This paper enquires into the ELF-mediated online communication modes developed by a group of Nigerian migrants living in Southern Italy during the lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic emergency. The paper illustrates how such modes, though propositionally conveyed as written language, actually retain the analogical immediacy of spoken discourse through which migrants express their anguish at feeling caught in a situation of distress and even more marginalisation. Case-study data demonstrate that the migrants’ linguaculturally-marked use of syllabic notations, acronyms, emojis, and phrasal verbs triggers processes of semantic relexicalisation and morphological decategorialisation that undermine in many ways what so far has been regarded as the universal trends in language evolution governed and bound by natural principles of economy.
Relexicalisation and Decategorialisation Processes in Migrants’ ELF-Mediated Online Narratives in the Disembodied Time of the Covid-19 Pandemic
Guido, Maria Grazia
2021-01-01
Abstract
This paper enquires into the ELF-mediated online communication modes developed by a group of Nigerian migrants living in Southern Italy during the lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic emergency. The paper illustrates how such modes, though propositionally conveyed as written language, actually retain the analogical immediacy of spoken discourse through which migrants express their anguish at feeling caught in a situation of distress and even more marginalisation. Case-study data demonstrate that the migrants’ linguaculturally-marked use of syllabic notations, acronyms, emojis, and phrasal verbs triggers processes of semantic relexicalisation and morphological decategorialisation that undermine in many ways what so far has been regarded as the universal trends in language evolution governed and bound by natural principles of economy.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
