Sarcastic Comments on Electricity Crisis on Social Media
A Sociolinguistic Study
Sattar Abduljabbar Mohammed1 , Taisir Sabbar Kadhim2 , Zaid Fouad Hashim3
College of Agriculture’ Al-Qadisiyah university, Iraq.
2 Department of English Language, College of Education, Al-Muthana University, Iraq.
3 Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University, Iraq.
HNSJ, 2024, 5(5); https://doi.org/10.53796/hnsj55/4
Published at 01/05/2024 Accepted at 11/04/2024
Abstract
This study is about sarcastic comments on electricity crisis in Facebook only as one of the most popular social media. It attempts to study the type of the language used in Facebook throughout analyzing the types of the styles people use when commenting on electricity crisis. This study hypothesizes that people use different styles focusing primarily on the casual one when making a comment. To conduct this study, an adapted model is chosen. The model depends on Joos’s styles of language (1998). The data is collected from Iraqi official and social pages in Facebook with 100 comments as a sample to be representative of the way people make a comment. This study concluded that people are different in their language styles when commenting on electricity crisis with a primary focus on the casual style.
Key Words: Sociolinguistics, sarcasm, comments, electricity crisis, Facebook, and language styles.
1. Introduction
Language is essentially a means of communication between individuals in a group, a focus to study in sociolinguistics. Everyone believes that language is universal, which means that everyone may use language to convey their sentiments, emotions, signs, and other forms of communication. According to Crystal (2013), communication refers to the transfer of information (a message) between a source and a receiver via a signaling system, with the term “human communication” being used to limit the definition. People can communicate with other people in a variety of ways. Language is a tool that people use to communicate their desires, messages, information, and ideas to others. The speaker’s and hearer’s styles influence communication as well. It can be inferred that people’s perceptions of communication are influenced by their relationships.
People in society use language in a variety of ways, which is referred to as language variance. Language variation is a linguistic phenomenon that occurs in groups of people who speak the same language. Style is one sort of language variation. According to Moore (2004), speaking styles refer to the ways in which speakers negotiate their positions and purposes within a system of distinctions and possibilities as actors in social (and sociolinguistics) space. Some characteristics, including as the speakers’ educational background, social standing, age, and gender, influence their style. When communicating with others, a speaker uses a distinct linguistic style depending on the circumstance and context. A speaker will pay attention to the words they use, their syntax, and the structure of their sentences in relation to the situation.
Social media in general and Facebook in particular can be considered as good domains where language can be investigated. Facebook is a social networking website that users use to communicate with new or existing acquaintances. Facebook is a popular social networking platform in Iraq. As a result, people leave comments on postings or follow a post and leave a comment on it. Sarcastic comments are much of interest in Iraq on electricity crisis. When a post is shared on Facebook, a large number of individuals attempt to comment sarcastically on it, prompting the researchers to conduct the current study on comments on such official or social posts (Rouse, 2009). So, it is hypothesized that Facebook users comment on electricity crisis posts differently in a sarcastic way. As such, this study aims to differentiate among sarcastic comments by focusing on language style.
2. Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the study of the impact of many characteristics of society, such as cultural norms, expectations, and context, on how language is used, as well as the impact of society on language. It is distinct from language sociology, which focuses on the impact of language on society. Sociolinguistics is closely related to linguistic anthropology and overlaps with pragmatics (Wardhaugh, 2006).
Studies of how language variations differ between groups divided by social characteristics (e.g., ethnicity, religion, status, gender, level of education, age, etc.) and/or geographical obstacles demonstrate sociolinguistics’ historical relationship with anthropology (a mountain range, a desert, a river, etc.). These studies also look at how disparities in usage and ideas about usage create and reflect social or socioeconomic strata. The use of a language differs from location to place, as well as within socioeconomic classes, and sociolinguistics is the study of these sociolects (Trudgill, 2000).
Interviews with native speakers of a language, matched-guise tests, and other observations or research linked to dialects and speaking can all be used to study sociolinguistics (Wardhaugh, 2006).
A sociolinguist might investigate how social views influence what constitutes proper or inappropriate language use in a given situation. Sociolinguists may also research the grammar, phonetics, lexicon, and other features of different sociolects. Sociolinguists also look at language in huge populations on a national level to see how it is used as a social institution. William Labov, a Harvard and Columbia University graduate, is frequently considered as one of the founders of the discipline of sociolinguistics. He makes sociolinguistics a scientific discipline by focusing on the quantitative investigation of variation and development within languages(Wardhaugh, 2006).
Sociolinguistic studies often survey a sample population in order to assess the realization of particular sociolinguistic factors. Regional dialects are a well-studied source of variation. Dialectology is the study of language variants based mostly on geographic distribution and associated characteristics. Dialectologists are sociolinguists who study grammatical and phonological traits that correspond to geographical locations(Trudgill, 2000).
The Matched-guise test is another option. The listener is asked to listen to a pair of words and rate them based on personality and dialect, as certain groups have similar attitudes toward language (Labov, 2010).
3. Sarcastic Comment
Sarcastic comment is the caustic use of words to mock someone or something, generally in a funny fashion. Although sarcastic comment may use ambivalence, it is not always ironic. It is most visible in spoken word, and is usually context-dependent. It is mostly recognizable by the intonation with which it is delivered or, with an undercurrent of irony, by the excessive disproportion of the comment to the setting (Hernández & Juan, 2016).
Things can be ironic, but only people have the ability to be sarcastic. Second, while people may be accidentally sarcastic, sarcastic comment takes deliberate intent. What distinguishes sarcastic comment from other forms of verbal aggression is that it is overt irony utilized by the speaker as a kind of verbal hostility (Rockwell, 2006).
Sarcastic comment is thought to emerge as a cognitive and emotional skill used by adolescents to push the boundaries of civility and truth in discourse. Both recognizing and expressing sarcastic comment necessitate the development of language comprehension, especially if sarcastic comment comes without a cue or signal (e.g., a sarcastic tone or rolling the eyes). Sarcastic comment is said to be more sophisticated than lying because lying can be expressed as early as three years old, whereas sardonic statements occur considerably later in development (Rockwell, 2006).
4. Facebook
Facebook, like most social networking sites, offers a pre-formatted web page where users can enter personal information such as gender, birthday, hometown, political and religious beliefs, e-mail and physical addresses, relationship status, activities, interests, favorite music and movies, educational background, and a main personal photo. Although today’s Facebook users come from all walks of life, college students continue to make up the biggest percentage of active Facebook users, accounting for around 30% of all users. Facebook currently serves almost 500 million individuals, allowing them to share a wide range of information and connect with others (Houston, 2013).
Its use suggests that particular users are present on the social website, that they spend time there, that they visit frequently, and that the activities they undertake are of a certain character. People of various ages communicate and share content; they share movies and photos, discuss topics, talk, post adverts for group activities, and play available apps. Younger generations (e.g., students) spend up to eight hours per day on this social networking site. We believe that having a large Facebook presence and the additional information flow management requirements that come with it engage students in these activities while they are constantly interacting and socializing, preventing them from focusing effectively on their academic work (Aryanda, 2013).
Facebook and other social networking sites have become a ferocious passion for everyone these days. People are devoting more time to social networking activities than to their studies, and this is having a negative impact on their academic achievement. The negative consequences of these social networking sites outnumber the positive ones. These sites have unintentionally harmed society. People fall prey to social networks at a higher rate than anyone else. This is because they are drawn to these sites, such as those on social life’s electrical difficulties, to kill boredom during their study time by leaving caustic comments to express a specific objective (Rouse, 2009).
5. Methodology
This is accomplished through an adapted model to analyse the selected data. The sarcastic comments on electricity crisis in Facebook will be the data chosen between 2019 and 2022 to ensure up-to-date data. These comments focus on the Iraqi electricity crisis, so all the selected comments are written in the Iraqi Arabic language, but provided with translation for every comment so that the meaning will be clear. The selected comments to be the data will be 100 comments to provide a clear vision about the way Facebook users comment sarcastically. The model of the analysis will be an adapted one.
5.1. Model of the Analysis
Language style is categorized into five groups based on the degree of formality according to Joos (1998). Frozen, formal, consultative, casual, and intimate styles are used to describe the language used in those selected sarcastic comments (Joos, 1998).
1. Frozen Style
The most formal type is the frozen style, often known as oratorical style. It is typically employed in formal situations with symbolic significance. For example, informal rituals, legal proceedings, and governmental paperwork. The absence of reader participation distinguishes this style. The reader has no recourse against the author.
2. Formal Style
In general, formal style is employed in formal settings. According to Richard (1985), formal style is when people carefully consider pronunciation, word choice, and sentence structure when using the language. The use of full name addresses, avoidance of primary word repetition, and the use of synonyms are all characteristics of formal language.
3. Consultative Style
The consultative style is the most unmarked of the four. It is a communication style that is employed in semi-formal situations, and it is the type of language that is expected of the everyday speaker. Consultative is utilized in a variety of situations, including group discussions, regular conversations at school, business meetings, and trade speech discussions.
4. Casual Style
Casual style is a linguistic style used in casual situations among people who share similar characteristics such as age, gender, education, social status, ethnicity, and other aspects. The appearance of informal vocabulary such as colloquial, slang, even banned phrases, etc., can also be traced back to a casual manner.
5. Intimate Style
The intimate style is marked by jargon and extraction. The use of confidential codes, terms signaling personal relationships, quick and slurred pronunciation, non-verbal communication, and non-standard forms are all elements of this style.
Fig.1: An adapted model of language style according to Joos (1998):
5.2. Data Analysis
In this section, 100 comments will be selected randomly from official and social pages in Facebook. The person who makes a sarcastic comment will not be mentioned for privacy reasons. Here, a table will be drawn consisting of four major sections: the sarcastic comment, the translated comment, style of the sarcastic comment, and the reason. This is illustrated below:
Table 1: Analysis of sarcastic comments.
| No. | Sarcastic comment | Translated comment | style of the sarcastic comment | Reason |
| 1 | فعاليات الصيف والشتاء | Summer and Winter acts | Intimate | Codes |
| 2 | المهم ايران تستفاد | Iran first | Frozen | Symbolic |
| 3 | كون تنتلون كلكم | May you all die by electricity | Casual | Colloquial |
| 4 | الكهرباء سببها امريكا واسرائيل | America and Israel are the cause of the electricity crisis | Intimate | Codes |
| 5 | راح تحلها مهى الدوري | Al Doury will make it | Casual | Colloquial / ethic |
| 6 | خطوة جيدة بالاتجاه الصحيح | A good step in the right direction | Formal | Formal words |
| 7 | شنو هل المهزلة | What a mess! | Casual | Slang |
| 8 | شنو الجديد بالموضوع | What’s the new thing? | Consultative | Semi-formal |
| 9 | راح يزودون المحطات بدهن حر | Animal fat is used for powering stations | Casual | Slang |
| 10 | حتحلوهه عود | Will you solve it? | Casual | Colloquial |
| 11 | تعالوا اخذوا الوايرات | Come to take wires! | Intimate | Codes |
| 12 | معقوله بالعراق راح ترمش | Impossible to run always in Iraq | Casual | Colloquial |
| 13 | قللو منها تره اجهزتنا احتركت | Reduce it! Systems got fired | Intimate | Codes |
| 14 | طفوها احنا بخدمتكم | Turn it off, no matter. | Casual | Colloquial |
| 15 | تحجي تطلع مو زين | Nothing said is much better. | Casual | Colloquial |
| 16 | هي هاي العايزة | That’s what was needed | Casual | Colloquial |
| 17 | كل صيانتكم تطلع بالصيف | Your maintenance is always on hot days | Intimate | Codes |
| 18 | همزين يقللون حتى نشوف الشمس | Reduce! Just to see the sun | Casual | Colloquial |
| 19 | براحتكم فداكم كل المحولات | Do what you want | Casual | Colloquial |
| 20 | صارلها اسبوع زفت الكهرباء | It is a week no electricity | Casual | Colloquial |
| 21 | شلون راح ندبرها واحنا ماترمش عدنه الكهرباء | How to live with no electricity! | Intimate | Codes |
| 22 | بعد ان رأيت هذا المنشور تمنيت لو اني قندسا | Seeing this post, a beaver I like to be | Frozen | Symbolic |
| 23 | ع اساس احنا بدبي | Are we in Dubai? | Intimate | Codes |
| 24 | شنو معنى الكهرباء؟ ممكن توضيح | Will you tell me what’s electricity? | Intimate | Codes |
| 25 | شديت سبلت اريد اشوف الربط صحيح | I bought an AC, I just want to check it | Casual | Colloquial |
| 26 | بردنه الكهرباء ماترمش عدنه | We got cold because of electricity | Intimate | Codes |
| 27 | مو خوش سالفة | Bad news | Casual | Colloquial |
| 28 | بدوا يصورون برنامج الصدمة | Shock is on | Intimate | Colloquial |
| 29 | جهالنا تمرضت طفوها … شكرا لكم من القلب | Kids are sick because of electricity, turn it off. Deeply, thank you | Consultative | Semi-formal |
| 30 | هي لو تطفي سنة محد يحجي | Never there will be a complaint! | Intimate | Codes |
| 31 | خبرة واسعة في مجال الكهرباء | Good experience in electricity | Frozen | Symbolic |
| 32 | خوش سالفة | Good news | Casual | Colloquial |
| 33 | أي … حبابين طفوو الكهرباء | Yes, turn it off, please! | Intimate | Codes |
| 34 | اطالة عمر الأجهزة من خلال الراحة المبرمجة | Systems will be OK by turning it of | Frozen | Symbolic |
| 35 | رواتب ضخمة لأصحاب المولدات | Big salaries for generators’ owners | Formal | Formal words |
| 36 | حسبي الله ونعم الوكيل | Formal | Formal words | |
| 37 | قليله يومين سووها اسبوع | Make it as long as you want | Casual | Colloquial |
| 38 | خو يقللون من التصدير للخارج | Let’s reduce exporting it | Consultative | Semi-formal |
| 39 | الاجهزة الكهربائية تعبت من التشغيل | Electric devices got loadd. | Consultative | Semi-formal |
| 40 | كضينه عمرنه هيج | It has been for a long time as such | Casual | Colloquial |
| 41 | شيقللون بعد | What to reduce! | Casual | Colloquial |
| 42 | ليش هي الكهرباء زينه | Is electricity good? | Intimate | Codes |
| 43 | مع الاسف … حادثة قليلة الحدوث | What a bad news, so rare to turn it off | Frozen | Symbolic |
| 44 | بس شفت المنشور طفت الكهرباء | It is turned off as I saw the post | Intimate | Codes |
| 45 | كلش عادي | So natural | Casual | Colloquial |
| 46 | وين الجديد بالموضوع | Is it new? | Casual | Colloquial |
| 47 | طفوها لان الدم يبس بعروكنا | Turn it off! We’ll die of being cold | Intimate | Codes |
| 48 | المبلل مايخاف من المطر | It is always the same thing | Intimate | Codes |
| 49 | عاشت اياديكم ابطال | Well-done, heroes | Frozen | Symbolic |
| 50 | ماكو هيج حجي | It is a lie | Casual | Colloquial |
| 51 | اعذاركم متخلص | Excuses will not be finished | Casual | Colloquial |
| 52 | شكرا لوزارة الكهرباء | Ministry of Power, Thank you! | Formal | Name address |
| 53 | دخذوها كلها وخلصونه | Just take it all | Casual | Colloquial |
| 54 | خاف الحوت عض الكيبل | The wale may bite the cable! | Intimate | Codes |
| 55 | ويستمر الابداع والفن | Creativity and art keep on. | Frozen | Symbolic |
| 56 | لا تعليق | No comment | Formal | Formal words |
| 57 | اعذار واهيه | Bad excuses | Formal | Formal words |
| 58 | خوش خبر | Good news | Consultative | Semi-formal |
| 59 | علمود اصحاب المولدات | For the owners of generators | Casual | Colloquial |
| 60 | عفيه عليكم | Well-done | Intimate | Codes |
| 61 | شكرا على المعلومة | Thank you for this post. | Frozen | Symbolic |
| 62 | يادي النيله | Disaster! | Casual | Colloquial |
| 63 | مبروك | Congratulations | Formal | Formal word |
| 64 | ثلجنا من الكهرباء | We are frozen by electricity | Casual | Colloquial |
| 65 | معلم على الصدعات كلبي | It is so normal | Intimate | Codes |
| 66 | ههههههههه | Lot of laugh | Casual | Colloquial |
| 67 | حلوووه | So nice | Casual | Colloquial |
| 68 | لا زعلتونه بهذا الخبر | No! we got angry because of this. | Intimate | Codes |
| 69 | هي ضلت على الكهرباء | Nothing is good. | Intimate | Codes |
| 70 | بالخيرررر | Good luck | Intimate | Codes |
| 71 | عاااش العراق | Long live Iraq | Frozen | Symbolic |
| 72 | هلا بجيتك | Welcome back! | Casual | Colloquial |
| 73 | هاي اتفاقية ويه اهل المولدات | It is a deal with owners of generators | Casual | Colloquial |
| 74 | خالد العطية بمكة | Kalid al-Atiya is in Mecca | Formal | Name |
| 75 | اتفاق مدروس | It is an intended deal | Formal | Formal words |
| 76 | جذب | A lie | Casual | Colloquial |
| 77 | وشراح يصير بعدين | Then, what so? | Casual | Colloquial |
| 78 | عفيه بصوت صدام حسين | Good, in Sadam’s voice | Consultative | Semi-formal |
| 79 | ولا لجنة … تخدم الشعب | No committee serves the public | Intimate | Codes |
| 80 | خلية الازمة مالتكم هي ازمة بحالها | Crisis committee is a crises | Consultative | Semi-formal |
| 81 | كلها كذب | Just lies | Frozen | Symbolic |
| 82 | قراراتكم بس حبر على ورق | Your decisions are just speeches | Consultative | Semi-formal |
| 83 | الكهرباء من سمعت بهذا الخبر رمشت وطفت | After this news, electricity got worse | Casual | Colloquial |
| 84 | ما اسامحك يا رئيس الوزراء | I will not forgive you, PM | Intimate | Codes |
| 85 | تحية طيبة…هذه القرارات لن تجدي نفعا | Hello, such things are not beneficial | Formal | Formal words |
| 86 | ما دمرنا غير اللجان مالتكم | Your committees hurt us | Casual | Colloquial |
| 87 | انت كضيتها علينا سيلفيات | It is just selfies | Intimate | Codes |
| 88 | مجرد كلام | Just words | Frozen | Symbolic |
| 89 | الف مبروك للشعب الصابر | Congratulations for the patient people | Frozen | Symbolic |
| 90 | هاي القصة معروفة | Such a story is known | Casual | Colloquial |
| 91 | بالتوفيق | Good luck | Formal | Formal words |
| 92 | رجعت بالسلامة لو تفتر باوربا | Have you returned or still travelling? | Intimate | Codes |
| 93 | ضحك على الذقون | Just lies | Formal | Formal words |
| 94 | لو توزعنه على الدول اشرفلك | It is good to divide us among countries | Intimate | Codes |
| 95 | حفظنا قراراتك | A known story | Casual | Colloquial |
| 96 | اهمشي انت مرتاح | Your rest is what matters | Intimate | Codes |
| 97 | دولة بس فالحة بالبوستات | It is a matter of posts | Casual | Colloquial |
| 98 | انريد كهرباء منريد حجي | No words, electricity is what we need | Casual | Colloquial |
| 99 | مجرد كلام حجيته ومشيت | Just words you uttered | Consultative | Semi-formal |
| 100 | كلكم نفس الطينة | All are alike | Intimate | Codes |
6. Results
The results of using sarcastic comments can be shown in the following table:
Table 2: Results of sarcastic comments.
| No. | Type of Comment | Frequency | Percentage |
| 1. | Casual | 39 | 29 % |
| 3. | Intimate | 28 | 28 % |
| 4. | Formal | 24 | 24 % |
| 4. | Consultative | 9 | 9 % |
From this table, one can understand that the majority of sarcastic comments are casual. This indicates that people tend always to use their colloquial words to express their opinions in 29 % of the selected sample. They are direct, easy to be understood and criticizing to the whole situation of electricity crisis in Iraq. The second type is the intimate one, which is also of a high frequency that is 28 %. This shows that commentators attempt to express their personal attitude throughout the use of codes and non-standard words to show their disgust towards the electricity crisis.
The third type is the formal one, which is 24 % of their total comments. This shows that people use formal words to express their personal attitudes for criticizing electricity crisis. This might be considered as an indication for the educated people’s participation in the total frequency of sarcastic comments. Finally, the fourth type of the sarcastic comments is called consultative, which is 9 % of the total sample. This shows a very low percentage in which people resort to using semi-formal expressions. Such a thing indicates that people attempt to avoid such expressions in order to make their messages more direct than a mixture of formal and in formal words.
7. Conclusion
The researcher came to the conclusion that linguistic styles were influenced by the user’s by different social factors such as status, education, and others. According to the conclusions of the study, Facebook users have a tight relationship because of their language styles. The casual style is the most popular among Iraqi Facebook users. It signifies that the person appreciated using Facebook as a social media platform. Even though it is connected to personal privacy, Facebook forced the user to share their feelings.
It can be concluded that Facebook users use different styles when commenting on electricity crisis. This leads to the fact that there is a variation in the degree of sarcastic comments since it is affected by personal attitudes greatly. One important fact is that there is some sort of freedom when commenting on electricity crisis. Some comments are quite sarcastic that might be offensive. This shows that such a crisis lead people to think badly and affects their manners too.
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