English social media slang on TikTok and Instagram: a mixed-method study of Estonian students

Abstract

This thesis investigates the use of contemporary English slang on TikTok and Instagram, comparing these patterns with Estonian upper-secondary school students’ perceptions and self-reported use. The aim was to answer three research questions: How do the frequency and use of selected English slang expressions differ between TikTok and Instagram captions and comments? What structural patterns and discourse functions characterise these expressions in social media discourse? How do Estonian upper-secondary students perceive and report their use of English social media slang, and how does this compare to its use in social media? The study combines a 17,377 token mini-corpus of TikTok and Instagram captions and comments with questionnaire data collected from 110 Estonian upper-secondary students regarding their perceived use of slang. Corpus-based methods were used to analyse frequency patterns, concordances, collocations and discourse functions of selected slang. Questionnaire responses were analysed to compare reported language use with corpus findings. The findings reveal platform-specific differences in slang usage, multifunctional discourse patterns, and a high level of student awareness regarding register differences. Keywords: social media slang, corpus linguistics, TikTok, Instagram, Estonian students