Millennials’ Use of Terms of Endearment in Casual Conversation in Digital Communication

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.210909.052How to use a DOI?

Keywords

language shift, terms of endearment, terms of address, closeness, digital communication

Abstract

Modern forms of communication have made it possible that relationships are not determined by physical proximity. Technology advancement opens the opportunities for members of society to construct relationships over a long distance by means of online chatting platforms. Among the many platforms is WhatsApp, which is common in Indonesia. The present study focuses on the observation that technology brings about a shift in the use of terms of address. Despite the distance, users of online chats, particularly millennials, tend to use terms of endearment. It can easily be spotted that more and more young people are likely to prefer to use more modern, communicative, and intimate languages within their daily communication. As a result, a regular shift in using terms of endearment amongst millennials seems inevitable in today’s situation. This paper explores the current trends of using terms of endearment as address between interlocutors in casual conversation through chats in digital communication. Foregrounded by theories in Sociolinguistics, the study uses content analysis in processing and interpreting the data in the form of chat screenshots obtained from the volunteer participants. The data analysis is useful to reveal two important information. First, it shows the variety of terms of endearment used by the participants as a form of address. Second, this result provides insights on the degree of closeness indicated from the use of the terms of endearment as address.

Copyright

© 2021, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Yusnita Febrianti
AU  - Teuku Muhammad Ridha Al Auwal
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/09/11
TI  - Millennials’ Use of Terms of Endearment in Casual Conversation in Digital Communication
BT  - Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Science, Technology, and Modern Society (ICSTMS 2020)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 234
EP  - 238
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.210909.052
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.210909.052
ID  - Febrianti2021
ER  -