Gender and code choice in Bruneian Facebook status updates

Abstract

This study investigates language use by Bruneians on Facebook in terms of relational maintenance strategies, the correlations between gender and code choice, the use of emotive language and emoticons, and non‐standardised orthographic forms. A total of 240 Facebook status updates by undergraduates of Universiti Brunei Darussalam were examined. The results show that undergraduates use different categories of maintenance strategies in order to maintain relationships with other users through Facebook status updates, and that gender influences the existence and frequency of a number of linguistic variables in such updates. Women within the sample code‐switch more than men, whereas men use a single code more than women. Women use more emotive language and more emoticons on Facebook more than men do, whilst men use more non‐standardised orthographic forms than women. The implications of these results are discussed.

Digital communication, social media, and Englishes

“…The journal World Englishes has previously published several articles related to the Internet and computer‐mediated communication including Pandey (, the Ebonics debate on an electronic bulletin board); Dimova (, computer‐related English loanwords on Macedonian business websites); Hardy and Friginal (, Filipino and American opinion columns and blogs); Troyer (, English in Thai online newspapers); Zhang (, multilingual creativity in Chinese microblogging); Ai and You (, syntactic features of English on an online discussion forum); Daud and Mclellan (, linguistic choices in Bruneian Facebook status updates); and Ong (, Singlish textese in multiparty chats). However, more contemporary social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube are hardly discussed as a main topic in the journal.…”