Abstract
This article employs the methodological framework of Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies to investigate language ideologies in the context of South African Twitter (now known as X) discourse. In the diverse linguistic landscape of South Africa, where multiple languages coexist, Twitter (X) serves as a digital space for users to express their identities, affiliations and perspectives. The study draws on a carefully compiled corpus of South African Twitter (X) data, encompassing tweets, retweets and replies, to conduct a comprehensive linguistic analysis. The article aims to illuminate how language ideologies in South African Twitter (X) often favour colonial principles of hierarchy, superiority, power and segregation of certain groups over others, reflecting historical efforts to marginalise some indigenous languages in favour of others. The article contributes significantly to the conversation on coloniality and the necessity to decolonise the Internet by thoroughly investigating the lasting impacts of colonisation on social media. It highlights the widespread presence of language ideologies within digital environments. Leveraging Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies allows quantitative and qualitative examination of patterns, frequency and discourse structures, enabling a nuanced understanding of how language ideologies are enacted and negotiated within this digital space. Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies facilitates the identification of recurrent linguistic patterns and explores how users strategically deploy linguistic resources to construct and negotiate their identities in a multilingual and multicultural digital space.
Published Version
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