Property individualization and identity construction in transmedicalist Reddit

Abstract

The notion of stage-level and individual-level predication (SLP/ILP) as a distinction entirely situated in the syntax-semantics interface has been challenged within the realms of semantic and pragmatic theory but has not been extensively covered in domains of sociocultural or trans linguistics. Through the example of stage-level and individual-level use of the adjectival lexeme “dysphoric” in transmedicalist and non-transmedicalist trans communities on Reddit, this study attempts to highlight conversion of stage-level properties into individual-level properties as an aspect of identity construction. Upon gathering two Reddit-based corpora of subreddits including more inclusive trans-oriented subreddits (General Trans Corpus) and a subreddit holding transmedicalist views (Transmedicalism Corpus). We have found that individual-level use of “dysphoric” in the Transmedicalism Corpus as well as between stage-level use of “dysphoric” in the General Trans Corpus are the dominant uses in the respective corpora, but not without several exceptions and crossovers. Through analysis of excerpts and sentences from both corpora, we illustrated that identity construction through intersubjectivity tactics figures in individual-level uses of “dysphoric,” against which the notion of a “non-dysphoric (person)” is positioned, adding a novel, sociopolitical component into the SLP/ILP distinction and arguing for a degree of contestedness of the notion of gender dysphoria.