The Social Characteristics of The Lexical Composition in Internet Media Texts

Abstract

Language is not only a medium of communication but a mirror of social identity and interaction, increasingly shaped by digital media. With the rise of Internet communication, colloquial expressions, foreign borrowings (barbarisms), and socially marked lexical units have become widespread in online texts, often at the expense of literary language norms. While the sociolinguistic impact of traditional dialects and jargon is well-documented, the systemic effect of Internet barbarisms on the literary language, especially in Uzbek digital discourse, remains underexplored. This study aims to identify and analyze socially marked lexical elements in Uzbek Internet media texts, assess their influence on literary language, and highlight how their frequent use challenges linguistic standards. Through statistical analysis of barbarism usage on kun.uz and qalampir.uz (2020–2024), it was revealed that foreign words like zapravka, svet, prava, and dayjest appear with notable frequency, despite the existence of Uzbek equivalents. The widespread adoption of such units reflects both the social diversity of users and the erosion of literary norms. The article introduces empirical data quantifying the lexical impact of digital communication on the Uzbek language, emphasizing the sociolinguistic consequences of barbarism proliferation. The findings underscore the urgent need to regulate online language use and reinforce literary standards to safeguard linguistic purity and cultural identity in the digital era.