IRMALA SUKENDRA (UNIVERSITAS ISLAM SYEKH YUSUF TANGERANG)

GROUP SOLIDARITY IN THE USE OF TRANSLANGUAGING : PLURILINGUALISM AND TRANSLANGUAGING

The social media users in their attempt to communicate online created virtual ‘third spaces’ where they identify themselves as members of groups and own the collective identities. This study aims to find the structure of translanguaging used in ‘X’ through the strategies applied and whether translanguaging acts as a means of communication to project the translingual identity as members of subculture group. Methodologically, this study applies netnographic study focusing on lurking method. The translanguaging in this study is analysed at lexical and sentence level in the interactions between X users. The data was constructed through qualitative interviews with group members of a subculture group and analysed their individual posts on X. The analysis of this study uses the following frameworks: the language use in tweets adapts Canagarajah’s (2019) and Richards and Wilson’s theory on transidentitying (2019). By embracing translanguaging as a means of projecting a translingual identity, individuals navigate the complexities of subculture group membership and foster inclusive communities within the digital realm. The study showed that the word coinage and foreignization are formulated similarly as L2 word formation and sentence construction. Social media users blended the words from L1 (Indonesian) with words/morphemes from other languages. Through employing this strategy, Indonesian attracts other interlocutors who share similar interest. The identities they projected in their communications in Twitter interactions can be said as the identity as the member of the circle, the circles of subculture groups.

Irmala Sukendra is currently teaching at Universitas Islam Syekh Yusuf Tangerang and. Bina Nusantara University. Her main interest is in grammar, etymology, and culture. She is interested in studying culture especially Chinese-Tangerang culture as part of her ancestry. Her other works can be obtained form this link:https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=smhx2v4AAAAJ&hl=en.