Kiss, K. – Polcz, K. –  Válóczi, M. (2024): WhatsApp Me or the role of word conversion in the language of social media. Porta Lingua. 2024/5. 49-66

DOI: https://doi.org/10.48040/PL.2024.2.5

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Absztrakt

English is said to have a rich repository of lexical items. The continuous enrichment of the English vocabulary with new words from various fields such as social media may create challenges for students in learning English successfully as a foreign language. The noticeable lexical abundance of English may be attributed to a variety of productive word formation processes such as clipping, blending and conversion, the latter known as the process whereby a term belonging to a specific grammatical category is used with different syntactic functions without requiring a change in its form. The current paper has conversion as its focus being one of the most productive word formation processes in English. It intends to analyse and classify the most important types of conversion in social media language stressing the importance of learning this word formation technique for the learners of English and non-native English speakers who strive to improve their vocabulary and the overall command of the language. The examples in this study come from social media online dictionaries to justify the productivity of conversion in English. The collected examples were also used to draw attention to the fact that social media represents excellent opportunities for language learners to obtain linguistic input and output more effectively.

Keywords: conversion, functional change, word formation, productivity, social media language