Explaining "-splain" in digital discourse

Abstract

Combining digital discourse analysis and Citizen Sociolinguistics, methodological frames that contend with the effects of evolving digital practices, I present an approach to studying sociolinguistic trends by investigating how social media users talk about what language is doing.
 This approach is applicable to research on a wide range of linguistic and cultural contexts. The particular focus in this paper, however, is on U.S.-based social issues and linguistic features of American English as they appear in pieces of digital discourse from the micro-blogging platforms Twitter and Tumblr. Situated within the highly fractured sociopolitical climate of the pandemic-afflicted United States, the language under discussion provides a glimpse of some historically relevant sociocultural beliefs and attitudes towards the role of gender and racial identity in sociopolitical discourse. Focusing on uses of -splain, a metapragmatic bound morpheme, the paper demonstrates how social media users assemble lexical, discursive, and other semiotic resources as means for negotiating sociopragmatic appropriateness. The analysis shows how the usage of words like mansplain encompass the sociolinguistic process of enregisterment through practices of linguistic reflexivity, creativity, and regimentation – practices that are essential aspects of interaction and participation in social media. Using these enregistered metapragmatic words problematizes imbalances in users’ sociopragmatic ideologies, namely who can or cannot say what, to whom, and in what manner. I show how creative metapragmatic language is deployed to discuss issues of entitlement and epistemic authority in communicative dynamics. I draw on theoretical frames that reveal how the recontextualization and resemiotization of -splain words and other metapragmatic neologisms are performances of identity. I also show how splain-mediated communication facilitates users in achieving their own discursive intentions to point out language in judgmental and/or lighthearted manners. I assert that attention to metapragmatic neologisms in the perspective of Citizen Sociolinguistics enhances the analytical repertoire of digital discourse analysis.

Discussing -splain

“…In closing her article, Bridges (2021: 25) argues that "a fuller understanding must be broadened beyond discussion of splains as just words". We have attempted to engage with this invitation, extending the scope of discussion to include a deliberation of how -splain variants encapsulate 1 While the established term is 'linguistic gatekeeping', as also used by Bridges (2021), the nature of -splain formations would possibly justify the introduction of a new term, such as 'communicative gatekeeping', which highlights the interlocutors' communicative behaviour as inappropriate rather than their linguistic expression. discourses of knowledge, as well as how they might be understood as a new form of prescriptivism, an expression of linguistic policing, and a substantiation of moral gradience.…”

“…As Merriam Webster (n.d.) highlights, the negative connotations surrounding -splain were likely already in motion before Solnit's essay. Bridges (2021) organizes the discussion of her data, collected from Twitter and Tumblr, in terms of socially relevant themes, focusing on four word creations: the forms whitesplain and mansplain criticise verbal behaviour based on the speaker's race and gender respectively, while the forms covidsplain and thinsplain point out the speaker's ignorance of specific topics, such as health and body image. Underpinning these terms is how they flag up an apparent disregard for people who are experts or who have experience in the field, with Bridges (2021: 4) pointing out that -splain words often convey annoyance with a speaker's verbal behaviour, especially as it indicates lack of awareness regarding their interlocutor's "cultural identity and/or knowledge".…”

“…In something of a paradox, -splainers' displays of claimed knowledge are not only argued to be patronising and condescending, they are ultimately positioned as uneducated and ignorant of nuance and detail. The interplay of the different building blocks Bridges (2021) explores in her discussion of -splain formations highlights the need for further analysis to better understand how they are related to (and influence) one other, as well as to uncover their role in users' digital identity construction.…”

“…Although public attention to these -splain forms has been robust (Waldman 2016;Doyle 2018;Tramontana 2020), there is a surprising lack of critical and scholarly discussion at the intersection of digital language practices, social media, and meaning making. In her article "Explaining '-splain' in digital discourse", Bridges (2021) attempts to address this gap in the literature to develop a more holistic understanding of how -splain variants operate in digital discourse. More specifically, Bridges examines a range of word formations ending in -splain, discussing how -splain comes to be used as a bound morpheme and the implications these complex forms have with regard to users' perception of language use embedded in a web of sociolinguistic and (meta)pragmatic parameters.…”

The instability of meaning in metapragmatic neologisms

“…First, I would like to thank all of the authors who took the energy to read and contemplate my focus article (Bridges, 2021), and to offer inspirational, encouraging, and important comments in their discussion notes. I must also express my gratitude to the Language Under Discussion editors for their patience and guidance, and for this opportunity to engage in dialogue about language with scholars from diverse theoretical perspectives.…”