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Item From „Facebook‟ to „Bukiya‟: Language Change in Facebook among Undergraduates of the University of Vocational Technology.(The Third International Conference on Linguistics in Sri Lanka, ICLSL 2017. Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2017) Karunarathna, J. A. M. B.; Jayashan, M. N. L. C. L.; Wijayasen, W. A. S. R.; Papith, V.; Shakthibaala, S.; Dharmadasa, A.S.U.; Nizreen, Z.Language transmits cultural values, norms and beliefs. Media has always influenced the constant change of language. Especially with the rapid change of technology, from internet to smartphones, it has changed the way people communicate. It is said that human communication has become easier and quicker through social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. As long as human communication has become quicker through social networking, language has also changed rapidly. It has contributed to English language by adding words and phrases such as „OMG‟, „LOL‟, unfriend, etc. among the users. The aim of the research is to investigate the changes occurred in the language being used in the social media among Sri Lankan users with particular focus on Facebook. Data is collected in snowball sampling technique from the undergraduates of University of Vocational Technology, through six voluntary research agents. They are active users of Facebook and collected data for four months. These voluntary research agents are undergraduates of University of Vocational Technology, Sri Lanka. In collecting data, morphological changes were focused in status updates and comments in Facebook, in Sinhala, Tamil and English among the undergraduates of University of Vocational Technology. Findings were thematically categorized and analyzed. Results shows interesting findings across languages, such as the variations of the same word in Sinhala „supiri‟, „patta‟, „pata pata‟ to „fatta‟ throughout the time, and a similar word for the same in status updates in Tamil „sattapadi‟. Further, according to findings, many morphological changes have occurred with blending and borrowing. However, comments made in English language show a comparative reduction to „likes‟ and emojis. Findings illustrate the necessity of further research in analysis of discourse across three languages in social media since the language change is rapid, complex and unprecedented.Item A Comparative Study between English Version of Facebook and its Sinhalese Translated Version: Suggestions for Improvement.(International Conference on the Humanities (ICH), 2017 Faculty of Humanities, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2017) Keerthiwansha, N. W. B. S.Facebook has become one of the most prominent social media applications in the world. At present, it has opened up the translation application to every user in order to translate Facebook into every major language on earth and the users can contribute to the translation of their particular native language. This is an attempt to be more user-friendly by offering Facebook in the users respective native languages. Consequently, Facebook has been translated into Sinhalese, which is helpful to the users who are not competent in English.Thus, this study intends to compare the English version of Facebook with the Sinhalese translation to measure the quality of translation and to suggest further improvements. The first forty common phrases appear in Facebook were chosen and compared with their Sinhalese translation with specific focus on word-for-word translations and transliteration. Later they were categorized under unidiomatic translations and meaningful translations. In addition, 40 users were chosen from University of Kelaniya to record their language preference when using Facebook. The analysis indicated that 95% of Facebook terms are word-for-word translations, for instance “home” is translated as ksjyk which is the direct equivalent for ‘Home’ in Sinhalese. 5% are transliterations, for instance “Cookies” is translated into Sinhalese as l=lSia. Among the selected samples, 50% are unidiomatic translations, for example “pages feed” has been translated as msgqfmdaIlh and 50% are meaningful translations, for instance “details about you” has been translated into Sinhalese as Tn .ekúia;r. In addition, it was identified that gender difference is not shown in the Sinhalese translated sentences. Meanwhile, user preferences indicated that 77% does not require Sinhalese translated version, 18% had attempted to use it but stopped because the Sinhalese version was unfamiliar, and only 5% are using the Sinhalese translated version. In conclusion, having Facebook in Sinhalese is an opportunity to establish Sri Lankan identity in social media; however, it is vital to increase the usage of the Sinhalese version. Thus, it is essential to revise the Sinhalese version of Facebook to develop a more natural and familiar translated version that will automatically increase the number of users having Facebook in Sinhalese.Item A Linguistic Study on the Impact of Facebook on the Sinhalese Language(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Samudra, D.W.B.One of the current trends in the modem society is the frequent use of Facebook and it is being used almost everywhere in the world. Using Facebook is very much popular among Sinhalese speakers as well. Being a popular social networking site, Facebook has a significant impact on all the languages of the world and Sinhalese is no exception. In this background, the present study is focused on discovering the impacts of Facebook on the Sinhalese language. It seems that no previous linguistics research has been carried out on this maller. Therefore, the objective of this research is to fulfillthis gap. Data were collected by analysing the Sinhalese languages used in Facebook posts and by interviewing Facebook user. Accordingly, it is discovered that Facebook has a considerable amount of impact on the Sinhalese language in morphological, syntactic, semantic and sociolinguistic aspects.Item Morphological processes in the language of Facebook(Faculty of Humanities, University of Kelaniya, 2015) Mallawaarachchi, I.A.Social networks including Facebook®, Twitter® and Instagram® have gained popularity throughout the world and thus have emerged with distinct cultures of their own. The fact that interactions on them are done ‘virtually’ without one to one communication emphasises the significance of written medium of communication in social media. This stance is evident in the culture of Facebook where a considerable number of Sri Lankans are engaged in social networking. Online chatting, posting various updates, captioning photos and videos are done through texts, thus ‘language’ plays a key role in the communication that takes place. Therefore, a remarkable linguistic culture has emerged, with numerous ‘new words’ entering the language every day. Accordingly this study concentrates on the usage of English particularly by Sri Lankans who interact through Facebook. However, in the instances where borrowings are concerned, the influences from and upon Sinhalese are also discussed. Various social and cultural implications were taken into consideration in order to analyse the semantic changes and culture – bound expressions. The proposed study is a participant observation in which the researcher conducted the analysis while actively participating in the activities that happen on Facebook. A number of Facebook profiles of both Sri Lankan and foreign users, Facebook chats, Facebook pages that are administered by local and foreign users and the design of the website in general are thus considered the primary source whereas the literature on morphological processes and the language on the internet serves as the secondary source. The analysis of these new words exposes various morphological processes, which are compounding, initialism, acronym, semantic expansion, affixation, blending, semantic shift, functional shift and borrowing. Remarkably, existing words are employed to create new words and new meanings rather than coining entirely new words. A significant number of morphological processes attempt to shorten longer phrases and sentences.