Some markers of authorial conflict intention in Internet comments during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The range of conflict markers in confrontational interaction is determined largely both by the situation provoking the collision and by the conditions for the communication implementation. The context of the conflict in this work was the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The conditions for the conflict implementation became the virtual environment; Internet comment. The purpose of this reseach is to calculate the verbal and non-verbal markers of conflict speech behavior observed in Internet comments during the COVID-19 pandemic. To achieve this goal the methods of complex communicative-pragmatic analysis, linguostylistic analysis and contextual analysis were used. With the methods of statistical analysis the frequency of the indicated verbal and non-verbal markers manifestation was determined and the preferred speech means to implement authorial conflicting intention in the designated time period was established. The verbal markers are some pejoratives, colloquies, jargon, occasional words, zoo-metaphors, English-language intersperses, phraseological units, lexemes with negative connotation which characterize human mental development, contain an expressive negative assessment of health, level of education, ethnic, racial, national, social affiliation of the characterized person, negative nomination of persons from the point of view of the profession, origin, socially condemned activities, persons with non-actual behavior, dissonant views, ideas and positions, language tools with the semantic meaning of threat, isolation, vaccination, imperatives, parceled constructions, subjunctive, multiple questions, repetitions, incomplete sentences, parallel constructions. Non-verbal markers include text in capital letters, strikethrough text, erratives, Internet memes. These verbal and non-verbal markers ensure the implementation of strategies and tactics of the conflict speech behavior of communicants of this period; they are the key factors in constructing attitude among the audience.