummings used a lot of grammatical deviation in his poems for poetic purpose. Fourth, orthographical deviation concerned about the punctuations and spelling in sentences. Other than that, spelling that represents pronunciation or any strangeness of pronunciation reflected by the strangeness of written form is categorized under phonological deviation. Lastly, dialectal deviation is the borrowing of features of socially or regionally defined dialects. It is the use of a certain register in a wrong domain while historical deviation consisted of the usage of archaic or ancient words in sentences.

Research Questions

1. What are the types of linguistic deviation employed by users in the Facebook post and comments section?
2. Does the occurrence of linguistic deviation in Facebook post affect the degree of formality?

Description of Data

For this study, the data was obtained from a Facebook status posted by an Indian public figure named Markandey Katju, and a thread of comments replied to the post. The reason for selecting Katju’s post as the subject of this study because he is a well-known public figure in India, who has been actively involved in social media, expressing his opinions with no limits. As a former judge of Supreme Court of India, many topics have been discussed on his social media, including politics, religion, entertainment, etc. The selected post specifically discusses the beef ban issue happening in India, which oppresses other religions and makes people question the Hindu’s beliefs. The author of the post expressed his opinion on the beef ban, which he is totally against the practice. Some issues related to humanity and ethnicity were also discussed in the comment sections by his supporters and people against his view. The post and comments that consist of 1023 words was analyzed using the framework of linguistics deviations.

Significance of the Study

The findings of the study would benefit the society in terms of improving the pedagogy of English language and the theory of linguistics deviation. Linguistics deviations identification will enable English language educators to identify and focus on the weaknesses of the society in learning English language as linguistics deviation can affect the degree of formality in daily conversation and deliverance of meanings. In the research, we are focusing on looking at the degree of formality in Facebook comments. It is to identify whether the commenters are using formal or informal language to communicate with their leader through social media. From an observation, even though comments on Facebook can be edited before being posted, yet many still allow deviations to occur, either intentionally or unintentionally. Hence, with this research, the education systems can start to encourage the middle school and high school students to be more aware of the words that they used on social media. It also allows the students to practice their writing skills and grammar knowledge considering that these two aspects are important in mastering English language.

Theoretically, it is important for language professionals to understand that changes can occur in the meaning of sentences with just a slight change in words usage and sentence structure. In other words, linguistics deviation can cause huge changes in meaning interpretation.  To understand an actual meaning in a sentence, basic linguistics knowledge is required to be learned by everyone. Chomsky (1988, p.9) wrote in his book entitled Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, “When deviation is sufficiently limited, an interpretation can often be imposed by virtue of formal relations to sentences of the generated language.” Understanding the foregrounding of linguistics deviation can further help an individual to understand poetry and to read between the lines given that human mind is complex. It is believed that this research study delivers useful data which may give a broader idea of the occurrence of language deviation in Facebook posts. In achieving this aim, the study provides the way for further research by exploring the occurrence of language deviations in mediums other than Facebook posts.

Literature Review

Title	Year	Author	URL	Research Questions	Framework for Analysis	Framework Sample	Findings
Online Language: The Role of Culture in Self-Expression and Self-Construal on Facebook	2010	●        David C. DeAndrea ●        Allison S. Shaw ●        Timothy R. Levine	http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0261927x10377989	●        How the usage of personal pronouns on Facebook shows cultural expression?	●        Cultural in Self-Expression and Self Construal -          Personal pronouns usage -          Independent (I, me, mine) and interdependent (we, us, our) self-construal -          Relational affiliation	●        Facebook ‘About Me’ section	●        Culture plays a significant role in influencing the communication of psychological attributes, individuating information, and the quantity of self-descriptive expression. ●        African Americans reported significantly more internalized attributes than Caucasian Americans or ethnic Asians who did not significantly differ from one another. ●        The results were significant for the proportion of pure psychological attributes and first person singular pronouns. ●        Independent individuals will use pure psychological attributes for self-description. ●        A common pattern was evident throughout the language analyzed in this study; African Americans expressed themselves differently than Caucasian Americans and ethnic Asians who did not differ.
Facebook in the language classroom: Promises and possibilities	2009	●        Geraldine Blattner ●        Melissa Fiori	http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_09/Jan_09.pdf#page=21	●        How can Facebook develop a sense of community in language classrooms? ●        How can Facebook impact the development of socio-pragmatic competence in language learners?	●        Language variation, linguistic and cultural issues -          Use of lexicon. -          Observing and participating in ‘Groups’ discussions from various regions of the world where the target language is spoken natively. -          Mutual interdependence among members, connectedness, trust, interactivity and shared expectations and goals.	●        Facebook posts	●        Accessing group discussions on Facebook can help language learners to comprehend how culture and language are interrelated as well as develop their awareness about the fact that certain speech acts are difficult to translate from their native language to the target one for cultural reasons. ●        Facebook is undoubtedly a tool that can enhance the sense of belonging.
Digitalk: An Exploration of the Linguistic Features of CMC	2015	●        Chenee M. Din ●        Leah E. Gustilo	https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Leah_Gustilo/publication/277628601_Digitalk_An_Exploration_of_the_Linguistic_Features_of_CMC/links/556eddc008aeccd7773f844a.pdf	●        What are the prevalent linguistic features evident in the language of Filipino Netspeakers? ●        What functions are played by the features of the Filipino Netspeakers’ electronic language variety? ●        Why do Filipino Netspeakers use the electronic language variety in Computer-mediated communication?	●        Electronic communication ●        Linguistic competency features and function of internet language	●        Facebook status	●        The study found that there are nine features of Filipino internet language that were evident in the status updates of the Facebookers: Abbreviation (F1), Acronym (F2), Discourse Particles (F3), Borrowing (F4), Affixation (F5), Compounding (F6), Blending (F7) and Code-switching (CS), which was classified into Inter-sentential (F8) and Intra-sentential (F9). ●        The functions of nine features are as follow: -          Abbreviation: to express strong emotion and shortening expressions -          Acronyms: to shorten the expression. -          Discourse particles: to provide emphasis to the statement that follows, introduce status update. -          Affixation: to provide local color to the English expression. -          Compounding: to create a “new” term that covers the essence or meaning of the combined words as to shorten expressions. -          Blending: to make the Facebookers appear stylish. -          Code-switching: to post status updates with ease based on the language that they prefer to use. ●        According to the study, the Filipino Netspeakers use the electronic language variety such as acronym because it is more convenient to use. For code-switching, it enables them to express what they really mean as it is more understandable to their readers because their readers use the same linguistic feature. Code switching is also used for lack of words and stylistic purposes. as for the usage of shortened words, it is because they want to save space, time of encoding. While emoticons were used because they amplify their feelings, virtually represent gestures, provide emphasis, deploy humor, give orders and ask favors. The respondents seem to have an evident degree of familiarity in the practice of using the Electronic language variety in the ICT.
The Functions of Code-switching in Facebook Interactions	2014	●        Nur Syazwani Halim ●        Marlyna Maros	https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187704281401547X	●        Does code-switching only take place in verbal communication? ●        What motivates the bilinguals to switch from one code to another in electronic writing? ●        Why bilingual users switch codes despite of having foreign friends in their friend lists?	●        Bilinguals’ interactions and communication styles in electronic writing  -          Code-switching occurs in online interactions. -          Users use the language profusely as they prefer to convey their feelings and thoughts. -          Common informal and less correct language done by the users with a lot of abbreviations, acronyms, spelling mistakes and also the use of emoticons.		●        Switching for quotation -          Authenticity of the message is still retained after code-switching takes place. ●        Switching for addressee specification -          Since Facebook allows users to tag friends in their status updates, the users can simply direct the message to particular friends and code-switching to them. ●        Switching for reiteration -          User switched codes to reiterate the messages with the intention of making the message clearer and understood. ●        Switching for message qualification -          This occurs when a topic is introduced in one language and followed by an amplification or qualification in another language. ●        Switching for clarification -          code-switching is used by the user to clarify or elaborate a message to further explain about it. ●        Switching for emphasis -          User switched from English to Malay to emphasise her statement. ●        Switching for checking -          Other than the role of switching for checking, other forms of questions for checking, namely Yes/No and Wh-questions were also discovered in this study. ●        Switching for indicating emotions -          Bilinguals switch codes to convey their emotions because words and expression carried by different languages express one’s thoughts and feelings better. ●        Switching for availability -          Some words, phrases or expressions better expressed in the respective languages than another language because it might cause them to be less semantically accurate. ●        Free switching -          Code-switching is employed for no apparent reason or it comprises of other functions.
The Linguistics of Social Networking: A Study of Writing Conventions on Facebook	2012	●        Carmen Perez-Sabater	https://bop.unibe.ch/linguistik-online/article/view/257/347	●        How is the degree of formality employed in closings and openings of comments in online communication?	●        Formality and Informality Communication -          Users use a lot of informal languages, paralinguistic cues, words with spelling mistakes, courtesy formulae and there is also the number of words per sentence. -          Distinction between native and non-native English speakers	●        Facebook comments on official Facebook sites of universities in Europe and The United States of America	●        Openings: -          Native speakers use either a very informal greeting element or no greetings, start their messages by addressing the name or nickname of the intended addressee, while non-native speakers use the mixture of formal and informal styles in their writings. ●        Closings: -          Most comments contain requests or expression of thanks with some emoticon or exclamations. -          The consistent levels of formality are shown based on this study, but some do not observe a clear pattern of formality which there are no opening but a very formal closing structure.

Findings

Table below represents our findings on the types of linguistic deviation employed by users in the Facebook post and comments section: 

Types of Deviation	Total Occurrence	Percentage (%)
Lexical	2	1.31
Semantic	0	0.00
Orthographical	72	47.06
Grammatical	22	14.37
Phonological	5	3.27
Dialectal	46	30.07
Register/Historical Period	6	3.92
TOTAL:	153	100

Discussion

            From the data that we have analysed, there are several points that can be concluded. Our analysis reveals that the occurrence of orthographical deviation is the highest amongst the other types of deviation while the occurrence of semantical deviation is the lowest. This is because social media is a place for social networking rather than a place for a language conscious. Most people may not pay attention in making the most standard and formal sentences in social media. Most common mistakes made by the Facebook users is neglecting the rule of capitalization for proper nouns such as “Mr. katju” and “kerala”. What is important is to convey an accurate message and to make sure it is understandable by the readers. In this case, semantical deviation would most likely be found in poetical text instead of in Facebook postings. Semantical deviation did not occur in the text that we have analysed as it is a formal discussion posted by a former judge, Markandey Katju on beef banning. The usage of semantical deviation may divert the actual meaning of the discussion, hence the reason why it is absent throughout the data. Lexical deviations which contributed to the 1.31% of the occurrence are found in a form of terms emphasization. For example, the words “downtrodden” is used to talk about the oppressed and “FYI” is a used instead of “for your information”.

            Grammatical deviation occurred 14.37% according to the analysis, making it the third highest occurrence compared to other types of linguistic deviation. This type of deviation occurs when the Facebook users are unaware or lacking the knowledge of tenses, subject-verb agreement and rules related to grammar. Some examples of grammatical deviation found are “... it does not effects”, “... non veg foods” and “... your beliefs than you’re just a moron…”. This type of linguistic deviation can also be analyzed as typographical errors or writers might be in confusion due to the lack of vocabularies because “then” and “than” sounds the same. As some people are typing at a very fast pace, they tend to mistype some words. However, grammatical deviation is found in the comments section only, proving that the author of the post is aware of the grammatical rules and functions.

Phonological deviation happens when the speakers or writers change the pronunciations of the original words that cause the sound patterns to change. There are three kinds of omitted phonological deviation that holds different structures in changing the original sound patterns into new ones. They are Aphesis, Syncope, and Apocope. Each one of these omits different parts of the original sounds of the words. Aphesis happens when there is the omission of an initial part of the word. For example, the word “alone” will be changed into “lone”, where the initial alphabet is omitted. However, in the data that we collected, there is no aphesis. Besides that, syncope takes place when there is the omission of medial part of a word. The word “never”, for instance, will be changed into “ne’er”, by taking away the medial alphabet of the word. Like aphesis, it is also cannot be traced from our data. Lastly, apocope holds the function of omitting the final part of a word. There are some examples in the text where the writers of the comments apply this type of phonological deviation. The words like “government” and “vegetarian” are repeatedly can be seen written as gov and veg, where “-ernment” and “-etarian” have been removed. There is also another type of phonological deviation that does not involve omission in the word. Taking one example from the data, one of the writers wrote “n” instead of “and”. This can be categorized as the same deviation as there is the strangeness in written form. Overall, it is only 3.27% of phonological deviation takes place in the data.

Aside from that, there is also linguistic deviation that allows foregrounding to happen by looking at the dialect. Dialectal deviation takes place when there are features that related to social or regional defined dialects in the writings. In the collected data that we get, it can be seen that writers often applied their own dialects in their comments, whom both the writers and the readers familiar with those terms since they come from the same culture. In this case, we are analysing Facebook post and comments from the Indian community. Hence, there are many Indian dialects that were written causing code-switching and code-mixing to happen many times. Out of all, this deviation takes place about 30.07% In the main post, the politician used the word “gomata” that carries the meaning of “a female cow” in the middle of English sentences. This leads the readers to be foregrounded and making them understand more since the leader used the term from their mother-tongue. Other than that, there are also terms used in the comments section, such as “Dalit”, “Sati” and “Pandits” that carry meanings that can only be fully understood by people who know well in Indian language and cultures.

The last type of linguistic deviation in our finding is the register or historical deviation which is only 3.92%. This deviation happens when there is the usage of words that are related to history elements such as ancient words. Most of the times, when there are historical deviations, readers who do not familiar with those historical events, tend to not understand the meaning of the word wholly. There are few examples taken from the collected data that can be categorized as the historical deviation. For instances, the examples of the terms “Brahmin” and “Brahmaic” that refers to the high-caste, rich Indian people. These terms have already been used since thousands of years ago According to history, written evidence about the caste system appears in the Vedas, Sanskrit-language texts from as early as 1500 BCE, which form the basis of Hindu scripture. Hence, with the usage of historical deviation, people can relate the historical events with the things they are discussing, which can give them deeper meanings in certain cases.

In relation to the second research question, the analysis shows that the occurrence of linguistic deviation in Facebook post does affect the degree of formality. The findings show that most comments are posted by the non-native speakers of English, as dialectal deviation is found to be the second most recognised type of linguistic deviation. Based on the comments, the users are familiar with the topic and context, hence code-mixing and code-switching are employed in order to convey certain meanings related to the discussion. Some comments are found to be informal as the users tend to borrow features of socially or regionally defined dialects in communicating. Using the framework of linguistic deviation to analyse the data, informality is evident because of the higher frequency of orthographical and dialectal occurrences, besides the absence of proper greetings and farewells when conversing with people at a higher position.

Conclusion

            The findings of this study reflect the English language competency of Facebook users in an online communication with public figure. The occurrences of linguistic deviation in the comments section prove that the deviations are understandable and accepted among the users, as long as the meanings of the messages are conveyed. Hence, most of them are keen to code-mix and code-switch between English and Hindi, and varieties of spelling patterns are found, including shorten expressions such as “ppl” for “people”. Based on the collected data, these users employ code-switching as a tool to enhance their interaction in Facebook. It is also used as a strategy to communicate and negotiate meanings effectively in their electronic discourse. The users’ competences of both English and Hindu serve them well to achieve both their communicative and stylistic objectives. Therefore, this corresponds to Blom and Gumperz (1972) that code-switching requires speakers to be fully competent in the two languages. Hence, it can be concluded that code-switching is a natural phenomenon that not only occurs in bilinguals’ speech, but also in their electronic discourse. It should be perceived as a functional sociolinguistic or communicative tool that adds colours to both spoken and written communication in multiracial community rather than a lingo that leads to the corruption of the pure language. The interference of native language provides Facebook users with better understanding on the context and the development of shorten expressions allows users to communicate with ease, using their preferred way of writing.

Although the occurrences of linguistic deviation found in this study results in informality in online communication when conversing with leader or people with power, it shows the closeness and friendliness between the two respective groups. Informality was recognised in the conversations as there are no greetings and farewell included in each and every comments analyzed. However, it shows that people are comfortable with it, apart from using the traditional way of letter-writing format, with proper greetings and farewell. This can be supported by the theory of strategy politeness where people use more deviation when talking to friends that are closed to. It can be concluded that the higher the occurrence of linguistics deviation, the lesser the degree of formality in the conversation.

References

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Chomsky, N. (1988). Current issues in linguistic theory (Vol. 38). Walter de Gruyter.

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International Journal of Languages, Literature, and Linguistics, 1(1), 51-55.

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Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 118, 126-133.

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Appendix:

1. Raw data
2. Analyzed data
3. Summary of Analyzed Data - Tables

Raw Data

2. Analyzed Data

3. Summary of Analyzed Data - Tables

Tabulated Language Deviations in the Corpus

Types of Deviation	Examples
Lexical	Hindi is ‘downtrodden’, … … FYI eating non veg ...
Semantic	(none)
Orthographical	1.      … it---America, … 2.      … etc and … 3.      … sants ? 4.      … ‘gomata’ ? 5.      … being ? 6.      … etc also … 7.      … ask ; … 8.      … worshipped ? 9.      … in India Beef ban is … 10.  … on dalits. 11.  … respected ? 12.  …can u define a dalit … 13.  … on Beef. 14.  … Mr. katju. 15.  … and rich enough….. 16.  … such ‘REAL’ 17.  … dalits 18.  … it In America.. 19.  … a shameful act 20.  If cows are mothers then why… 21.  … cast brahmins… 22.  I was in uae… 23.  … many hindus… 24.  … from kerala, … 25.  … export of beef, Is it because.. 26.  … of earning ? . I think… 27.  … kamayega . And… 28.  … socially oppressed,discarded… 29.   …animals like, dogs… 30.  … dogs ,swine… 31.  … etc.This… 32.  … of India.Now… 33.  … the savarnas. 34.  … in India . But.. 35.  … of beef . Just… 36.  … dollar earning . Ghar… 37.  … m earning . Bhai… 38.  … uthae . Markandey… 39.  … wants it in the law 40.  … nothing bt … 41.  … ppl who … 42. … of others 43. … in Kashmir too .Majority … 44. North east … 45. its just a region like north india … 46. … or south india. 47. N FYI … 48. … eating non veg … 49. … our culture.(Arunachal). 50. some r veg(owing to other influences n choices). 51. Its a matter of … 52. Live n let others live. 53. By your logic those Muslims … 54. beef roasted and porrata….! 55. Hell Yeah 56. Sanjeev Kumar Singh majority … 57. … till today believe in dowry so according 58. … both are okay?? 59. A well knowledgeable and wise mind decides … 60. … i also mentioned … 61. … other people…. 62. … available ..what is there … 63. … cow meet….
Grammatical	… and atleast it does not effects ... … veg foods … … improve the life style … … a single person follow it … … they must have right to do so … Majority people on Kashmir … Its a matter of personal choice. Hindus are a majority … … allowed to practice there religion … … you have no right to force … … your beliefs than you’re just … … what it good or bad. It deosnt not matter … … it does not hurts other people … … banning a beef will hurt minority offcourse …
Phonological	...non veg foods… ...no gov policy to... ...eating non veg is not… ...some are veg… ...influences n choices.
Dialectal	...gomata… ...sadhu… ...sants? ...dalits. ...a dalit please? ...such ‘REAL’ dalits ...dalit...  ...dalits… ...wale… ...khaygne… ...toh… ...kam... ...kamayega… ...even pandits from kerala, … ...Bahar… ...wale… ...toh… ...m… ...khandre… ...toh… ...kamaye… ...zyada… ...hoga... ...of Dalit in… ...Ghar… ...k… ...log… ...khaygne… ...toh… ...rupee... ...m… ...hoga… ...bahar… ...kinge… ...toh… ...m… ...bhai… ...log… ...kavi... ...k… ...liye… ...v… ...awaaz… ...uthao... ...Dalit is nothing but… ...porrata...
Register/Historical Period	No Thakur... ....Brahmin dares to... ...by a Brahmaic scholar... ...respected by Savarn as… ...are the savarnas. ...believe in ‘sati’ and...