'This app is evil forest true true': Metaphor-based Metadiscursive Evaluations of Twitter by Nigerians
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
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in: Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, Jahrgang 38, Nr. 4, 01.12.2023, S. 1582-1590.
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
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TY - JOUR
T1 - 'This app is evil forest true true': Metaphor-based Metadiscursive Evaluations of Twitter by Nigerians
AU - Inya, Onwu
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of EADH. All rights reserved.
PY - 2023/12/1
Y1 - 2023/12/1
N2 - Previous linguistic studies on Nigeria-based Twitter discourse have investigated radicalist, terrorist, campaign, and electioneering discourses. These previous studies focus on discourses produced on Twitter, and not metadiscursive reflections about the social media space itself, and the discursive practice of dragging, in the context of celebrity–newcomer socialization, drawing theoretical insights from metaphoric conceptualizations. This article examines metaphor-based metadiscursive evaluations of the microblogging space by Nigerians. The data for the study comprise tweets retrieved from the Twitter account of a Nigerian celebrity new to Twitter, and subjected to metaphor scenario analysis. It was found that the metaphoric concepts of EVIL FOREST, STREET AS CULTURE/HIGHWAY, and DRAG/TIGER GENERATOR provide frames for characterizing, and evaluating Twitter, and the practice of dragging, respectively. Such user-based metadiscursive metaphoric reflections about the digital space, and culture grant access to the conceptual, and ideological structures that underscore participation in cyberspace. This article has implications for understanding the conceptual and ideological structures that underscore participation on Twitter NG, and the (dis)affiliative stance towards online bullying inherent in the practice of dragging.
AB - Previous linguistic studies on Nigeria-based Twitter discourse have investigated radicalist, terrorist, campaign, and electioneering discourses. These previous studies focus on discourses produced on Twitter, and not metadiscursive reflections about the social media space itself, and the discursive practice of dragging, in the context of celebrity–newcomer socialization, drawing theoretical insights from metaphoric conceptualizations. This article examines metaphor-based metadiscursive evaluations of the microblogging space by Nigerians. The data for the study comprise tweets retrieved from the Twitter account of a Nigerian celebrity new to Twitter, and subjected to metaphor scenario analysis. It was found that the metaphoric concepts of EVIL FOREST, STREET AS CULTURE/HIGHWAY, and DRAG/TIGER GENERATOR provide frames for characterizing, and evaluating Twitter, and the practice of dragging, respectively. Such user-based metadiscursive metaphoric reflections about the digital space, and culture grant access to the conceptual, and ideological structures that underscore participation in cyberspace. This article has implications for understanding the conceptual and ideological structures that underscore participation on Twitter NG, and the (dis)affiliative stance towards online bullying inherent in the practice of dragging.
KW - English
KW - celebrity
KW - culture
KW - metaphor scenarios
KW - Socialization
KW - street
KW - twitter
KW - Nigeria
KW - Language Studies
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85179738672&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/llc/fqad063
DO - 10.1093/llc/fqad063
M3 - Journal articles
VL - 38
SP - 1582
EP - 1590
JO - Digital Scholarship in the Humanities
JF - Digital Scholarship in the Humanities
SN - 2055-7671
IS - 4
ER -