Deconstructing The Linguistic Practices In The Algerian Hirak Slogans: A Content-based Analysis

Abstract

The ultimate objective behind the current research paper is threefold: (1) to deconstruct and decipher the implicit messages behind the English linguistic practices used in the Algerian Hirak slogans; (2) to highlight the incentives that pushed protesters to use such slogans in foreign languages, especially English, and to investigate whether this phenomenon reflects a Bi/Multi-lingual requisite or plurilingual proficiency. In order to conduct this study under the pandemic imposed sanitary measures, a mixed method is adopted an online structured questionnaire, encompassing 19 questions, a structured interview via social media, together with a corpus of 12 foreign languages written slogans. This three-fold analytic endeavour revealed that those who used foreign languages written slogans, mottos, banners, etc. are plurilinguals rather than bilingual individuals regarding the status of foreign languages in the Algerian sociolinguistic context. In doing so, the Hirakists wanted to maximize the global dissemination of their protests.