A Short Text Multidimensional Analysis of Pakistani X Trolls in English

Author(s) : Zara Obaid, Muhammad Asim Mahmood & Rashid Mahmood

Abstract:

Trolling is a pervasive phenomenon world over which came into being with the spread of social media. Many countries in the West were the frontliners in facing trolling; hence, in order to grapple with it, their academics came to the forefront to investigate its language. However, language is situated and contextual; thus, the understanding of the phenomenon of trolling through the lens of west cannot encompass the regional differences of this phenomenon. Therefore, in order to understand the phenomenon of trolling in Pakistan, this study explores the lexico-grammatical variation of Pakistani trolling on X. For this purpose, a corpus of 2,317 trolling posts is developed. A Short Text Multidimensional Approach formulated by Clarke (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020) is used. After the initial tagging of data by Multidimensional Analysis Twitter Tagger (MDATT), the data is further subjected to multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) in R Studio software. The results obtained in the form of dimensions are then further interpreted. The findings reveal that Pakistani trolling has one major dimension i.e. interactive vs informational which exists in other genres and registers as well. However, the trolls with an informational communicative function also use linguistic features of nouns and adjectives from Urdu which are used to name-call or insult people. The study will prove to be significant not only for the general understanding of the phenomenon of trolling in Pakistan, but also for advancing further research on trolling in Pakistan from different perspectives.
Keywords: Online trolling, Twitter, Pakistan, Multidimensional Analysis, Multiple Correspondence Analysis