X and #AfrikaansMustFall: responses to the Court of Justice’s ratification of the language policy change at Stellenbosch University
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24197/redd.7.2024.87-110Keywords:
cyberpragmatics, language policy, South Africa, student protests, afrikaans, social mediaAbstract
In this paper, we aim to analyze some of the responses to the tweet by the Court that upheld as constitutional the change in language policy at Stellenbosch University following the student protests of 2015 and 2016, which demanded the removal of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. We approach this analysis from the perspective of cyberpragmatics (Yus, 2010) and virtual ethnography (Hine, 2008), understanding these responses as cyberdiscourse (Portillo Fernández, 2020). We will explore the comments on the Court's post, observing their underlying logics and the elements users employed to position themselves in relation to the conflict and its resolution. Understanding that social networks are relevant when studying a social phenomenon that happens both outside and inside the Internet, we will try to show that the construction of digital discourse, which occurs between the social and the individual, is supported by argumentative sequences and in impolite activities.
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