LINGUISTIC INNOVATIONS IN THE JEJEMON PHENOMENON

_______________________________________

A Final paper

For the fulfillment of the requirements

For the course LING 205N

Sociolinguistics

By

Cacha, Sweet Kristel N.

Tubac, Angelo O.

May 2010

Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SCOPE

INTRODUCTION

Rationale of the study

Language changes constantly. The way we communicate to express

our ideas and thoughts is evolving with time. At this modern era,

people convey their message through different media and in different

forms. Recent technological improvements pave the way for language

innovation. One of which is the computer – mediated communication.

Computer – Mediated Communication (CMC) is defined as any

communicative transaction that occurs through the use of two or more

networked computers. It is the process by which people make,

exchange, and perceive information using networked

telecommunications system (or non-networked computers) that

facilitate encoding, transmitting and decoding messages.

(http://www.december.com/cmc/study/center.html)

Technology often enhances and reflects rather than

precipitating linguistic and social language. (Taglimonte and Denis

2008) Tiempo (2006) also points out that the fast growth of

technology has brought many changes in the language of the people.

Communication which occurs within a computer-mediated format has an

effect on many different aspects of an interaction. Facebook, a

social network site, allows individuals to present themselves, and

establish or maintain connections with others. It also gives

opportunities for users to express themselves innovatively. One of

the noticeable language innovations is the jejemon phenomenon, which

most Facebook users employ.

Many people in the online communities in the Philippines are

experiencing the jejemon phenomena. According to the

UrbanDictionary.com, a jejemon is someone who has managed to subvert

the English language to the point of incomprehensibility. It is a

term to describe those individuals who have developed their own

language and written text. As a result, users (mostly the younger

generation) of computer-mediated communication, particularly

Facebook, have been influenced by the widespread use of these

occurrences although there have been different responses to this

kind of phenomenon. The jejemon phenomena have varying impact on the

way users of Facebook interact with one another. It is the interest

of the researchers to further understand this phenomenon since it

has been printed in the national newspapers, reported in the

national television network, and the Department of Education has

expressed their disapproval to this phenomenon, however, this type

of writing has been very popular to the younger generation. Thus,

this study is conducted to examine the morphological transformations

employed by the users of the jejemon phenomena and to describe the

patterns depicted in these jejemon style of writings.

Theoretical Background

Developments in electronic instrumentation and computer science

have already altered the way we look at the language (Crystal,1995).

The electronic age has changed our ways of transmitting and

delivering messages. Consequently, due to the advancement of

technology, opportunities for linguistic innovations have become

possible. Yates (1996), as mentioned in Gao (2008), says that a new

medium of communication such as the Internet does not only draw upon

existing linguistic practices, but also generates new forms of

practice.

Tagliamonte and Denis‘s (2008) study on Computer – Mediated

Communication (CMC) points out that CMC language is on the forefront

of linguistic change and ongoing processes of linguistic changes are

currently under way in the speech community in which teenagers live.

Teenagers use among themselves these ongoing linguistic

processes especially in computer-mediated communication format. As

one form of CMC format, Facebook is an example of a growing number

of websites dedicated to social networking. This combines several

available channels for interacting with other users, including

private one-to-one messages, bulletin board messages, blogs, and

public, or private profile pages, which can include text, images,

videos, and sounds. Facebook is a medium for interaction which

allows users (mostly teenagers) to be dynamic, vivid and creative

especially in the use of language.

In today’s era of advancements, communication is mediated

through technology. Certain transformations in the use of language

are inevitable and can occur due to the limitations of the medium of

interaction. One example is texting, a type of short messaging

service in which each text message is limited to 160 characters. As

a result, an "SMS language" has been developed where words are

shortened in order to fit the 160-character limit. This manner of

communicating is also prevalent in social websites such as Facebook.

The changes of the language use by the younger generations are

noticeable not only in the way they speak but also in their written

communication. Teenagers, who are more exposed to technological

advancements such as the internet, create innovations in their

language and such innovations are accepted and shared by their

speech community. These linguistic innovations are usually prompted

by the use of CMC, in this study, the use of Facebook. According to

Tecson (2008) “transformations may result in language styles”. These

transformations are evident in the language used by the jejemon

extremist.

One among the many innovations in language styles is the

jejemon style of writing. Jejemon is defined by Urban Dictionary as

one who has managed to subvert the English language to the point of

incomprehensibility and who has developed their own language and

written text. This jejemon phenomenon is a style of writing shared

among many teenagers in some social networks like Facebook,

mutilply.com, and etc.

In Facebook, the jejemon style is often visible in the

different walls of the Facebook users, where they made comments

about the post of their friends and usually this will lead into a

thread of conversation.

The Jejemon phenomenon began in the different Facebook and

multiple.com accounts from different users. Consequently, it

captured the attention of many on April 14, 2010 when an internet

post showing a fake poster of Binay labeled as “Jejemon Binay”. The

post indicated that he was the Jejemon's preferred vice presidential

candidate. Later the use of word Jejemon to refer such people made

rounds in various Filipino internet message boards.

The jejemon style of writing originated from short-handed

typing through the short messaging service. The language of the

Jejemons, called Jejenese, is derived from English, Filipino and

their code-switched variant Taglish. Their alphabet, Jejebet, uses

the Roman alphabet, including the Arabic numerals and other special

characters. Words are created by rearranged letters in a word,

alternating capitalization, over-usage of the letters H, X or Z and

mixture of numeric characters and our normal alphabet

(wikepedia.com). Such stylistic expressions may involve

morphological transformations.

According to Tecson (2008), morphological transformations are

the changes that a word undergoes. One morphological transformation

is clipping and novel spelling which is the dropping of sounds and

replacement of letters is with sounds similar to those that are

deleted. (e.g. pasenxa ‘pasensya’ ,ndi ‘hindi’) Next is the letter

+ numbers to represent words which is the changing of some of the

characters of a word with the use of letters and numbers.

(e.g.h8‘hate’, and2 ‘nandito’) Another modification is phonological

substitution which is the use of graphemes to represent fricatives

“x” and “c” and closely similar to clipping and novel spelling. In

addition, transformation can also include omission or shortening of

an entire word or words. Formulaic expressions are a feature in

which the style of one’s writing is determined on how one can turn

an expression into a more stylish way. The shorter the expressions

are made, the more stylish the writer is (e.g nmn ‘naman’, aQ

‘ako’)Emoticons are also included in which non-words or symbols are

used to communicate meanings, e.g “:) for a smiling face or :( for

a sad face. They are used to convey one’s feelings. Moreover,

morphological transformations are not only restricted with the use

of words and letters but also with the unconventional use of

punctuation marks. The overuse of punctuation marks is used to

emphasize intensity of feeling of the user. (e.g. y U mAke me fil xo

gAga Ba wiD yaH..!!!???!! ) Although the multiple uses of

punctuation marks are considered unusual, the use of period is not.

Ellipsis is the use of the period three times within or after the

sentence. It is used for the omission from an expression of a word

clearly implied, a pause, or marks to show omission.

Crystal (2001) as cited in Claros(2009) asserts that new forms

of communication have triggered an evolution in concepts such as a

spoken and written language. Facebook and other mediated

communication communities have in recent years exploded in

popularity. These social networks not only create a virtual

environment for friends to communicate no matter the time or

physical location but also pave the way for linguistic innovations

to take place.

Statement of the Problem

This study intends to describe and analyze the phenomenon of

Jejemon in different Facebook accounts.

Specifically, the study seeks to answer the following

questions:

1. What types of morphological transformation are found in the

selected computer – mediated communication as mentioned by

Tecson (2008)?

a. clipping and novel spelling

b. letters + numbers to represent words

c. phonological substitution

d. emoticons/ emotext

e. formulaic expressions

f. ellipsis

2. What are the noticeable patterns in the jejemon style of

writings?

Significance of the Study

This study would be beneficial to the following:

To the students who major in Applied Linguistics and other

areas of language study that may acquire data done locally for

future studies concerning language innovations.

To the teachers that they may become aware of the effects of

jejemon to the characteristics of spoken and written aspects of

communication and also its educational implications

To the future researchers that they may realize and appreciate

that features of such language transformation may make way to new

ideas for future studies that may further expand the studies made on

CMC.

To the linguists whose studies are focused language innovations

and various sociolects, that they may find relevance or difference

of their study to this study.

Limitations of the study

This study is conducted for only a very limited length of time,

because of time constraints only 12 posts were collected to identify

the morphological transformations and the patterns prevalent in the

phenomenon.

The conclusions made are only isolated to the context of this

study. Other generalizations may not be suitable to conclude for the

entire attributes of the jejemon phenomenon.

Research Methodology

This study is qualitative in nature. It aims to describe and

analyze the morphological transformations and the noticeable

patterns in the jejemon style of writings in different Facebook

accounts. The researchers conducted the study by identifying the

jejemon occurrences in the different Facebook accounts. After the

occurrences were identified, the corpuses were analyzed according to

the morphological transformations and the noticeable patterns in the

jejemon style of writings.

Research Data

Twelve posts of jejemon phrases in different Facebook accounts

are used as the corpus of the study.

Research Procedure

Gathering of Data. The researchers looked into the different walls

of different Facebook users to identify the jejemon occurrences.

Twelve posts were seen. These posts were analyzed in order to

identify the different morphological transformations like clipping

and novel spelling, letters + numbers to represent words,

phonological substitution, emoticons/ emotext, formulaic

expressions, ellipsis, and other word formations. The noticeable

patterns of the jejemon writing were also considered. After the

analysis, the data gathered were tabulated in order to get the

frequency and the percentage of the total occurrences of the

identified morphological transformation. Textual analysis was also

done to further explain the noticeable patterns of jejemon writings.

Treatment of Data. The data gathered are classified and categorized

according to its morphological transformation category. The data was

tabulated in order to get the frequency and the percentage of the

occurrences of the morphological transformations. An analysis was

also done to explain the noticeable patterns of the jejemon

phenomenon.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

Jejemon phenomenon is defined in this study as young people who are

part of the subculture, deliberately exaggerate ordinary words by

adding or subtracting letters, by using a mixture of capitalized and

not capitalized letters in words, and even adding numbers.

Facebook is a social networking website launched in February 2004

and operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Users can add

friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles

to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join

networks organized by workplace, school, or college. The website's

name stems from the colloquial name of books given to students at

the start of the academic year by university administrations in the

US with the intention of helping students to get to know each other

better. Anyone over the age of 13 can become a Facebook user

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook)

Capitalization in this study refers to the writing of a word as

a majuscule (upper-case letter).

Unconventional use of letters is the exaggerated and extravagant use

of letters to the extent that it will draw confusion to the readers,

especially those who do not belong to the same sub-culture.

CHAPTER 2

PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA

This study aims to describe and analyze the linguistic

features, specifically, morphological transformations from different

Facebook accounts. This chapter deals with the presentation,

analysis and interpretation of data based on the results collected

on the morphological transformations and the noticeable patterns

found in the jejemon phenomenon. In addition, other prevalent

features of the jejemon style of writing – jejenese, were also

described.

Table 1. Over-all Morphological Transformations

Morphological Transformation Frequency Percent (%)

Clipping and Novel Words 35 36.08%

Letters and Numbers to Represent Words 10 10.31%

Phonological Substitution 11 11.34%

Emoticons / Emotext 2 2.06%

Formulaic Expressions 0 0

Ellipsis 39 40.21%

Total 97 100 %

As shown in Table 1, the ellipsis received the highest

percentage of 40.21% wherein it is used to denote an unfinished

statement, to indicate deleted material, and to mark hesitation. On

the other hand, the formulaic expression which is used to emphasize

the content words was not seen in any of the 12 corpuses.

Clipping and Novel Words

Occurrences of clipping and use of novel words are frequently

used in the data. This type was often employed for the convenience

on the part of the users. Clipping was characterized by the omission

of some letters, usually vowels. Although the words were shorter,

they can still be understood when read. Novel words were

characterized by replacement of letters with sounds to those that

are deleted. Tiempo (2006) and Tecson (2008) pointed out that these

features were used for time saving reasons.

E.g.

1. "dont lyk pipol hu r very: PLASTIKS, pa EPAL, LIARS and

anything na mga BAD ATTITUDE

2. pra wlng awai eh di wlang paki alamanan !!

3. gS2 p0wh nMiNG luMbz sA amInG Outer shelL P0wh ~ We wnT 2 reVeal

~ 2 D world HU WE wnt 2 BE ~ P0wh.

Letters and Numbers to Represent Words

Another feature evident in the data was the use of numbers and

letters to represent words. There were no specific factors that were

found to justify the use of such features. This was normally done to

come up with a speedy and easy way of relaying the message. Letters

and numbers were usually substitutes for words that have similar

sounds.

E.g.

1. teaqa aa|Lisz atou d2 mena weak and2 auco tsa mena weak

2. it'S harD 2 piCk uP d piEceS oF my liFe…. veRy complicated

3. like hu r vry gud.... (Huh? Who?)!!! "and if u want me to ur

friend, jaz aDD me uP"

Phonological Substitution

Phonological substitution which is the use of graphemes to

represent similar sounding letter/s is also noticeable in the data.

This feature is similar to clipping and novel spelling. In order to

save time, Facebook users minimize the usage of excessive use of

words by simply substituting the words that can be represented by a

single sound symbol.

E.g.

1. psenxa na ha !! qng maxadong OVER an JEJEMON !!.. TAMAAA ! c kua

LUCKY...

2. xkul,,den s outside n,,eh care nio jejemon na an gagamitin qchu

3. "dont lyk pipol hu r very: PLASTIKS, pa EPAL, LIARS and anything

na mga BAD ATTITUDE

Emoticon

Emoticon is used to convey one’s feelings with the use of non-

words or symbols. This was not frequently used in the data. Since

facebook users cannot talk face-to-face on the internet, using

emoticons or special symbols to describe one’s feeling and facial

expression is essential and preferred for expressing the communica-

tion and the mood of the participant. For this case, :P was used to

tease and :) , to express a happy mood.

E.g.

11 maluluxaw nua laat nan mena anti-jejemon/jejebuster !!hmp!!WTF

!!:P

2. i pRoTeCT my fRieNdS...aNd pRoTeCt YoUrs :)

Formulaic Expresssions

Formulaic Expressions occur when function words are dropped to

give more importance to content words. In this study, there were no

observable occurrences of formulaic expression that took place.

Ellipsis

Ellipsis is the repetitive use of period. This feature is the

most used in the data. Hacker(2003)as cited in Raclaw(2006) in his

study on Ellipsis as a Discourse Marker in Computer-Mediated

Communication, pointed out that speakers made use of the ellipsis in

ways that went beyond its traditional uses within writing: to

indicate deleted material, to mark hesitation, or to suggest

unfinished thoughts. Ellipsis is also used as a conjoining marker

and as a pragmatic marker to separate textual play (Raclaw, 2006) as

in the case of this study.

E.g.

1. YoU MuZ ReMEmBeR eVeRYtHinGs hAs a reasons ... DoNt ! DArE

mE COz YoU DoNt knOw wHaT CaN I dO

2. it'S harD 2 piCk uP d piEceS oF my liFe…. veRy comPlicaTed

... buT noT noW..

4. mild jejemon lharn aman an gmit qchu !!...kk??

JEJENESE

The language of the Jejemons, called Jejenese, is derived

from English, Filipino and their code-switched variant Taglish.

Their alphabet, Jejebet, uses the Roman alphabet, including

the Arabic numerals and other special characters. Words are created

by re-arranging letters in a word, alternating capitalization, over-

usage of the letters and mixture of numeric characters and our Roman

alphabet (wikipedia.com)

The data consisted of words that do not follow the conventional

style of writing. The following are the observed characteristics of

jejenese:

1. Insertion of unnecessary numbers and letters

It was observed all through out the corpus that jejemons

inserted unnecessary numbers and letters in writing their

posts. These insertions made the words very complicated and no

explicit pattern as to the definite position of inserted

numbers and letters.

a. phfue or p0w ‘po’

b. aqchu or aq0uh ‘ako’

c. mHEii ‘me’

2. Unique orthography based on how the words sound

One of the distinctive characteristics of jejenese is its

unique approach to orthography, using substitutions of other

characters, letters or otherwise, to represent a letter or

letters in a word. The use of letters and numbers closely

resemble (to varying degrees) the sound for which they stand.

In this case, “hello” is spelled as eHyUoew or in other cases

“eow” and a variety of similar-sounding derivatives.

a. eHyUoeW fPuoEh .. qCkEimUsXztUaH qCkeYuOeh???? ‘hello po... kamusta na kayo?’

b. PhAtTtii AhcKQeOWh nHaAHhhAaWhAhH.....!

ShH3EehtTh…! ‘ pati ako nawawal….. Shit…!’

c. sVi qEw nAMn.. mAdAnDa aqEw

‘sabi ko naman..maganda ako’

3. Unconventional use of punctuations

Punctuations like question marks and exclamation points

were the ones used in an exaggerated manner. They were used to

express emotions and/or emphasis.

a. psenxa na ha !! qng maxadong OVER an JEJEMON !!.. TAMAAA ! kua LUCKY... ahm...pra wlng awai eh di wlang paki alamanan !! cguro nmn naiintindihan nio an type quh ??!!...

b. eHyUoeW fPuoEh ..qCkEimUsXztUaHqCkeYuOeh????

4. Numbers to substitute letters

Replacement of letters with numbers is distinct to

jejenese. Jejemons tend to substitute letters with numbers that

relatively look similar. In this case, letter A to number 4 and

letter E to number 3.

a. bzt4h ‘basta’b. aj3j3j3 . ‘ajejeje’c. g34hin ‘gayahin’

5. Alternate use of lower and upper case

The combination of the lower and upper case letters is

another characteristic of a jejenese. There was no

particular pattern as to the use of the lower and upper

case letters.

a. WE wnT 2 BE~ P0wh. AnD becaUSE Of tHIZ,~ 0L D~

0THEr JeJEm0nZ Came AWTz 2 P0whz. iSNT iT gREaT,

n0h?

b. d aQ mAartE!(pWerA LnG iF tiNO2pAk aQ!)c. psenxa na ha !! qng maxadong OVER an JEJEMON !!..

TAMAAA ! c kua LUCKY...

6. Use of onomatopoeic lexis/emotional language

Most of the emotional language of the jejenese comes from

“jeje”, the Spanish spelling of “hehe”, denoting laughter. The

“hmp!” indicated irritation or annoyance and lastly “ajujuju”

indicating fake sadness or tears due to the smiley face that

comes after it.

a. tnx pfowh jejejeb. maluluxaw nua laat nan mena anti-

jejemon/jejebuster !!hmp!!WTF !!:Pc. ajujuju :)

7. Lengthening of vowels and consonants

The lengthening of letters also illustrated emphasis.

It could represent sustained utterance of the speaker in order

to catch the hearer’s attention.

a. TAMAAA ! c kua LUCKY...b. Ayuneeeee! Ops, wala akong sinabi...!c. Tsssssssss. Kayo ang nagpapababa ng kahulugan ng

pagiging rocker

8. Substitution of spelling

Jejemons change the spelling as long as it looks like the

original word; so the lines and loops of letters and numbers

are exploited. It is usually employed for aesthetic appeal.

a. maq ‘mag’b. qumaqayhat ‘gumagaya’c. waq ‘wag’

Aside from the previously stated attributes which were

also stated in the prior studies of Tecson (2008), there were

eight observed characteristics which are identified in this

study. These eight characteristics made the jejemon phenomenon

distinctive from the rest of the other styles of writing that

had emerged. This leads to the relentless popularity of jejemon

in the different schools.

CHAPTER 3

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter summarizes the findings gathered in the study, the

conclusions drawn from the findings and recommendations based on the

results relevant to this study. Likewise, this study might serve as

a useful tool for future researchers whose field of concentration is

of similar nature.

Summary of Findings

The purpose of this study was to describe and analyze the

phenomenon of Jejemon in different Facebook accounts. Specifically,

the study determines the different morphological transformation

(Tecson 2008), and other features distinct to jejenese – the

language of jejemon.

The morphological transformations included in the study were: a.

clipping and novel spelling; b. letters + numbers to represent

words; c. phonological substitution; d. emoticons/ emotext; e.

formulaic expressions and f. ellipsis.

Distinct features of jejenese were also evident in the data.

These were: a. Insertion of unnecessary numbers and letters; b.

Unique orthography based on how words sound; c. Unconventional use

of punctuations; d. Numbers to substitute letters; e. Alternate use

of the lower and upper case letters; f. Use of onomatopoeic

lexis/emotional language; g. Lengthening of vowels and consonants

and lastly, h. Substitution of spelling.

Based on the gathered data, the researchers came up with the

following findings:

The various morphological transformations illustrated the

linguistic innovations that existed in the jejenese. Most of the

linguistic features demonstrated were employed to convey one’s

emotion, to catch attention; or to express creative flare. These

morphological transformations did not show any time-saving

techniques unlike the SMS language- where the manner of jejenese

writing originated. Unlike texters who found it tiring to compose

complete words and found it easier to shorten their text, jejemons

do otherwise. Jejemon writing – jejenese, is characterized by

addition, insertion and, exaggeration of the use of the characters.

Other linguistic features, which dominated in the data, are

distinct to the jejenese. They are distinguished solely by the way

jejemons (users of jejenese) construct written words and sentences.

Jejenese is characterized by exaggerated aesthetics incorporated in

textual representation.

Conclusion

Based on the findings of the study, the following

generalizations may be stated:

The Morphological Transformation evident in jejenese were not

necessarily employed to provide convenient facility of the language.

In fact, the jejemon language has no defined rules or patterns.

There are countless ways to spell words and sentences—breaking them

apart, compounding them, mixing English and Filipino.

Because of insufficient knowledge on the phenomenon, the

parameters to be considered a jejemon are still unclear. The common

notion about jejemons is that they are inferior in intelligence.

However, the Manila Standard Today online article by Ed Biado

pointed out that ,contrary to some beliefs, especially those

expressed in urbandictionary.com, jejemons are not of inferior

intellect (“...jejemons are individuals with low IQ...”). They exist

in exclusive schools, science high schools and some of them are even

on the honor roll.

However, there are many like the English teachers, who believe

that indulging in jejemonism impairs the youth’s language skills,

especially when used repeatedly in extensive amounts.

The rapid development of Internet communication has created a

huge impact on the language. Nevertheless, Gao (2007) pointed out

that when the society changes, language mirrors the reality of that

society that will also undergo transformation.

Recommendation

These are the researchers’ recommendations based on the study conducted:

1. Future researchers can contemplate and do further research

on other linguistic innovation phenomena evident in com-

puter-mediated communication.

2. There should also be an avenue for research on other net-

working sites (another research environment).

3. Interested researcher of Jejemon phenomena may also con-

sider a large number of corpuses in order to further un-

derstand the other features, especially those that were

not found in this study.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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