IDENTITY REPRESENTATION IN INDONESIAN STUDENTS' DIGITAL LEGACY MESSAGES: A FORENSIC LINGUISTIC STUDY

Abstract

Digital farewell messages constitute personal texts that preserve linguistic traces through which writers represent themselves and their relationships with others. From a forensic linguistic perspective, these traces provide textual evidence for examining identity construction in final communication. This study aims to describe personal and relational identity representations and identify the linguistic characteristics through which these identities are constructed in digital farewell messages written by Indonesian students. The study employs a qualitative descriptive approach within a forensic linguistic perspective. The data consist of digital farewell messages from Indonesian students collected through documentation and purposive selection. Drawing on Bucholtz and Hall’s identity framework and the forensic linguistic perspectives of Olsson and Coulthard and Johnson, the analysis focuses on lexical choices, personal pronouns, evaluative and affective expressions, address terms, and references to others. The findings show that personal identity is constructed through first-person pronouns, self-evaluation, affective expressions, negation, and lexical choices related to agency and self-positioning. Relational identity is represented through kinship and formal address terms, second-person pronouns, apologies, expressions of gratitude and affection, and references to family members, institutions, and other recipients. These linguistic features construct self other positioning and function as textual traces through which writers represent themselves and their social relationships. The findings extend forensic linguistic inquiry into digital farewell messages by positioning identity representation as an interpretive dimension of linguistic evidence in digital communication.