Internet Discourse Research Articles

Perception of antibiotics in Polish Internet during the infection season 2023/2024

Aim. Public health researchers have used the Internet for disease surveillance, the assessment of risk perception and behaviour changes during epidemics in the past. Cur- rently, investigations of antibiotics (ABx) mentions and the closely related concept of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) on the Internet are mostly limited to information retrieval as well as simple analysis of Google Trends and media narratives. Methods. To address these shortcomings, we perform media listening and analysis for monitoring of ABx perception in the Polish segment of the Internet during November and December 2023 with Brand24 – a comprehensive Internet analysis tool – based on 2668 mentions. Results. Although the scientific community is aware of the importance of AMR, it was not reflected by the general public perception. Real life examples of public engagement related to practical solutions – such as natural and alternative medicine, and ABx acqui- sition with special focus on children among others – dominated the Internet discourse. Conclusion. Our findings demonstrate that while the interest in health topics in the general Polish population is high, it is often not matched by a sound biomedical literacy. A long-term patient engagement could be difficult, as they tend to think from an indi- vidual perspective (how to help myself/my family/my companion animal) rather than in the context of public health and one health.

Матрица когнитивных фильтров – инструмент анализа лингвокреатем в современном онлайн-дискурсе на английском языке

The article introduces the matrix of cognitive filters as a research method that makes it possible to model the process of inferring the meaning of lingua-createmes in multimodal online discourse. Multimodal linguistic systems are based on a complex interaction of multimodal components. These components combine with basic cognitive mechanisms in decoding various complex phenomena in digital Internet discourse. The research revealed a classification of key cognitive mechanisms that generate the meaning of creative multimodal elements: banner blindness, evaluative categorization, conceptualization, (de)compression of information, profiling, conceptual metaphor, conceptual metaphthonymy, and conceptual integration. The research material involved 18,000 monomodal verbal and multimodal lingua-createmes selected by continuous sampling from English-language Internet resources, as well as visual and verbal corpora. The method proved effective in modelling the general cognitive resonance of lingua-createmes and predicting cognitive resonance / dissonance (positive or negative) in communication. The practical lingua-cognitive experiment involved 335 English-speaking respondents from eleven countries. They were asked to use the matrix of cognitive filters to perform a step-by-step decoding of several creative multimodal elements. The method proved highly effective for detecting cognitive resonance or mental tension, i.e., positive or negative cognitive dissonance. The method demonstrated good prospects for obtaining additional data on reactions to lingua-creative discursive elements.

Receptive and productive activity of non-professional Internet discourse participants

Receptive and productive activity of non-professional Internet discourse participants

The metaphorical image of the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Russian political Internet discourse

The paper analyses the metaphorical image of the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Russian political Internet discourse. The analysis of a metaphorical image involves a sequential study and description of metaphorical models and their structure. The selection of empirical material was carried out by random sampling. The research material consists of features, journalistic and news articles (posted in online publications, on Internet portals and blog platforms), which covered political events related to the activities of the Turkish President R. Erdogan. Preference was given to features containing metaphorical words in the headlines. This study is based on the method of conceptual analysis of metaphors and metaphorical modeling. We used quantitative analysis to identify the most frequent metaphors. The dominant models are: monarchical, military and gaming metaphorical models (the quantitative indicator is higher than 15%). The monarchical metaphorical model contains a personalized model TURKISH PRESIDENT ERDOGAN IS THE SULTAN. The presence of this model in the Russian media is determined by several factors: stereotypes, historical events in Turkey, present political realities (Erdogan’s style of rule). Military and gaming metaphors are more universal. They are actively used in the metaphorical images of other politicians. However, there are metaphors reflecting national and cultural specifics (Ataturk, Janissaries, the game of Haussmannization, the Byzantine game). Thus, the understanding of modern political events in Turkey takes place through historical images that are reflected in the metaphors. The axiological component of the metaphorical image of the Turkish president is heterogeneous. A number of metaphors contain positive characteristics: Erdogan is an active participant in political live, he’s intelligent and pragmatic but the most images are ironic. There are a lot of metaphorical images in the Russian political discourse that characterize the Turkish president as a traitor, schemer, deceiver.

Post-Internet Music: Negotiating Queer Identity in the Digital Era

My paper investigates an electronic music genre that emerged in the 2010s, in conjunction with the rise of attention to identity politics on mainstream platforms. The genre does not have a definite name; however, attempts have been made by critics (see, for example, Waugh 2017) to categorise it under the umbrella term "post-internet music". Such a label encompasses different and often competing sub-genres, all of which nonetheless share an imbrication in internet discourse: these range from Hyperpop, to ‘Deconstructed Club, to ‘Conceptronica’ (Reynolds 2019). As such, the post-internet genre has three distinguishing features: a) many artists operating within it identify both themselves and their music as queer; b) on the sonic side, the genre often comprises complex sound design, loud mixes, a wide stereo field, organic drum samples, pitched-up vocals, and beats that elude conventional time-signatures, so as to sound "deconstructed"; c) the music often makes overt or subtle reference to internet culture, and the digital domain. I seek to place particular attention to the conjuncture between the genre's sonic properties and its ‘queerness’, arguing that the genre is both enabled by, but also enables, internet-mediated identity categories. In this sense, I question what it means to be queer in the contemporary neoliberal era, how this might historically differ from previous elaborations of queerness, and to what extent electronic music - a genre so entrenched in masculinist narratives of technology - can act as a vehicle for counter-normative expression. 

THE EVALUATIVE POTENTIAL OF ADVERBS IN THE UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE

This article is devoted to a new direction in contemporary Ukrainian linguistics, known as the grammar of evaluation. The focus is on the morphology of evaluation. This article aims to present the evaluative potential of adverbial forms in the Ukrainian language. The research subject is adverbs with evaluative semantics, characterized by systemic and functional approaches. The research material consists of literary and journalistic texts and modern Internet discourse. The study integrates two main approaches: systemic (structural) and functional (discursive). Among the methods used in this article, the descriptive method is primary, allowing for the presentation of material and formulation of conclusions; the conceptual-analytical method is applied to qualify and methodologically evaluate the theoretical foundations of the morphology of evaluation. Additionally, the interpretive-contextual and discursive methods, as well as the axiological analysis method, are utilized to identify grammatical adverbial forms that carry evaluative meaning. The article discusses the potential of adverbs in modelling the meaning of quality, evaluation itself, and intensification of features. It is particularly evident in the process of adverbial compatibility with nouns. Among adjectives, national forms of evaluative presentation, especially those with intimating semantics, which represent the mentality of Ukrainians, are highlighted. These include adverbs of manner such as тудою — туди (thither — there), сюдою — сюди (hither — here), as well as diminutive forms derived from adverbs of place like тутечки (here), осьдечки (hereabouts). A system of comparative and superlative adjective forms that verbalize the intensification of evaluative meaning is also identified, including occasional form creation that is common in the Ukrainian linguistic culture. It is demonstrated that adverbs are expressive representatives of the category of evaluation. The prospect of this scientific study lies in conducting a comparative analysis of adverbial forms in the Ukrainian language with analogous adjective forms in English to more distinctly identify the uniqueness of evaluative meaning verbalization presented by these forms.

Professionally marked components of linguistic consciousness in popular-legal internet discourse: corpus analysis

Professionally marked components of linguistic consciousness in popular-legal internet discourse: corpus analysis

Стратегии научно-популярного педагогического интернет-дискурса

The article presents the results of a discursive analysis of online articles on foreign language learning. The analysis continues the study of the English popular science pedagogical discourse, complementing the number of already identified and characterized components with discourse strategies. The aim of the paper is to identify and analyze the strategies of the popular science pedagogical internet discourse which would expand scientific ideas about the interaction peculiarities between the pedagogical community and society. As practical material, the study uses one of the most famous English online magazines dedicated to language learning. By random sampling, 70 text fragments are selected from the magazine, exhibiting the whole variety of speech means the pedagogical community uses to cover its intentions and values. To achieve the aim set in the research, the authors use linguapragmatic, linguasemiotic, discursive analysis and descriptive, analytical, interpretive, statistical methods. As a result of the analysis, the strategies of attracting attention, modality, transmitting reliability, forming professional identity, solidarity, manipulation and consolidation have been established. Each strategy reveals its own means of speech implementation, among which we can name various verbal constructions, appealing constructions, constructions emphasizing causes and consequences of educational processes, evaluating lexemes, lexemes with semantics of inducement to action, etc. The range of communication strategies and means of their verbalization is not limited to those given in the paper. In order to describe the model of the popular science pedagogical discourse existing not only in the English internet space, the need for further analysis of the research subject is obvious.

ОСОБЕННОСТИ РЕЧЕВОГО ПОВЕДЕНИЯ ВИДЕОБЛОГЕРОВ НА ПРИМЕРЕ ОБЗОРОВ ТРАНСПОРТНЫХ СРЕДСТВ

The aim of this article is to identify the features of speech behavior of video bloggers from the point of view of pragmalinguistics, where the main object of the research is the communicant’s conscious and unconscious choice of speech means. The method of traditional content analysis is used to study the conscious choice of language means by a video blogger, while the method of modified content analysis is used to study the unconscious choice. Fragments of speech of videoblogers, whose videos are devoted to retro vehicles reviews were taken as a research material. This article defines such concepts as Internet discourse, blog and video blog, and also identifies and shows on examples the common linguistic features that are found among video bloggers in the field of retro transport. These features will allow to further form speech portraits of video bloggers and determine their personal traits. These traits show what norms of culture, behavior, communication, even the psychology of people’s thinking are formed among representatives of different generations under the influence of the World Wide Web.

Mediapolitical Discourse: Concepts and Framework

Introduction. The article presents the results of the review of scientific works on discourse theory, reflecting the stages of evolution of media-political discourse in Russian linguistics. The aim of the article is to summarize, systematize and analyze approaches to the study of media-political discourse and concepts of its comprehension. Such concepts as media discourse, media text, media linguistics, and political discourse are considered.Methodology and sources. The article is prepared in the context of the cognitive-discursive paradigm, functional approach to discourse analysis, and media linguistics. In accordance with the postulates of critical discourse analysis, media-political discourse is considered as a constitutive of social practice. The main research method is an analytical scientific review of works on discourse theory.Results and discussion. In the course of the review of works on media and political discourse the main approaches to the understanding and research of media-political discourse are highlighted. The boundaries of this type of discourse as one of the areas of modern discourse theory are outlined. The concepts of scientific cognition that conditioned the formation of media-political discourse are identified. A review of works on related types of discourse at the previous stages of scientific thought is given. Internet discourse is viewed as an alternative source of political information. The article emphasizes the elements of language of enmity and the binary opposition “us/them” in the media-political discourse.Conclusion. The paper reveals a tendency to merge media discourse and political discourse within the framework of media-political discourse in modern linguistics. Among the key approaches to the study of media-political discourse the following approaches are identified: cratological, structural-communicative and media-technological ones; when analyzing the blogosphere it is advisable to refer to critical discourse analysis, structuralfunctional and comparative approaches. The most promising areas of the research include the identification of the essential characteristics of media-political discourse, and the development of genre stratification of this type of discourse.

ZOOMETAPHOR AS THE СORE OF EXPRESSIVENESS IN POLITICAL MEDIAAND INTERNET-DISCOURSE

The paper analyzes the use and translation of zoometaphor in political media and Internet discourse. Translation of zoometaphors is discussed based on an English fable about the Donkey, Tiger and Lion. The research has revealed that in British English the word donkey metaphorically objectivizes the semes of ‘pomposity’ and ‘stubbornness’; in American English, like in Russian, the semes of ‘stupidity’ and ‘stubbornness’. However, the Chinese English discourse reveals a new meaning - ‘humbly doing hard work’, which is similar to the Russian derived verb ishachit ‘to drudge’. Meanwhile, a Chinese English context can be either negative and positive when the semes ‘without tiredness’ and ‘perseverance’ are activated. The word lion creates a metaphoric image due to the semes ‘power’ and ‘majesty’. British and Indian Englishes, as well as Chinese English reveal one more meaning - ‘power guard’. The word tiger as a metaphor has traditionally activated the semes of ‘danger’, ‘aggressiveness’, and ‘force’, but nowadays in the Asian context it has the positive seme ‘rapid development’ and the negative ‘high-ranking corruption’. The article compares the participation of these words in making phraseological units used in the political discourse and points to the challenges they present in translating to Russian. The paper concludes that it is a cultural underpinning that causes most problems in translating pluricentric English.

Public emotion and response immediately following the death of George Floyd: A sentiment analysis of social media comments

Social media use has become a critical form of social interaction connecting people of all ages, and across geographic regions, political, and philosophical persuasions. The results of these interactions are massive amounts of data which, through exploratory methods like sentiment analysis, can provide insight into overall public emotion and response to public and key sociopolitical events. The present study explores the sentiment surrounding the Black Lives Matter Facebook page by analyzing the comments under the video of the killing of George Floyd, posted on May 25, 2020. This examination of sentiment uses assumptions of selective exposure theory. We employed a three-pronged sentiment analysis approach and topic modeling and found an overall negative polarity in public sentiment among 7,137 Facebook comments on the video of George Floyd's death. The findings reveal a divisive response to the video which captured the death of George Floyd, which more generally suggests negative emotion in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. A sentiment test also returned a noticeably high happiness score, which might imply the widely unavoidable effects of trolls in internet discourse in the current racial context.

Representation of a Scientific Supervisor in Internet-Memes

Introduction. The purpose article is to consider the representation of the image of a scientific supervisor based on Internet memes containing a multimodal metaphor. The relevance of the topic is due to the growing interest of the interdisciplinary scientific community in the study of the Internet meme as a social, linguistic, psychological phenomenon of interpersonal communication. The scientific novelty of the work is determined by the fact that until now there have been no attempts to study the representation of the academic community from the perspective of the theory of conceptual metaphor using the material of Internet memes. Methodology and sources. The methodological basis of the study was the works of linguists and cognitive scientists J. Lakoff, M. Johnson, R. Dawkins, V. Aldrich, Ch. Forsville, B. Dancygier and L. Vandelanotte. The concept of visual metaphor and multimodality is defined, the role of multimodal metaphor in Internet discourse is described, the features of the functioning of multimodal metaphor are revealed. The material for the study was Internet memes representing various aspects of interaction in the academic environment. To systematize the units, a continuous sampling method was used, along with pragmalinguistic, contextual and semantic analysis. Results and discussion. The Internet memes containing a multimodal metaphor that represents the image of a scientific supervisor and illustrates the relationship between graduate students and their mentors were found and analyzed in the paper. To select the material, a search containing the keywords “scientific supervisor”, “Phd student”, “advisor” was performed. The sources of the memes were the podcasts “The Struggling Scientists”, “The Meming Phd”, “High impact PhD memes”. By selecting keywords, 85 Internet memes were identified in which metaphorical transfers of the above images were found. Based on the data obtained, 4 metaphorical models that most clearly illustrate the relationships between the supervisor and the student were proposed. Conclusion. The study showed that multimodal metaphor is an integral part of modern Internet communication and is an effective way of influencing the addressee. Internet memes representing the image of a scientific supervisor were analyzed and systematized; 4 metaphorical mappings (“Scientific supervisor is a loving/caring parent”, “Scientific supervisor is a Jedi”, “Scientific supervisor is a monster/maniac”, “Scientific supervisor is a bad boss”) are highlighted and described. It was revealed that the considered Internet memes are characterized by the replacement of the verbal component with a non-verbal (graphic) one in the target domain or in the source domain. The studied metaphorical models reflect the most pressing problems of the academic community. The expressiveness of the metaphor used is achieved through the use of movie characters in the source domain or target domain. The metaphorical potential of Internet memes as semantic-semiotic units of Internet discourse is undoubtedly a promising area for further study.

The Pragmatic Aspect of Modality in the English Mass-Media Discourse

The article is devoted to the pragmatic aspect of modality representation in the English mass-media discourse. The categorial status of modality, typology of modal meanings and their interaction have been examined from the viewpoint of historical perspective. The research is aimed at revealing the pragmatic characteristics of subjective-interpersonal (author-recipient) modality, which reflects the author's intentions to describe the world (epistemic modality), change the world (deontic modality), evaluate the world (axiological modality). The four factors of internet communication - the addresser, the addressee, the text, the objective reality - are studied within the framework of communicative-pragmatic approach to modality. The discourse-analysis and pragma-stylistic analysis have been applied to depict language means representing modality in the English mass-media Internet discourse, in the article on political issues. It has been revealed that the author of the article may act differently in accordance with the roles he assumes - of an informer, of an expert-analyst, of a consultant-adviser; his task is to attract the readers and involve them in discussion in the comments section. The expression of authorship is principal here and the author's modality is always explicit. The comments following the text of an article are distinguished by a variety of the authors' communicative strategies and modal meanings.

Сайт образовательной организации как инструмент создания образа виртуального автора (на материале заголовков новостного контента официального сайта вуза)

Internet sites are tools of communication that require a comprehensive study of all aspects, e.g., that of the virtual author who carries out communicative intentions through Internet discourse. A virtual author is a collective figure represented in the discourse of a company website. The authors modelled a virtual author as a collective representative of an educational institution that promotes a positive image of this institution while informing about its agenda and activities. The analysis involved 50 news headlines published on the official website of the Kuzbass Institute of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in 2022-2023. The methods of content and intent analyses made it possible to identify the units of the propositional frame, such as a) participants of events, i.e., subjects; b) predicates that characterize the participants and indicate the type of the event; c) chronotope. The virtual author of the news content appeared to be the Institute as a collective person that expresses their communicative intentions by informing the audience, thus shaping a positive image. As a subject, the virtual author reported news about the object, i.e., the Institution, and implemented the communicative intentions, i.e., to inform and promote a positive image. Each subject was part of the university staff: We are Together; We are a Team; We Participate in Important Events; We have Socially Significant Partners; We are the Best; We Support the City, the Region, and the Country, etc. The communicative intention to create an image of a successful university determined the choice of lexical units used in the propositional frame to explicate the objective mode and implicate the subjective one.

Функционирование реактивных прагматических моделей в непрофессиональном интернет-дискурсе

The response pragmatics in political Internet discourse is one of the most interesting and understudied aspects of modern virtual communication. This research featured a model of non-professional Internet discourse in the genre of political Internet commentary and its pragmatics. The resulting models correlated with the general model, which was based on the communicative intentions of the authors of political Internet comments. The empirical material involved feedback lines from readers of the RIA Novosti news agency. Determining the textual entity by its sender’s macrointension, the authors established the genre of Internet commentary as reactive. The pragmatic options for response patterns were based on the addressee’s communicative role and the reactive macrointension implemented in non-professional Internet discourse. The paper describes two reactive models of non-professional discourse: 1) reaction to a political event; 2) reaction to a pragmatic context. The method of linguistic and pragmatic discourse analysis revealed that the reactive models contained the following types of reaction: positive, negative, and twofold. However, the Internet comments also included an interpretative component. The reactive intention of the subjects of non-professional Internet discourse was combined with their intention to introduce a fragment of personal experience.

Лайфхаки глокализации, или Глокализация «лайфхака»

The article discusses the process of glocalization of the English-language concept “lifehack” in the Russian language on the basis of corpus data. Both original and borrowed concepts are considered in the Internet discourse, which is currently the most accessible source for studying new concepts and at the same time, the first to incorporate them into its language. The purpose of the article is to identify cognitive features of the “lifehack” concept in the English language and its Russian counterpart, as well as the changes that have occurred as a result of its glocalization. Based on collocation analysis and discursive analysis of language units which represent the concept, cognitive features are defined and combined into thematic groups. The totality of these features makes up the field structure of the concepts. The study revealed that the core features of the “lifehack” concept were fully integrated into the Russian language version of the concept. These include thematic groups such as “use”, “help”, and “ease/simplicity”. In both the Russian and English versions, the concept received a large number of positive characterizations (“good”, “great”, “incredible”, etc.). Cognitive features “shallowness” and “negative evaluation” can be found in the periphery of the concept. Additionally, features that were not present in the original concept have been added to the concept in the Russian language. The grammatical structures in which the words representing the concept “lifehack” are used suggest that the adaptation process is ongoing. In the process of glocalization, the “lifehack” concept in the Russian language retained all the core features of the original concept, while also acquiring an additional feature “alternative approach”. The grammatical characteristics of the language units representing the concept in the Russian language indicate that it is still undergoing adaptation and, possibly, will further develop in a bit different direction from the original concept.

Linguocultural concepts through the prism of precedent phenomena of Internet discourse mini-texts (methodological reflections)

The article examines the new anthropopractice of methodological linguoconceptology which is methodologically oriented towards the theory of precedence and research in the field of creative linguistics. The study is relevant as the linguocreative speech activity component of the digital generation is increasingly connected with the Internet space. Therefore, there is a need for methodological exploration of new communication areas. The article aims to consider the methodological potential of mastering linguocultural concepts through the prism of precedent phenomena of Internet discourse mini-texts (pie rhymes and powder rhymes1) in the context of the linguoconceptocentric approach. The author correlates the features of such texts with some modern network discourse characteristics. They include ostentation expansion, communication juvenilization, polycoded and visualized presentation of information, the leveling of stylistic differences between oral and written speech, and rejoinder-based communication. Using concrete examples based on precedent units, the paper demonstrates the work of language game techniques within the framework of creative linguistics. The main research method is analysis of the associative cultural context of precedent phenomena. The research reflects on the significance and relevance of new didactic materials as a metamodernism culture product in the development of Internet generation representatives’ creative linguistic personality within the boundaries of a single cultural code. The article concludes that it is pedagogically appropriate to use mini-texts as thought-provoking materials popular with the digital generation. On the one hand, such rhymes can foreground the precedent meanings of the Russian culture concepts which are the basis for forming one’s own gestalt in the harmonizing dialogue conditions. On the other hand, mini-texts facilitate linguocreative ability development in high school or university students taking in the role of a player-creator or player-interpreter.

Новый взгляд на проблему заимствований: языковая фрустрация vs маркетинговые стратегии

The article reveals linguocognitive mechanisms as well as social reasons for active functioning of new borrowings in the modern public discourse and in commercial enterprises naming. The material for the analysis is a sample of the most frequent lexis in the micro synchrony that are not yet part of the host language lexicon, and comprises over one hundred and fifty lexical units, selected from the national corpus of the Russian language, public internet discourse, the author's collection of brand names (and names of businesses), radio and television programs. As a result of a comprehensive analysis, two main isomorphic types of borrowing functioning are identified. They are supposed to be motivated by multi-level linguistic, social, and pragmatic factors. Hence, the evidence of linguomental transformations of meaning is linked to the condition of linguistic frustration. This justifies considering it as a state of linguistic personality (at both the first and second levels, according to Yu.N. Karaulov), wherein the constraints of linguistic norms are lifted, and foreign-language word usage is motivated in specific speech act. A tendency of duplicate (native and foreign) naming in explicitly nominative and implicitly subjective-pragmatic functions has been established. It is suggested that the synergy of these functions conveys the speaker's subjective intentions and can be regarded as a marketing strategy of self-positioning in the act of foreign-language use in the nomination process, or as a commercial move, emphasizing the value of the product / service (i.e., commercialization of the nominative unit). Thus, the discourse becomes either status-oriented or conative. The linguistic phenomena under consideration introduce changes into the national concept sphere, as they contain features of a different language world view.

КАРЛ III И КОРОНАЦИЯ: МЕТАФОРИЧЕСКИЙ ОБРАЗ НА ПРИМЕРЕ КАРИКАТУР НОВОСТНЫХ ИЗДАНИЙ

This article considers the unique role of representing the coronation of Charles III within the news aspect of Internet discourse, focusing on the non-verbal aspects of the text. Caricature studies, appearing in both printed and electronic periodicals, are conducted through cognitive-discursive analysis of metaphor. Three distinct periods of cartoon releases are examined: following the death of Elizabeth II, on the eve of the coronation, and during the initial weeks after the coronation. Among the 126 analyzed images, those prevailed that conveyed pragmatic meanings of immaturity, unpreparedness, and inconsistency, primarily through attributive manifestations of royal power such as shoes, headgear (crown, hat), and throne. The authors highlight the predominant ironic and somewhat condescending vector of visual metaphors, attributing this to the public attitude developed over an extended period preceding the accession to the throne