Linguistic anthropology approach to virtual identity

Abstract

The paper deals with linguistic anthropology’s approach to virtual identity, the term “virtual identity” is defined, the distinction between “virtual identity’ and “online identity” is stated, the peculiarities of virtual identity’s structure are described. The aim of the article is to describe and investigate “virtual identity” as an object of linguistic anthropology’s approach; to define the terms “virtual identity” and “online identity”; to identify the virtual name’s functions; to state the tendencies of further research studies of the virtual identity. The importance of the Internet discourse investigation and key trends in the studies of the virtual personality structure determine the research topicality. The material analyzed comprises texts taken from online discourse, written speech card-catalogues compiled by the author during 2020-2021, the list of the virtual names (450 in number) retrieved from Rusfishing and Steam user profiles. Different groups of virtual names are discovered in the research: official; informal; derivative, i.e. formed by adding diminutive suffixes, etc. The main functions of virtual names are identified. Special attention is devoted to linguistic creativity of Russian online users, who create different types of texts (jokes, anecdotes, antiproverbs, demotivators, memes) that form the core of Internet folklore.