DIGITAL SOCIOLINGUISTICS PERSPECTIVE OF KAWANS AMONG MALAYSIANS ON FACEBOOK

Abstract

This study scrutinizes the pragmatic functions from the digital sociolinguistic perspectives of the pluralized form kawans, a hybrid formation mixing the Malay lexical item kawan (‘friend’) with the English plural suffix -s, in Facebook-mediated communication. Adopting a digital sociolinguistic perspective, the study analyses Facebook postings produced between 2020 and 2025, categorised into interpersonal postings and promotional discourse. A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining quantitative frequency analysis of dominant language use (English, Malay, and mixed) with qualitative discourse-pragmatic analysis. Based on the findings, across both categories, a weighty dominance of English-dominant discourse was demonstrated with kawans appeared the most frequent in English-dominant and mixed-language contexts. Kawans functions principally as an indication of solidarity, playfulness, and peer identity in interpersonal postings with considerable linguistic flexibility and hybridization. While kawans strategically functions as an audience-design scheme to indicate inclusivity, approachability, and engagement simultaneously as preserving persuasive intent in promotional discourse. This study exhibits that the pluralization of kawan is pragmatically driven instead of grammatically necessary. This depth is based on Androutsopoulos notion of digital sociolinguistic stylisation, Bell audience design framework, as well as Bucholtz and Hall identity construction model. By demonstrating how code-mixing at morphological level could function as socially meaningful mechanism, kawans in this study denotes a stabilized language feature of Malaysian English digital discourse. The findings of this study contribute to visible perspectives on the role of digital platforms in forming contemporary language use and discussions on World Englishes especially in code-mixing framework.