Cover not available
Article published In:
Internet Pragmatics
Vol. 6:1 (2023) ► pp.107–128

Parallel digital monolingualism

A Canadian case study of language ideologies and hashtags in multilingual digital discourse

| Carleton University

This paper examines the role of hashtags in the formation of affinity spaces linked to divergent linguistic cultures in the Canadian digital context. The linguistic cultures tend to accommodate certain language ideologies, which manifest through distinct forms of practical and discursive consciousness. The coexistence of divergent linguistic cultures that address shared topics in different ways is labelled “parallel digital monolingualism,” a form of multilingualism that has not been accounted for in previous research. This multilingualism exists because of the transfer of offline experiences (which, in Canada, are based on language and geography) into the affordances of digital contexts.

Keywords: digital discourse, Canada, language ideology, hashtags, multilingualism, affinity space, French, English
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Two solitudes and parallel monolingualism in Canada
  • 3.Communities, hashtags, and language ideologies
  • 4.Hashtags and multilingualism
  • 5.Data and method
  • 6.Findings
  • 7.Discussion
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 9 December 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ip.00087.ves
References (51)
Anderson, Benedict
1983 Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Anthony, Laurence
2022 AntConc (Version 4.1.2) [Computer Software]. Tokyo, Japan: Waseda University. [URL] (accessed 13 October 2022).
Baker, Paul
2006 Using Corpora in Discourse Analysis. London: Continuum. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bateman, John A.
2021 “What are digital media?” Discourse, Context & Media 411, 100502. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bonilla, Yarimar, and Jonathan Rosa
2015 “#Ferguson: Digital protest, hashtag ethnography, and the racial politics of social media in the United States.” American Ethnologist 42(1): 4–17. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Boudreau, Annette
2019 À l’ombre de la langue légitime: L’Acadie dans la francophonie [In the Shadow of the Legitimate Language: Acadia in the Francophonie]. Paris: Classiques Garnier.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre
1991 Language and Symbolic Power, ed. By John B. Thompson and trans. by Gino Raymond, and Matthew Adamson. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Bruns, Axel, and Jean Burgess
2015 “Twitter hashtags from ad hoc to calculated publics.” In Hashtag Publics: The Power and Politics of Discursive Networks, ed. by Nathan Rambukkana, 13–27. New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Canagarajah, Suresh
2013 Translingual Practice: Global Englishes and Cosmopolitan Relations. Abingdon: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Charland, Maurice
1986 “Technological nationalism.” Canadian Journal of Political and Social Theory 10(1–2): 196–220.Google Scholar
Cummins, Jim
2005 “Language competence as a learning resource within the mainstream classroom.” The Modern Language Journal 89(4): 585–592.Google Scholar
Fettes, Mark
2019 “Language, land, and stewardship: Indigenous imperatives and Canadian policy.” In Language Politics and Policies: Perspectives from Canada and the United States, ed. by Thomas Ricento, 263–280. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
García, Ofelia, and Li Wei
2014 Translanguaging: Language, Bilingualism and Education. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gee, John Paul
2005 “Semiotic social spaces and affinity spaces: From the age of mythology to today’s schools.” In Beyond Communities of Practice, ed. by David Barton, and Karin Tusting, 214–232. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Giaxoglou, Korina
2018 “#JeSuisCharlie? Hashtags as narrative resources in contexts of ecstatic sharing.” Discourse, Context & Media 221: 13–20. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heller, Monica
1999 “Heated language in a cold climate.” In Language Ideological Debates, ed. by Jan Blommaert, 143–170. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2006 Linguistic Minorities and Modernity: A Sociolinguistic Ethnography (2nd edn.). London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Heyd, Teresa, and Cornelius Puschmann
2017 “Hashtagging and functional shift: Adaptation and appropriation of the #.” Journal of Pragmatics 1161: 51–63. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hill, Jane H.
1993 “Hasta la vista, baby: Anglo Spanish in the American southwest.” Critique of Anthropology 131: 145–176. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1995b “Mock Spanish: A site for the indexical reproduction of racism in American English.” In Language and Culture Symposium, Binghampton University, New York. [URL] (accessed 22 March 2022).
1998 “Language, race, and white public space.” American Anthropologist 1001: 680–689. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jørgensen, J. Normann
2008 “Polylingual languaging around and among children and adolescents.” International Journal of Multilingualism 5(3): 161–176. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kehoe, Andrew, and Matt Gee
2011 ”Social tagging: A new perspective on textual ‘aboutness.’” Studies in Variation, Contacts, and Change in English: Methodological and Historical Dimensions of Corpus Linguistics, ed. by Paul Rayson, Sebastian Hoffmann, and Geoffrey Leech. [URL] (accessed 22 March 2022).
Kelly-Holmes, Helen
2005 Advertising as Multilingual Communication. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kroskrity, Paul
1998 “Arizona Tewa Kiva speech as a manifestation of a dominant language ideology.” In Language Ideologies: Practice and Theory, ed. by Bambi B. Schieffelin, Kathryn A. Woolard, and Paul V. Kroskrity, 103–123. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
2010 “Language ideologies – evolving perspectives.” In Society and Language Use, ed. by Jürgen Jaspers, Jan-Ola Östman, and Jef Verschueren, 192–211. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kytölä, Samu and Elina Westinen
2015 “ ‘I be da reel gansta’ – A Finnish footballer’s Twitter writing and metapragmatic evaluations of authenticity.” Discourse, Context & Media 81: 6–19. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lamoureux, Sylvie A.
2012 “ ‘My parents may not be French sir, but I am’: Exploration of linguistic identity of Francophone bilingual youth in transition in multicultural, multilingual Ontario.” International Journal of Multilingualism 9(2): 151–164. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lee, Carmen
2017 Multilingualism Online. Abiingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
2022 “Researching multilingual digital discourse.” In Research Methods for Digital Discourse Analysis, ed. by Camilla Vasquez, 139–158. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Leppänen, Sirpa, and Ari Häkkinen
2012 “Buffalaxed superdiversity: Representations of the other on YouTube.” Diversities 14(2): 17–33.Google Scholar
Leppänen, Sirpa, and Saija Peuronen
2020 “Multilingualism and the internet.” In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, ed. by Carol A. Chappelle, 1–20. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li, Wei
2018 ”Translanguaging as a practical theory of language.” Applied Linguistics 39(1): 9–30. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
MacLennan, Hugh
1945 Two Solitudes. Kingston/Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.Google Scholar
Pariser, Eli
2011 The Filter Bubble: What The Internet Is Hiding From You. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Ochs, Elinor
1992 “Indexing gender.” In Rethinking Context: Language as an Interactive Phenomenon, ed. by Alessandro Duranti, and Charles Goodwin, 335–358. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Raboy, Marc
1991 “Canadian broadcasting, Canadian nationhood: Two concepts, two solitudes and great expectations.” Electronic Journal of Communication 1(2). [URL] (accessed 20 March 2022).
Schiffman, Harold
1996 Linguistic Culture and Language Policy. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Scott, Kate
2015 “The pragmatics of hashtags: Inference and conversational style on Twitter.” Journal of Pragmatics 811: 8–20. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Seargeant, Philip, and Caroline Tagg
2014 “Introduction: The language of social media.” In The Language of Social Media, ed. by Philip Seargeant, and Caroline Tagg, 1–20. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Small, Tamara A., and Harold J. Jansen
2020 “Twenty years of digital politics in Canada.” In Digital Politics in Canada: Promises and Realities, ed. by Tamara A. Small, and Harold. J. Jansen, 1–21. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Statistics Canada
2016 “2016 census of the population.” [URL] (accessed 21 March 2021).
Taylor, Charlotte, and Anna Marchi
(eds.) 2018 Corpus Approaches to Discourse: A Critical Review. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Vander Wal, Thomas
2007 “Folksonomy.” [URL] (accessed 21 March 2021).
Vessey, Rachelle
2016 “Language ideologies in social media: The case of Pastagate.” Journal of Language and Politics 15(2): 1–24. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2021 “Nationalist language ideologies in tweets about the 2019 Canadian general election.” Discourse, Context & Media 391, 100447. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vipond, Mary
2008 “One network or two? French-language programming on the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission, 1932–36.” The Canadian Historical Review 89(3): 319–343.Google Scholar
Woolard, Kathryn A.
2020 “Language ideology.” In The International Encyclopedia of Linguistic Anthropology, ed. by James Stanlaw. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zappavigna, Michele
2011 “Ambient affiliation: A linguistic perspective on Twitter.” New Media and Society 13(5): 788–806. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2015 “Searchable talk: The linguistic functions of hashtags.” Social Semiotics 25(3): 274–291. DOI logoGoogle Scholar