Gender and word elongation in Facebook-mediated communication in Palestinian Arabic

ABSTRACT This article examines the social and linguistic functions of word elongation in Palestinian Facebook-mediated communication. Drawing on Ochs’ social constructivism and Parrott’s classification of emotions, we analyse a 65-discourse corpus of personal interviews using a mixed methods approach. It finds, while there are many similarities in the conventions related to word elongation between male sand females, 75% of the female sample use this practice while 45% of the males said they hardly used it. Word elongation is clearly a feature that characterises female language although its use is not restricted to females. Forty percent of males would use it to indicate that they are angry whereas 45% of females would use abbreviations instead. While 60% of females use word elongation to express positive feelings, 40% of males would use it to communicate positive emotions. The researchers conclude that elongated words reflect a social change in Palestinian society with respect to gender and language.