From Awareness to Semantic Exhaustion: A Diachronic Analysis of "Woke" as a Floating Signifier in Digital Discourse

Abstract

This research investigates the diachronic sociopragmatic lifecycle of the term "woke" on X (formerly Twitter) between 2016 and 2025. Once a marker of systemic awareness rooted in African American Vernacular English (AAVE), the signifier has undergone a profound process of semantic bleaching (Calude; Anderson; Trye, 2023) and ideological weaponization, evolving into a pejorative floating signifier. Adopting a qualitative approach, the study examines a corpus of 150 tweets gathered through the platform’s advanced search feature, selecting representative excerpts for in-depth evaluation. The analysis integrates semantic perspectives with Culpeper’s (2011) Impoliteness Theory to examine how the term's pragmatic function shifted from positive politeness and solidarity-building facework to strategic, bald-on-record Face-Threatening Acts (FTAs), that is, direct, clear, and unmitigated communicative acts performed without softening or mitigating devices. Divided into three distinct periods, the analysis explores the role of platform affordances, such as hashtags and viral slogans, in accelerating the word’s transformation into a "poisoned signifier" associated with aggressive political discourse (Torregrosa et al., 2022). The findings suggest that "woke" has reached a state of semantic exhaustion and interpretive saturation, transitioning from a bridge for social awareness to a terminal barrier for cross-ideological dialogue. This study contributes to understanding how digital environments facilitate rapid semantic change and intensify ideological polarization in contemporary political discourse.