The Use and Features of Malaysian English Lexemes as Social Media Hashtags

Abstract

Social media has changed the way societies all over the world communicate in this modern age. Studies on this research area have shown that of the various forms available, hashtags (#) have a higher means of attraction, as they often produce social media trends and innovative linguistic items that are developed through several approaches, including the use of non-native English varieties. This interesting trend is the motivation for the current study, which explores how features of Malaysian English (ME) lexemes, are used as social media hashtags. To date, linguistic research on social media in the Malaysian context has focused on identifying the use of Malay and English slang words in general. There is relatively little research on the use of localised ME lexemes as hashtags in social media. The current study addresses this gap by employing a cross-sectional survey of the use and practice of a list of 30 ME lexemes by Malaysian speakers and a content analysis of the morpho-syntactic features of these lexemes as social media hashtags based on valid hashtag taxonomies from previous research. The study found that popular ME hashtags used in social media posts are mostly composed of short strings in the form of the # + two words and # + code-switching variation. Interestingly, the analysis of the morpho-syntactic features of one particular ME lexeme with distinct characteristics led to the development of a new category, namely “# + discourse particle”.