Linguistic-culturological characteristics of a conflicting linguistic personality in modern Internet discourse

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Introduction

In recent years, synchronous Internet discourse has become the most popular object of research by both Russian and foreign scientists, especially from the point of view of identifying the specifics and linguistic features of the implementation of speech tactics and strategies of the main participants in Internet communication.

The heterogeneity of the social environment, which can be described as the anonymously conditioned possibility of overcoming social, gender and age restrictions, is considered one of the main factors of the specificity of Internet communication, according to the vast majority of researchers.

Internet communication is more often defined as a type of oral and written discourse, since it actively combines almost all the characteristics of spoken language: redundancy of speech means, unpreparedness, jargon, abbreviations, etc. This trend is associated with the fact that the language used on the Internet is interactive, and the pace of communication is close to the pace of oral communication. An important factor is the informal environment of communication platforms on the Internet, which are as close as possible to oral speech.

Researcher P.E. Kondrashova identifies such discursive parameters of online communication as: “dynamism or processuality (user dialogue as the basis of communication); communicativeness (attitude to communication and search for an interlocutor); personification, situational conditioning” (Kondrashov, 2004: 90). An important feature of Internet communication is a pronounced connotativity, a peculiar emotional-evaluative, and sometimes expressive attitude of communicants to the subject, person or phenomenon under discussion.

Researcher E.V. Gorina presents a model of Internet discourse consisting of five constitutive properties: “cognitiveness, interactivity, variability, sociologicity and psychologicity” (Gorina, 2015).

P.E. Kondrashova, the discursive properties of Internet communication include “dynamism or processality (user dialogue as the basis of communication); communicativeness (a set for communication and search for an interlocutor); personification, situational conditioning” (Kondrashov, 2004: 90). An important feature of Internet communication is a pronounced connotativity, a peculiar emotional-evaluative, and sometimes expressive attitude of communicants to the subject, person or phenomenon under discussion.

The phenomenon of Internet discourse as an effective tool of influence can be judged by the number of scientific studies, including foreign ones (see the works of Alexandrova, 2001; Afanasieva, 2010; Galichkina, 2004; Volodina, 2003; Van Dijk, 1989; Chomsky, 1988, etc.).

From the characteristics described above, we can conclude that “Internet discourse is a complex information and communication space in its structure, which organically adapts all known types of discourse in its forms, as well as their genres, and at the same time creates its own: blog, personal website, social networks, forums” (Podshivalova et al., 2022).

And, in our opinion, the means of speech influence used by communicants, which are designated as the subject in this study, acquire significant importance in this regard. By means of speech influence, we understand the whole combination of linguistic means, strategies and tactics that affect the addressee’s worldview, as well as his goals and attitudes.

The problems of studying the virtual linguistic personality and the features of Internet communication in the global network were considered in the works of Afanasyeva V.V., Apazheva L.T., Germasheva T.M., Lutovinova O.V., Nazarova R.Z., Sokolova G.N., Fatkullina F.G., etc. (Afanasyeva, 2010; Apazheva, 2014; Germasheva, 2014; Lutovinova, 2015; Nazarova & Sokolova, 2020; Fatkullina & Zaripova, 2020; Lucas, 2010, etc.).

Understanding the features of communication in the context of the manifestation of hating (from the English`hate`) in linguocultural and linguopragmatic aspects, as well as the problem of describing the conflicting speech behavior of Internet users are also widely represented in scientific research. There is a solid base of scientific papers that address the problems of the pragmalinguistic, gender, linguistic and cultural nature of interpersonal communication; on the theory of speech tactics, strategies and others (Bondarenko, 2006; Vetyugova, 2016; Mozgovaya, 2020, etc.).

In our opinion, the study of various ways and means of verbal influence on the mass consciousness of consumers, manifestations of verbal aggression in the Internet space, as well as discursive characteristics of modern Internet discourse seems relevant both from the point of view of creating effective technologies, the need for which is felt in many areas of human activity, including in the field of education and upbringing; as well as from the position of searching for mechanisms and tools to protect the recipients’ consciousness from information that distorts facts and is manipulative in nature.

The purpose of study is to identify and consider the linguistic and cultural features of the speech behavior of a conflicted personality (based on the material of the linguistic personality of a hater) and speech (network) etiquette in electronic interpersonal communication in the Internet space, as well as defining and clarifying the discursive characteristics of Internet discourse.

Methods and materials

As the main research material, we selected scientific papers devoted to the problems of studying the speech behavior of a virtual linguistic personality in linguocultural and linguopragmatic aspects, the problems of identifying and describing the constitutive features of synchronous Internet discourse. Special attention was paid to research devoted to the study of the features of destructive behavior of communication participants, as well as the understanding of their speech strategies and tactics.

To determine the pragmatics of the main linguistic and cultural types of Internet discourse, more than 300 interactions extracted from popular Russian-language social networks (VKontakte, Telegram, OK — Odnoklassniki, etc.) and Internet chats were studied, the analysis of which revealed the dominant strategies and tactics of communication participants.

In the proposed study, we applied analytical techniques of linguoculturology and linguopragmatics, functional-semantic and interpretative methods. Elements of contextual-situational and intentional analysis were used to analyze the media materials. We believe that the presented research methodology can be used in studying the problems of the influence of media content on a wide audience of Internet users, in order to create technologies to protect individual and mass consciousness from modern means of speech influence and manipulation, involving an arsenal of linguistic and psychological developments in this field.

Results

In the course of the research, the virtual linguistic personalities of the participants of the Internet discourse, the peculiarities of their linguistic behavior from the standpoint of linguoculturology and linguopragmatics are studied and modeled. Special attention is paid to one of the varieties of conflicted linguistic personality — linguistic personality of a hater.

As the analysis showed, anonymity and the virtual nature of communicative interaction on the Internet contribute to the choice of motives and goals, various manipulative tactics, optimal language tools, practically washing away psychological and moral barriers.

Among the speech features of a conflicted linguistic personality, there is a frequent use of special pictograms, a unique system of signs that replace non-verbal means of communication: emoticons, emojis, stickers, punctuation marks to convey emotions, assessment and mental states; gravitation to agrammatism (deviation from the norms of literary language), emotional syntax; polystylism (a combination of linguistic means of different functional styles).

In the course of the study, the main discursive characteristics of synchronous Internet discourse are clarified and described in detail: virtuality, globality, multifunctionality, genre generation, remoteness, hypertextuality and a special ethics of behavior due to anonymity.

The parameters of various genres of modern Internet discourse are defined: personal web pages, blogs, social networks and forums.

Discussion

It is customary to consider Internet discourse from two positions: as an information channel that includes countless other discourses and as a unique discourse with a set of its own characteristics. Based on the classification of E.N. Galichkina, we will highlight the main characteristics of Internet discourse (Galichkina, 2004). Let’s highlight the main characteristics of Internet discourse, based on the classification of E.N. Galichkina (Galichkina, 2004):

1. An electronic signal as a communication channel.
2. Virtuality — a conceptual feature of Internet discourse characterized by multidimensionality. In fact, the characteristic of virtuality is a rough generalization, because the very lexeme of this concept indicates the absence of a material shell, i.e. the presence of this phenomenon only at the level of imagination, and, consequently, the impossibility of its assessment and interpretation. We can start analyzing Internet discourse only when translating the virtual into a sign system, so in this case it would be more correct to use the concept of “actualized virtuality.”
3. Globality. There are many subdiscourses in the Internet space that represent various fields of knowledge and human activity.
4. Distance — “separation in space and time and simultaneous synchronicity.”
5. Technical mediation — the process of interaction with Internet discourse occurs through technical means — computer, tablet, phone, smartphone. Unlike virtual, other discourses do not imply the need for any special skills, knowledge and tools.
6. Permeability — any user can become a participant in real-time communication.
7. Hypertextuality is one of the most important parameters of Internet discourse. A hypertext allows you to establish non-linear, associative connections within a single text and between its fragments. At its core, it is a new organization of texts, an entire information space that determines the structure of information in Internet discourse. Technically, a hypertext is a series of interconnected texts united by a system of links. This information space can only be compared in depth with the structure of the processing of ideas by the human brain.
8. Creolization of texts is a combination of textual, visual or auditory components into a structural whole. Thus, both linguistic and paralinguistic means are used in the texts. This also includes a variable choice of font, size, type and color versions of the font in the text. The use of crealized texts with the help of multimedia means gives users the opportunity not only to express themselves, but also to act within the framework of a single communicative situation.
9. Virtual democracy — the absence of any hierarchy in the global sense. Interaction in Internet discourse is characterized by the erasure of social, economic and political factors. According to some researchers, this feature is possible due to the anonymity of virtual discourse.
10. A special ethics of behavior characterized by non-observance or absence of rules of (speech) behavior, due to a high degree of anonymity.
11. Multifunctionality: communicative-spatial, informational, educational and applied, etc.
12. The genre-generating environment is characterized by the emergence of new forms of language interaction: blog, social networks, online broadcasts, which we will analyze before we begin to analyze the linguistic personalities of participants in network communication.

On the pages of a personal website (web page), individuals tries to present themselves, express their opinion and offer some ideas. Personal websites are characterized by hypertext organization, i.e. the presence of a connection of different topics with active hyperlinks.

Social networks are integral web pages with blocks united by an idea: Facebook¹, OK — Odnoklassniki; VK — VKontakte and etc.

A blog is a very popular genre, the main purpose of which is the self-presentation of the user (blogger), expressing personal opinions about any socially significant problems of society, indicating the provision of services in any field, etc. Blogs are usually open to all users and comments.

The genre of a forum (online forum) is a network community within a site. The communicative purpose of the forum is to communicate on certain topics.

Thus, with some regret, we have to state that we really gradually got into the World Wide Web, because we visit some sites at least once a day to find the necessary information or to communicate (Vorob’ev et al., 2023). We live in an era of reduced direct contact (this is especially typical for the youth environment), and, consequently, the emergence of a new form of interaction in society, a new type of social virtual relationship “personality ⇔ computer ⇔ personality”.

Hence, there is a need to consider and model the linguistic personalities of participants in Internet discourse, the peculiarities of their linguistic behavior from the perspective of linguo-culturology and linguopragmatics.

Since any user of the network is a native speaker, can produce texts in conditions of Internet communication for the purpose of either self-presentation or to achieve certain goals and objectives, then he can confidently be called a language personality (Karaulov, 2010), more precisely a virtual linguistic personality (LP). It should be noted that in the context of computer-mediated network communication, the problem of a broad understanding of a virtual personality arises, since it appears too generalized compared to a linguistic personality in a situation of real communication. The metaphorical name of the virtual LP even appeared on the network: “the clicking person”, “digital personality” “post-human” (Tarasenko, 2000; Lucas, 2010). The researchers also include computer robotic programs with artificial intelligence (for example, “Alice”, “Siri”) in the concept of virtual LP, as well as user-controlled characters, fictional language personalities or masks, which become a kind of protective mechanism of a virtual personality (Lutovinova, 2015).

Thus, we can describe and interpret a virtual linguistic personality as a verbalized linguistic personality with individual characteristics of speech behavior on the web. Hence, we can talk about the emergence of a new online subculture and a unique communicative environment characterized by a mixture of literary and colloquial styles of speech, with the use of auditory, visual and multimedia means.

From a cultural point of view, virtual linguistic personalities are carriers of a particular culture, therefore they can be considered as linguistic and cultural types (V.I. Karasik’s term), i.e. “generalized recognizable representatives of certain groups of society, whose behavior embodies the norms of linguistic culture as a whole and influences the behavior of all representatives of society” (Karasik, 2007: 83).

In our case, the belonging of a virtual linguistic personality to a particular linguistic and cultural type of network communication is determined by a characteristic set of linguistic techniques and speech strategies and communicative behavior of the individual. So, based on the analysis of these parameters, several independent linguistic and cultural types are distinguished: “author / blogger”, “commentator”, “administrator /moderator”.

1. Any Internet user aged 30–60 years old who creates certain speech works (texts), as a rule, having a higher humanitarian education, can act as an author. In most cases, the texts he creates characterize him as a person of a high level of culture (well-spoken, compliance with the rules of spelling and punctuation, he practically does not use jargon and colloquial vocabulary, minimal use of graphic means of non-verbal information). Some researchers attribute the author to the basic type of Internet culture (Nazarova & Sokolova, 2020).
2. The basic type of Internet culture also includes an administrator / moderator — this is, as a rule, a man 25–50 years old with higher technical education, engaged in the field of 1T technologies; this type is characterized by a high level of speech competence: his speech is correct, concise, in compliance with all the rules of grammar and punctuation. The main function of moderators is to monitor compliance with the rules and norms of speech behavior on websites and in chat rooms.
3. The next linguistic and cultural type — a commenter — is a user who, without editing the text written by the author directly, writes comments, gives likes, to put it shortly, he affects the emotional and evaluative background of a particular message.

Virtual linguistic and cultural types are almost impossible to describe externally, however, in Internet discourse there are additional markers for such participants of communication, such as “nickname”, “avatar”, “status”, various graphic means of transmitting information (emojis, stickers, audio files, etc.), forming an image of these linguistic and cultural types.

Let's focus in more detail on the description of the conflicted linguistic personality of hater, which occupies one of the key positions in modern personal Internet communication. A hater is a person or one of a group of people who hate something, more often than not, and write offensive, sometimes aggressive comments and messages on social networks. A hater is a collective type of participant in personal Internet discourse, with an extensive structure: it includes “trolls” (social provocateurs), “spammers”, “flamers” (from the word flame), “flooders” (from the word flood). The generalized characteristics of a typical hater include the age of 15–45 years, more often a man with a low level of communication culture. Hayter is a typical representative of marginal Internet culture. and the phenomenon of hating itself, as well as its varieties of trolling, occupies a leading position on the Internet. Researchers explain this fact primarily by extralinguistic reasons that reflect the specifics of the mentality and worldview, as well as the mental properties of Internet communicants of our time.

First of all, it is necessary to separate hater from the critic, who expresses his opinion with a basis, even a subjective one, provides facts and arguments that form the basis of his point of view, and sometimes constructive criticism can be very useful. Hater, on the other hand, lacks any evidence base and, moreover, objectivity, and his main goal is to cause a psychoemotional disorder in the addressee and force him to play out his manipulative scenario, which is facilitated by anonymity and accessibility of virtual communication (Kilvington, 2021). To achieve this goal, this linguistic and cultural type chooses any information occasion, more often focusing on relevant and topical issues, “the coverage of which is associated with the creation of an atmosphere of provocation and incitement to inappropriate verbal responses from participants in network interaction in the correspondence space” (Kuryanovich, 2018: 129).

The reason for hating can be both provocative stories about the lives of the stars of modern “show business”, and arguments on topical social issues, as long as the main thing for hater is the destructive flow of communication, removing the addressee from a state of emotional balance. This, as we have already pointed out, is primarily facilitated by anonymity and a virtual environment of interaction, which embolden conflicting linguistic personalities, practically removing psychological and moral barriers that are inherent in real life.

Hater's linguistic and phonological status is difficult to recognize, since he uses fictitious names, does not act on his own behalf, but creates a non-existent image in virtual discourse. All this actually “nullifies” hater’s responsibility for his speech actions. Hater's communicative behavior is characterized by hidden provocation, emotional verbal sparring, insults, a desire to influence the feelings and emotions of the object of his hate, while experiencing pleasure, increased self-esteem and mood (so-called energy vampirism).

The destructive style of behavior of haters is reflected in their relatively stable types of statements, i.e. speech genres, the main of which is the hating — an aggressive online speech genre with its own strategies and tactics and specific language design. According to lexicographic dictionaries, researcher O.V. Lutovinova has derived the most complete, in our opinion, definition of hating: “hating is an expression of a strong feeling of dislike, irritation, hostility towards someone, i.e. a manifestation of hatred, usually when interacting in the communicative space of the Internet” (Lutovinova, 2021: 97).

Hater’s linguistic personality is represented by units of almost all language levels. Let’s demonstrate this conflicting virtual LP using the example of the hating of the famous and perhaps the most popular Russian singer Yaroslav Dronov, who performs under the pseudonym Shaman, since celebrities are primarily targeted by haters.

At the phonetic level, the boldness and aggressiveness of haters is observed at the level of markers such as logical stress and intonation, which are expressed graphically:

... you (in America) are not interesting to anyo-oo-one;

I know — they will throw everything at me now that will be at hand. That there will be no limit to the outrage of the majority. After all, everyone so WANTED to hear something in the key in which the new singer expressed it to them, albeit rudely and clumsily[2];

Yupppp, [he], made everyone feel the heat, so to speak³.

Hater manifests himself especially vividly at the lexical level: there is the use of abusive non-literary units; roughly colloquial vocabulary, as well as invectives, obscene vocabulary, etc.: a paid man, a Kremlin minion, a non-patriot for money, the most fondled singer, a sh<...>talker a super-duper artist, a kid with subcultural African pigtails and such.

At the grammar level, there is a frequent use of modal words and expressions: directives, negative evaluative expressions with evaluative predicates, infinitive interrogative sentences with the particle whether (Dastamuz, 2013), etc.:

... some lured singers release nationalist clips on Hitler’s birthday, with armbands suspiciously resembling Russian Liberation Army symbols, and with slogans like “God is with us”⁴.

He answers all uncomfortable questions under the guise of God or that knowledge came to him from above. It’s so convenient! I wonder whether the dark streak in the musician’s life has ended already...⁵

Haters of different levels began to disperse the theme of the so-called fascist style, in which the singer performs. Close-up, short haircut, blond stripes, bangs on the side. A leather jacket with a bandage on the arm (tricolor), which are usually worn by employees of the Federal Security Service. In fact, the image of a patriotic rocker, a man who stood up for the Motherland — but in his creative role, they tried to associate it with the images of the military of the Third Reich.

The rhetorical and stylistic level of hating is represented by a wide range of stylistic means and techniques: making personal remarks, rhetorical questions, exclamations, ridicule, banter, verbal pressure, switching of attention, etc.:

1) Art??? Then pig’s squeal can also be considered art???⁶;

2) How long will you show this Kremlin buffoon??? I’m sick of him already!⁷;

3) ... why does a Russian patriot need these non-Russian dreadlocks on his head?⁸;

4)  The problem with the system is that Russian patriots are portrayed by non-patriots for money⁹.

So, let’s summarize the results. Firstly, the linguistic and cultural types of personal Internet discourse are not isolated from each other, they are in constant interaction. Secondly, the stereotypical characteristics of communicants may differ from the real representatives of the typified groups. Thirdly, the characteristics of virtual linguistic and cultural types are devoid of descriptions of external features, but they can be identified by the speech means and communication models they use. And, finally, fourthly, the speech behavior in the network of a hater’s conflictual LP, which we have discussed in more detail, is characterized by: a dynamic manipulative scenario, targeting and subjectivity, an attitude towards obtaining a perlocative effect, when achieving the goal desired by hater, obtaining pleasure, satisfaction and self-admiration.

Conclusion

The linguistic and cultural features of Internet discourse considered in the study have a number of specific features. Since the life of a modern person has gradually acquired a hybrid format (it begins in real life and continues on the web), synchronous Internet discourse has become a kind of open media platform for interaction, as well as the verbal and non-verbal impact of communication participants on each other and on a wide audience of users in general.

The verbal interaction of linguistic and cultural types is mediated by an electronic information transmission channel, which gives almost unlimited possibilities for using various manipulative strategies and tactics using modern computer technologies, which creates the effect of presence and even participation. The discursive nature, as well as the high anonymity of Internet communication, have provided almost unlimited opportunities for conflicting linguistic personalities (haters, trolls, flamers, etc.) to manifest negative intentions in order to create a speech conflict, which is aimed at denigrating and negatively transforming the image of the addressee in society, to discredit him (especially celebrities).

The study of hating seems relevant both theoretically and practically, since this genre is based on verbal aggression, destructive communicative behavior, which need to develop effective tactics.

The parameters of conflict communication in Internet discourse considered in the study in the aspect of linguoculturology and linguopragmatics make a definite contribution to the development of modern scientific theories, in particular, communicative linguoculturology.

 

_{¹ Social network owned by Meta, was recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation.}

_{² The Shaman. Why am I not excited about the new singer. Retrieved December 12, 2023, from https://dzen.ru/a/Yxoz8li2n2VlXWfs}

_{³ Shaman. VK. Retrieved December 12, 2023, from https://vk.com/shaman_me}

_{⁴ Herald of the Storm. Retrieved January 12, 2024, from https://vestnikburi.com/poka-nekotorye-prikormlennye-pevczy-vypuskayut-naczionalisticheskie-klipy-v-den-rozhdeniya-gitlera-s-povyazkami-na-ruke-podozritelno-napominayushhimi-simvoly-roa-i-s-lozungami-tipa-s-nami-bog-podozrit*
* This material (information) was produced, distributed and (or) sent by a foreign agent A.V. Rudoy.}

_{⁵ Boycott, Nazi parody, LGBT* background check: a dark streak in SHAMAN’s life. Retrieved February 15, 2024, from https://news.ru/show-business/bojkot-nacistskaya-parodiya-proverka-na-lgbt-chernaya-polosa-v-zhizni-shaman/
* The “international LGBT movement” was recognized as extremist and banned in Russia.}

_{⁶ From utter despair to an audience of millions: how SHAMAN became the discovery of the year. Retrieved February 15, 2024, from https://dzen.ru/a/Y3K7TZi_C3FpIdG8.}

_{⁷ Vkontakte. Retrieved December 4, 2022, from https://vk.com/wall-151660297_1953504?ysclid=lw28mclmk7459231684}

_{⁸ Yaroslav Dronov (Shaman): Split personality? Retrieved September 4, 2023, from // https://vk.com/wall-49622204_677426}

_{⁹ Vkontakte. Retrieved June 20, 2023, from https://vk.com/wall-68934093_1900}77

About the authors

Fluza G. Fatkullina

Ufa University of Science and Technology

Author for correspondence.
Email: fluzarus@rambler.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-8711-2993
SPIN-code: 2022-2453

Honorary Worker of Higher Professional Education of the Russian Federation, Full Member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Doctor of Philology, Professor, Head of the Department of Russian and Comparative Philology

32 Zaki Validi St., Ufa, 450076, Russian Federation

Saeedeh Dastamooz

Alzahra University

Email: s.dastamooz@alzahra.ac.ir
ORCID iD: 0000-0003-1812-8427

PhD, Head of Affiliate Network Center Pushkin Institute in Iran, Associate Professor, Department of Russian Language, Faculty of Literature

North Sheikh Bahaee St., Deh-e Vanak, Tehran, 1993891176

References