Stylistic, pragmatic, and linguistic features of English in a digital communication environment
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Abstract
The rapid development of digital technologies has shaped English into a dynamic, multimodal, and context-sensitive linguistic system. Digital English, as used throughout social media, messaging applications, and online forums, shows a great deal of stylistic creativity, pragmatic adaptation, and linguistic innovation. Users make use of brevity, informality, multimodality, and translingual practices for meaning-making, negotiating social relationships, and constructing identity. Emojis, GIFs, memes, abbreviations, and simplified syntax are used as devices that are both expressive and pragmatic, compensating for the loss of vocal and facial cues. This paper discusses the stylistic, pragmatic, and linguistic properties of digital English and points out its implications for sociolinguistics, language education, and AI-mediated communication. The study concludes that digital English is not a deterioration of language but a functional, evolving variety responding to contemporary communicative demands.
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References
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