IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION IN THE PROFILE NAMES OF YORUBA FACEBOOK USERS

Abstract

Name or naming is significant in the construction of identity. While studies on online identity constructions have concentrated on examining textual or graphical discourse to reflect identities, identity construction based on profile names has received very little attention. This study examines identity construction in naming among Yoruba Facebook (FB) users. Fifty purposively selected FB profile names were analysed using Castells’(2010) identity construction framework. Four identified identities in the Profile names of Yoruba Facebook Users, namely religiously pious, innovators, football lovers and entertainers were indexed by six linguistic features – hybridisation of orthography (HOO), back formation, blending, compounding, clipping and hypocorism. The linguistic features showed the connection between the linguistic peculiarities of FB profile names and the identity constructed in the social media platform.

Keywords

• hybridization
• identity construction
• linguistic features
• profile name
• social media platform
• yoruba facebook users