Speech Acts in the Facebook Status Updates Posted by an Apostate

Azweed Mohamad,Razali Musa,Radzuwan Ab Rashid,Shireena Basree Abdul Rahman,Saadiyah Darus,Kamarul Shukri Mat Teh,Kamariah Yunus

doi:10.5539/ijel.v8n4p226

Abstract

This paper discusses the speech acts in Facebook Status Updates posted by an apostate of Islam. The Facebook Timeline was observed for a duration of two years (January 2015 to December 2016). More than 4000 postings were made in the data collection period. However, only 648 postings are related to apostasy. The data were classified according to the types of speech acts. Expressive speech act is the most frequent speech act (33%, n=215), followed by the directive (27%, n=177), assertive (22%, n=141), and commissive (18%, n=115), respectively. Based on the speech acts used, it is discernible that the apostate attempts to engage other Facebook users and persuade them into accepting her ideology while gaining their support. This paper is novel in the sense that it puts forth the social actions of an apostate which is very scarce in literature. It is also methodologically innovative as it uses social media postings as a tool to explore the apostate’s social actions in an online space.

Highlights

Social networking site (SNS) is the people’s choice platform for communication purposes in this digital era (Boyd & Ellison, 2008; Rashid et al, 2016)
This paper is novel in the sense that it puts forth the social actions of an apostate which is very scarce in literature
This review provides a useful background to this study in terms of speech acts in the context of SNS

Summary

Introduction

Social networking site (SNS) is the people’s choice platform for communication purposes in this digital era (Boyd & Ellison, 2008; Rashid et al, 2016). Facebook emerges as a stand out platform for people to communicate and interact with each other around the world. This study sought to examine the language used by an apostate on her Facebook Timeline through the speech act perspective. With Islam being the official religion of the country, apostasy is not something that can be accepted by the public (Mohamad et al, 2017). Before the emergence of internet, apostates have been living their lives in fear and discreet—keeping the apostasy just to themselves (Mohamad et al, 2017). This study is hoped to provide insights into the strategic use of language by an apostate to communicate with other people through Facebook postings

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion