Chapter 7 Digital code play as a sign of the multicompetent self in the internet discourse of Russian speakers in Italy
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Alessandra Dezi
Abstract
This chapter is part of a broader research project that investigates the functions of codeswitching in the online community of Russian-speaking immigrants living in Italy. The focus of the current contribution is playful manipulations of code hereby analyzed under the framework of digital code play. This play includes various semiotic resources, such as grammatical and semantic variations deployed by the communicants on the Internet and the metalinguistic comments surrounding them. Digital code play often occurs in contexts where social and linguistic norms are negotiated. The material analyzed here comprises comments from forums and Facebook groups dedicated to the communication of Russian speakers. The chapter targets three discussion topics on the forum, Russianitaly, and one post on the Facebook group, Russkie v Italii ʻRussians in Italyʼ. These topics and posts focus on language elements and language use and attracted the attention of many users who reported unusual mixing of languages in a playful way. A qualitative analysis of the forms of the play and the surrounding comments shows that users position themselves as multicompetent speakers: creative individuals empowered by multilingual and sociocultural knowledge who are able to combine and recontextualise (linguistic) resources from different sociocultural spaces to create new meanings and values.
Abstract
This chapter is part of a broader research project that investigates the functions of codeswitching in the online community of Russian-speaking immigrants living in Italy. The focus of the current contribution is playful manipulations of code hereby analyzed under the framework of digital code play. This play includes various semiotic resources, such as grammatical and semantic variations deployed by the communicants on the Internet and the metalinguistic comments surrounding them. Digital code play often occurs in contexts where social and linguistic norms are negotiated. The material analyzed here comprises comments from forums and Facebook groups dedicated to the communication of Russian speakers. The chapter targets three discussion topics on the forum, Russianitaly, and one post on the Facebook group, Russkie v Italii ʻRussians in Italyʼ. These topics and posts focus on language elements and language use and attracted the attention of many users who reported unusual mixing of languages in a playful way. A qualitative analysis of the forms of the play and the surrounding comments shows that users position themselves as multicompetent speakers: creative individuals empowered by multilingual and sociocultural knowledge who are able to combine and recontextualise (linguistic) resources from different sociocultural spaces to create new meanings and values.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Chapter 1 Introduction: Contact-related variation and change – crossing the boundaries within and between languages 1
- Chapter 2 Language contact and language attrition: Processes and constellations 39
- Chapter 3 Two modes of contact-induced change in minority languages: Phonology and syntax vs. inflectional morphology 65
- Chapter 4 Variation and change in comparative structures as an interaction of language internal and language external factors: Evidence from Asia Minor Greek 93
- Chapter 5 Linguistic reconstruction and creole emergence: The case of Upper Guinea creoles 119
- Chapter 6 Language contact and expressives in Italian 149
- Chapter 7 Digital code play as a sign of the multicompetent self in the internet discourse of Russian speakers in Italy 169
- Chapter 8 Sociolinguistic typology and language contact in Northern Italy 199
- Chapter 9 Dialect contact and koineization in Italy 225
- Chapter 10 Sociolinguistic norms on the usage of Italian within refugee centres in Italy 255
- Subject index 275
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Chapter 1 Introduction: Contact-related variation and change – crossing the boundaries within and between languages 1
- Chapter 2 Language contact and language attrition: Processes and constellations 39
- Chapter 3 Two modes of contact-induced change in minority languages: Phonology and syntax vs. inflectional morphology 65
- Chapter 4 Variation and change in comparative structures as an interaction of language internal and language external factors: Evidence from Asia Minor Greek 93
- Chapter 5 Linguistic reconstruction and creole emergence: The case of Upper Guinea creoles 119
- Chapter 6 Language contact and expressives in Italian 149
- Chapter 7 Digital code play as a sign of the multicompetent self in the internet discourse of Russian speakers in Italy 169
- Chapter 8 Sociolinguistic typology and language contact in Northern Italy 199
- Chapter 9 Dialect contact and koineization in Italy 225
- Chapter 10 Sociolinguistic norms on the usage of Italian within refugee centres in Italy 255
- Subject index 275
