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From expressing solidarity to mocking on Twitter: Pragmatic functions of hashtags starting with #jesuis across languages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2018

Barbara De Cock  and
Andrea Pizarro Pedraza
Barbara De Cock*
Affiliation:
Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium
Andrea Pizarro Pedraza*
Affiliation:
Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium
*
Address for correspondence: Barbara De Cock & Andrea Pizarro Pedraza Université catholique de Louvain Place Blaise Pascal 1, bte L3.03.33 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve Belgium barbara.decock@uclouvain.be andrea.pizarro@uclouvain.be
Address for correspondence: Barbara De Cock & Andrea Pizarro Pedraza Université catholique de Louvain Place Blaise Pascal 1, bte L3.03.33 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve Belgium barbara.decock@uclouvain.be andrea.pizarro@uclouvain.be
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Abstract

In this article, we show how the hashtag #jesuisCharlie, created following the attack on Charlie Hebdo, gave rise to the use of many other hashtags starting with #jesuis, across languages. Through a corpus-based analysis, we show how the meaning of #jesuis broadened from expressing condolence and support following terrorist attacks over expressing condolence for other (violent) deaths to a more general marker of solidarity and alignment. This broadening of meaning is parallel to a formal evolution of the stem jesuis. Moreover, these hashtags have become emblematic of a particular kind of Twitter user. Furthermore, disaligning uses developed, including mocking uses, which disalign both with certain causes (disalignment de re) and with the process of using jesuis as a means of expressing solidarity (disalignment de dicto). Thus, this variety of uses shows that Twitter users exploit the interpersonal possibilities of hashtags to express alignment and disalignment, creating ambient affiliation. (Hashtag, #jesuisCharlie, solidarity, alignment, emblem, mocking, pragmatic functions)*

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Articles
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Language in Society , Volume 47 , Issue 2 , April 2018 , pp. 197 - 217
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

*

We are grateful to two anonymous referees and the editor for their comments and suggestions, as well as to Sandrine Roginsky and Katrien Verveckken for sharing their comments concerning (parts of) a previous version of this article. We would like to thank Chiara Meluzzi for her help concerning the Italian example, Minna Nevala for her help concerning the Finnish example, and Deniz Uygur for her help concerning the Turkish example. All remaining errors are of course our responsibility.

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