<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Drawing on the feminist poststructuralist perspective, the current study explored the usernames adopted by female users of Ninisite, that is, a Persian discussion forum, and aimed at identifying their identity markers. To this end, a corpus of 947 usernames in Ninisite was compiled. Using thematic analysis, the recurrent themes in the usernames were pinpointed, which led to the identification of six themes as identity markers, namely, gender, religion/ideology, ethnicity, occupation/profession, being humorous, and sense of uniqueness. With regard to the socioculturally unique context of Iran, a continuum of specificity versus generality can be observed in the usernames on Ninisite, with specificity emphasizing differences, sense of uniqueness, and individualization of the users, and generality highlighting neutrality, commonalities, and conventionality.</p>
</abstract>

Drawing on the feminist poststructuralist perspective, the current study explored the usernames adopted by female users of Ninisite, that is, a Persian discussion forum, and aimed at identifying their identity markers. To this end, a corpus of 947 usernames in Ninisite was compiled. Using thematic analysis, the recurrent themes in the usernames were pinpointed, which led to the identification of six themes as identity markers, namely, gender, religion/ideology, ethnicity, occupation/profession, being humorous, and sense of uniqueness. With regard to the socioculturally unique context of Iran, a continuum of specificity versus generality can be observed in the usernames on Ninisite, with specificity emphasizing differences, sense of uniqueness, and individualization of the users, and generality highlighting neutrality, commonalities, and conventionality.

Identity markers in the Internet usernames adopted by female users of a Persian public discussion forum: A sociolinguistic analysis

Psychology of Language and Communication

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Drawing on the feminist poststructuralist perspective, the current study explored the usernames adopted by female users of Ninisite, that is, a Persian...

Identity markers in the Internet usernames adopted by female users of a Persian public discussion forum: A sociolinguistic analysis

Published Online: Mar 07, 2022

Page range: 42 - 64

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/plc-2022-0003

Keywords
identity, sociolinguistics, Ninisite, linguistic analysis

© 2022 Nasimeh Nouhi Jadesi, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Identity markers in the Internet usernames adopted by female users of a Persian public discussion forum: A sociolinguistic analysis

Published Online: Mar 07, 2022

Page range: 42 - 64

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/plc-2022-0003

Keywordsidentity, sociolinguistics, Ninisite, linguistic analysis

© 2022 Nasimeh Nouhi Jadesi, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
identity, sociolinguistics, Ninisite, linguistic analysis