Being an Ethical Speaker Online: Correspondence with Foreign Partners

Abstract

Analysis of the rules of language behavior in social network VKontakte is represented in the paper. 14 rules in total constitute the unwritten code (the term of T.V. Shmeleva): Do not tell what is unpleasant for the interlocutor, Do not exaggerate, Follow the same speech manner etc. It was found that the work of each rule follows a specific mechanism: every time it 1) is activated in a particular communicative mode (following, prevention or breaking the rule), 2) is done in accordance with a specific model (standard, extended and reduced) and 3) has a series of linguistic markers. More than 500 participants of the international society of the Internet community (social network Vkontakte) prove that the Rules implementation is specific, depends on the circumstances of live dialogue in Vkontakte network, and the general purpose of language training. Firstly, presence of evaluative expressions commenting on verbal skills of the interlocutors, and secondly, active functioning of the rules Give information that contain well-known to the listener and Do not tell what is commonly known and banal are meant. They are regularly used not only to maintain social contact, but that is the most important for language training - for natural, extended in time language mastering, corresponding with the principles of Lifelong Learning. Supposing that the reconstructed mechanism of the Rules functioning is universal in general, it can be used as a matrix, applied to one or another communicative situation and getting new useful results.