Beyond the proper name: secondary person nominations as markers of social identity in digital media discourse

Abstract

The article examines secondary person nominations in digital media discourse as linguistic resources for representing and indexing social identity. The research focuses on how alternative nominative units used to refer to individuals foreground socially or communicatively salient characteristics of the referent. The analysis demonstrates that secondary nominations may foreground professional roles, social status, group affiliation, cultural positioning, or other socially significant attributes of individuals. Particular attention is given to the distinction between nomination and evaluation, since the evaluative meaning of a nominative unit cannot be determined solely by its lexical meaning and may emerge through contextual interaction. The study proposes an analytical relationship expressed as referent → salient feature → secondary nomination → social identity → contextual function, which provides a framework for examining the interaction between nomination, discourse, and identity in digital media texts. The findings contribute to the study of secondary nomination at the intersection of discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, and digital media research.