ISSN: 2265-6294

The Correlation Between Native Texting and Gender among Saudi Arabian WhatsApp Users; an Exploratory Discourse Analysis

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Hatim Masoudi

Abstract

Native language for Saudi Arabia people is the Arabic language, this language is their mother tongue, and its identity must be preserved of. A qualitative study employed discourse analysis to explore linguistic features and also their correlation to gender in the way of writing text messages on the WhatsApp application. More specifically, it examined the situations in which there are increased formality or vice versa among both males and females WhatsApp Users. The data were taken from a WhatsApp group chat used by ten Saudi family members (six females, four males) with an age group range, 21-30 years old. The results revealed that several interesting patterns of gendered discourse which also assessed various themes that distract formality in text messages among members of WhatsApp groups. In conclusion, this study evaluates the gender differences degree and formality in addition non-formality situation among Arabic language use among Saudi WhatsApp users.

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