| As the most volatile component of language,vocabulary has frequently been the focus of linguistic variation research.Animalization is the process of incorporating animal elements into the expression of language,and the animalized expressions in internet vocabulary refer to the internet words containing animal elements.They have emerged as a novel and brand-new way of expression in cyberspace,characterized by a tendency to objectify human personalities.This study employs a qualitative analysis approach to collect 335 animalized internet words commonly used by young people on five Chinese social media,and analyzes the different variational forms and pragmatic functions in the collected data.Finally,the results show that: 1)On the Chinese social networking platforms,the animalized internet words created and used by young people exhibit three variational forms: phonetic,morphological,and semantic,with the most pronounced variational characteristics in the morphological dimension;2)In the process of practice and refinement,the animalized internet words have been endowed with three interpersonal functions: emotional expression,conflict mitigation,and identity construction.Each of these three functions has a distinctive feature: The emotion-expressing function is characterized by a preference for expressing positive emotions,the conflict-mitigating function works through humor and ambiguity,and the identity construction function focuses on constructing negative identities.The aforementioned discoveries carry significant reference value in comprehending the social and cultural motivations that drive the creation of new internet words.Moreover,these findings can aid the primary users of the internet words,namely young people,in abstaining from online misconduct and negative consequences.Ultimately,these results can provide crucial reference for promoting the construction of the discourse system of ideological and political education oriented toward young people. |
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