THE TRANSFORMATION OF LEXICAL NORM IN THE TEXTS OF TELEGRAM CHANNELS (on the materials of the Uzbek language)

Abstract

 The paper presents a linguistic description of the ways in which the lexical norm of literary Uzbek is transformed in the texts distributed through Telegram channels and examines the mechanisms that generate this transformation under the conditions of digital, screen mediated communication. Telegram channels combine features of written publicistic discourse with the spontaneity, economy and interactivity that are typical of oral speech, and this hybrid status creates a communicative environment in which the codified lexical norm is systematically relaxed. Drawing on the description of active processes in a national language system and on the study of computer mediated discourse, the paper identifies the recurrent means by which the vocabulary of channel texts departs from the codified norm: unassimilated borrowing and code mixing with Russian and English lexemes, graphic and phonetic abbreviation of native and borrowed words, hybrid word formation built on light verb constructions with a foreign stem, semantic extension of existing Uzbek lexemes to new digital referents, and the use of emoji and hashtags as autonomous lexical units. It is shown that these processes are not chaotic violations of the norm but a regular reorganisation of the lexical system along the axis of economy and expressiveness, in which the codified literary norm and the emerging usage norm of digital communication function as two coexisting layers of the same language.