The transformation of the quebeckers'internet discourse (on the material of ConneriesQc.com account on facebook)

Abstract

Nowadays the problem of language purity is one of the most actively discussed issues in Quebec. The language policy carried out in the course of several decades by the government of this Canadian province resulted in the transition from the dominant usage of English in all the spheres to the priority-driven usage of French in both interpersonal and institutional communication. Though, after thorough analysis of the content of ConneriesQc.com (a famous Quebec French humoristic site) account on Facebook (5-10 March 2016) [URL: https://www.facebook.com/conneriesqc/] we came to the conclusion that English has a considerable influence on the Quebeckers' Internet discourse that is the reflection of the current language situation in Quebec. We divide samples (collected using continuous sampling) of Internet discourse transformation into several categories: transformation of discourse at morphological, lexical and syntactic levels. Our research has also discovered the frequency of code mixing in the Quebeckers' Internet discourse; the tendency of words spelling simplification in English manner. Basing on the data obtained, we made a conclusion that the possible reasons of the transformation of the Quebeckers' Internet discourse are greater social prestige of English in Canada and its global expansion and also the long period of the annihilation of the French language by the Canadian government.