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The Language of Syrian Political Facebook Groups: A Rhetorical Conflict?
Abstract
The diffusion in recent years of new means of communication such as social networks and satellite television has contributed to a dramatic increase in the amount of linguistic variation in Arabic. This seems to confirm the predictions of those Western and Arab sociolinguists who argued for an end of diglossia and theorized the existence of a multiglossic system which accounts for variation in Arabic and for the existence and necessity of unifying varieties, such as Educated Spoken Arabic and Formal Spoken Arabic. Building on the two parallel theses of Suleiman’s (2011) concept of "nativist dualism" and the conception of diglossia as the presence of two models of reference in the mind of the Arabic speaker, composed of metalinguistic and linguistic components (Giolfo&Sinatora, September 2011), this paper argues that the increased amount of codeswitching and codemixing in the media should be rather considered as an enrichment deriving from a diglossic system. The media data analyzed in this paper includes excerpts from five political talk shows broadcast on Aljazeera.net between December 2007 and January 2012 and Facebook posts from the Egyptian page "kulluna Khaled Sa‘?d" and the Syrian one "Al-d?mar?" collected between November 2011 and January 2012 (work in progress). While the former belong to a spoken domain, the latter are part of a written domain. A study of the pragmatic tools utilized in this data, with a particular focus on the use of genitive and possessive constructions, shows continuity with the pragmatic-syntactic features of spoken Arabic illustrated by Brustad (2000). It is argued that such continuity confirms the presence of a cognitive distinction which regulates the use of fuSHa forms for written purposes and ‘ammiyya forms for spoken ones. Despite the written form of the posts, the perceived volatility of Facebook communication resembles typical characteristics of the spoken, rather than the written channel. Moreover, it is argued the high amount of codeswitching and codemixing is a predictable phenomenon which arises from the fact that the contexts analyzed are highly ideologicized domains, characterized by indexical and ideological communication. Despite the impact of Western media formats and globalization, linguistic variation seems to draw from a diglossic system which is peculiar to a shared Arab heritage and identity.
Discipline
Linguistics
Geographic Area
None
Sub Area
Arabic