A morpho-semantic analysis of some Nigerian internet-based slangs

Abstract

One of the distinguishing features of the Internet language is slang formation and usage among youths in some Internet domains. Such slangs are formed following morphological processes and they are used to convey in-group identity and meaning. In the light of the above, this paper undertakes a morphological analysis of some Internet-based slangs with a view to uncover the morphological processes of slang formation on the Internet and the semantic implication of such slangs. Twenty slangs were sourced from some Internet domains for this study, and it adopts Bauer’s (2004) Morphological Productivity with insights from Booij’s (2010) Construction Morphology as its theoretical framework. The findings reveal that Internet slangs as a means of forming in-group identity follow varied morphological processes with varied semantic implications which reflect the social context and the topic of interaction within the group.