From slang to signal: tracking youth language change in Indonesian digital platforms through diachronic word embeddings

Almaidah

doi:10.67490/ijcl.v1i3.1029

Authors

Almaidah Universitas Negeri Malang Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.67490/ijcl.v1i3.1029

Keywords:

code-mixing, diachronic embeddings, digital platforms, Indonesian youth slang, semantic change

Abstract

Background: Indonesian youth slang increasingly circulates through digital platforms where lexical innovation, identity performance, meme culture, and code-mixed interaction reshape everyday meaning. Objective: This study examines how youth slang in Indonesian digital platforms can be tracked as semantic movement through diachronic word embeddings and contextual sociolinguistic validation. Method: Using public, dateable, and verifiable corpus materials, this study maps slang-bearing units across platform contexts, classifies semantic movement patterns, and validates embedding-oriented interpretation through concordance-based coding. Results: Findings show that status and identity specialization forms a dominant semantic pattern, followed by evaluative resemanticization, meme-context volatility, and pragmatic stance stabilization. Results also indicate that short-video and meme circulation privilege volatile intertextual meanings, whereas self-presentation contexts foreground slang related to attractiveness, hierarchy, persona, and social value. Contextual validation demonstrates that many slang meanings remain interactionally contingent, requiring surrounding discourse before computational shifts can be interpreted as sociolinguistically meaningful. Implication: This study shows that computational modelling of slang requires platform-sensitive interpretation to avoid reducing youth language change to frequency, novelty, or vector movement alone. Novelty: This study contributes a diachronic, corpus-assisted, and sociolinguistically grounded framework for analysing Indonesian youth slang as a measurable signal of digital semantic change.

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