ABSTRACT
In their chapter, Gedik and Arpaözü examine the intricate relationship between the current pandemic and the necessary posthumanist shift in linguistics, suggesting a posthumanistically augmented citizen sociolinguistics as a useful way to analyse semiotic assemblages in online platforms. Enthused by the observed dehumanisation and stigmatisation of certain ethnic backgrounds upon the emergence of the COVID-19, attended by the spread of the discriminatory and racist language use, the study is based on data collected from social media threads on Reddit, which were then identified and sampled through the trending hashtags “chinesevirus,” “kungflu,” and “Chineseflu.” Finding the semantic valences of selected commentaries through the qualitative meaning-based content analysis method, Gedik and Arpaözü then locate Anthropocentric thought patterns embedded in the linguistic reflections of the humanist traditions, which fail to acknowledge the inherent consequences of -isms. The authors indicate that racism displayed a rapid increase during the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak. Discussing how human language holds a mirror up to anthropocentric problems, Gedik and Arpaözü conclude their chapter by stating that embracing posthumanist applied linguistics may contribute further to the study of human languages, which parallel the embedded and embodied experiences of the nature-cultures from which they emerge.
