THE LINGUOSEMIOTIC NATURE AND MULTIMODAL FEATURES OF ENGLISH DIGITAL DISCOURSE IN SOCIAL MEDIA TEXTS

Abstract

This article examines the linguosemiotic nature and multimodal features of English digital discourse as represented in social media texts. The rapid development of digital communication has expanded the conventional concept of written text, giving rise to complex communicative structures in which verbal language interacts with visual, graphic, symbolic, and other semiotic resources. The study focuses on English-language social media posts, short messages, comments, hashtags, emojis, and visual components, analyzing their contribution to meaning construction from a linguosemiotic perspective. Particular attention is paid to the semantic and pragmatic relationships between verbal and non-verbal signs and to the ways in which these resources operate together within digital communication. The analysis demonstrates that meaning in digital discourse is not produced exclusively through linguistic units but emerges through the interaction of textual, visual, graphic, and symbolic elements. Multimodal resources perform a range of communicative functions, including clarifying the speaker’s intention, expressing emotional attitudes, compressing information, emphasizing particular messages, and influencing audience perception. The study contributes to a better understanding of contemporary English digital communication by identifying the linguosemiotic mechanisms through which different modes participate in meaning-making. It also highlights the theoretical and practical relevance of a multimodal approach to the analysis of social media discourse.