Peculiar features of the English internet discourse: pragmatic and sociolinguistic aspects

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Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University

Peculiar features of the English internet discourse: pragmatic and sociolinguistic aspects

Boychuk Nataliia,

Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor, Department of English Language Practice

Drohobych

Abstract

Summary. The article deals with one of the modern trends in discourse studies - the Internet discourse. The article aims to analyze the Internet discourse and systematize sociolinguistic and pragmatic factors that determine the peculiarities of the Internet language. The object of the research is the Internet discourse and the subject of the article is sociolinguistic peculiarities of the Internet discourse.

We have analyzed different interpretations of the Internet discourse by modern linguists, stating the difference between the concepts «virtual discourse», «computer discourse», «electronic discourse», «network discourse» and «Internet discourse». The ambiguous status of the Internet language has been also touched upon in our research. The language of the Internet can be attributed to a new kind of language, which plays an important role in the life of society alongside such other large language subsystems. Dealing with peculiar features in the English Internet discourse, we have outlined its goals and strategies according to a sociolinguistic approach; we can speak of the Internet discourse as a linguistic category that combines features of personally - oriented discourse.

Conclusions Modern Internet discourse is a complex system of different functional styles and forms of speech. The phenomenon of Internet communication develops so actively that it begins to affect the offline communication genre system. The developed genre system is an indicator of the dynamic paradigm formation of Internet discourse.

The linguistic genres that exist in reality are undergoing various modifications in the Internet discourse, making the Internet language a true third means of communication. Internet language interpretation; the impact of the Internet language on literary English; linguistic and extra-linguistic elements of the Internet language in the communicative process can become the subjects of further investigation.

Keywords: Internet discourse; Internet communication; hypertext; computer - mediated communication; Internet language.

Анотація

Дрогобицький державний педагогічний університет імені Івана Франка

Особливості англомовного інтернет-дискурсу: прагматичний та соціолінгвістичний аспекти

Бойчук Наталія,

кандидат педагогічних наук, доцент кафедри практики англійської мови

Харківців Ірина,

кандидат педагогічних наук, доцент кафедри практики англійської мови

м. Дрогобич

У статті розглянуто один із об'єктів сучасної дискурсології - інтернет-дискурс. Мета статті - аналіз інтернет-дискурсу та систематизація соціолінгвістичних та прагматичних факторів, що визначають особливості його мови. Об'єкт дослідження - англомовний інтернет-дискурс, а предмет - соціолінгвістичні особливості інтернет-дискурсу. У статті проаналізовано різні підходи до трактування інтернет-дискурсу сучасними лінгвістами, розмежовано поняття «віртуальний дискурс», «комп'ютерний дискурс», «електронний дискурс», «мережевий дискурс» та «інтернет-дискурс». Ідеться також про системний підхід до вивчення англомовного інтернет - дискурсу, де мова трактується як нова форма комунікації, що відіграє важливу роль у житті суспільства поряд з іншими великими системами. Відповідно до особливостей функціонування англомовного інтернет-дискурсу окреслено його цілі та стратегії з урахуванням соціолінгвістичних чинників та прагматичного підходу. Інтернет-дискурс проаналізовано як феномен, що містить в собі специфічні ознаки особистісно-орієнтованого дискурсу. Результати дослідження спонукають до таких висновків: сучасний інтернет-дискурс є складним конгломератом різних функціональних стилів та форм мовлення. Активний розвиток інтернет-комунікації впливає на жанрове розмаїття мови. Розроблена жанрова система інтернет-дискурсу є показником формування його динамічної парадигми. Мовні жанри інтернет-дискурсу зазнають курсу зазнають різноманітних модифікацій, перетворюючи його в окремий спосіб комунікації. Інтерпретація мови інтернету, її вплив на літературну англійську мову, лінгвістичні та екстралінгвістичні чинники мови інтернету в комунікативному процесі можуть стати предметом подальших досліджень.

Ключові слова: інтернет-дискурс; інтернет-комунікація; гіпертекст; комп'ютерно-опосередкована комунікація; мова інтернету.

Main part

Research analysis and problem statement. The Internet is undoubtedly one of the main information sources today. The analysis of contemporary research proves that the following approaches are most often offered to the study of Internet communication: cognitive, semiotic, polyparadigmatic, psycholinguistic. Linguocultural and gender features of the Internet discourse have become the subjects of the research by O. Goroshko, O. Lutovynova, L. Kompantseva, and others. Genre formats of the Internet discourse are analyzed in the works of K. Kalinina, L. Kompantseva, S. Danylyuk, O. Galichkin, I. Askehave, A. Nielsen, K. Crowston, M. Williams. Much attention is paid to understanding such basic concepts of the Internet communication as hypertext (D. Crystal, M. Boardman), virtual communication space (S. Herring), a linguistic personality of the virtual communicator (D. Crystal), etc. The polyparadigmatic approach to the Internet discourse is offered in works on general and comparative linguistics by N. Arutiunova, M. Kochergan, O. Taranenko, K. Buhler, J. Lyons, S. Ulmann, W. Weinreih, and others. In our opinion, the importance of the anthropological paradigm of linguistic knowledge should not be underestimated, as the human-centered contemporary research resulted in not only the cognitive linguistics development but also linguoculture, linguoconceptology, pragmalinguistics, the theory of communicative acts, discourse study, media linguistics, political linguistics, etc. A functional approach has been applied to the study of language paradigms over recent decades. Scientific research is carried out in the context of studying the paradigms of the language subsystems and peculiarities of their functioning.

The lack of specific research methods, rare usage of specific methods and techniques forces scientists to adapt traditional linguistic methods to the goals of their work. But such adaptations sometimes do not completely take into account all characteristics of the Internet language. That is why it is necessary to carry out further investigation and analysis of all the peculiar features of the Internet discourse. Hence, the article aims to analyze the Internet discourse and systematize socio - linguistic and pragmatic factors that determine the peculiarities of the Internet language. The object of the research is the Internet discourse and the subject of the article is sociolinguistic peculiarities of the Internet discourse.

Presentation of the main material. Any discourse develops within the context of a particular situation, and the analysis of discourse gives an understanding of the people's interaction, aimed at achieving certain goals, while interlocutors interpret each other's speech and actions. The discursive analysis takes into account extralinguistic factors and this broadens the limits of interpretation. Modern researchers highlight some difficulties in the process of the Internet discourse linguistic study. With the development of new technologies, a new interpersonal communicative environment has appeared. It defines the modern type of discourse - Internet discourse. One of them is the problem of Internet language terminology. Some scholars use the term «Internet discourse» while the others prefer the concept of «Internet communication» as a special environment, the place of a language implementation that has never existed before but has allowed to thoroughly study the communicative potential of the language, its tendencies of functioning in a specific linguocultural environment (Kompantseva, 2007, p. 10). Foreign researchers use the term «computer - mediated communication» or «computer-mediated discourse» (Herring, 2010, p. 47).

In our opinion, it is necessary to clarify the content and differentiate concepts such as «virtual discourse», «computer discourse», «electronic discourse», «network discourse» and «Internet discourse». The terms «computer discourse» and «electronic discourse» are absolute synonyms because they imply communication with the help of a computer. «Internet discourse» is understood as communication via the Global Network and is a kind of network discourse. Thus, these types of discourse are in hyper-hyponymic relations, where the computer (electronic) discourse acts as a hyperonym and the communication environment is determined by the communication channel (Kalinina, 2013, p. 63). There is no such uniqueness between computer and virtual discourse. Virtual discourse is understood more narrowly than computer discourse since the latter is not only communication with a computer but also communication with a computer. Also, computer discourse is characterized by direct contact between communicators, which is not the case with virtual communication, where the communication partner largely deludes our consciousness. On the other hand, virtual discourse is interpreted more broadly than computer discourse, since virtual reality communication is created not only by computer but also by other means of communication (Lutovinova, 2009, p. 9). Some researchers use the concept of «hypertext» as a model for organizing an electronic text, characterized by a specific structure and complex system of programmatically supported intertext and intertext transitions, suggesting the possibility of interactive activities that affect the sequence of composite units reproduction. Researcher I. Ilina believes that the reason for hypertext studies in the humanities belongs to the postmodernist direction of philosophical thought (Ilina, 2009). In modern linguistics, Internet discourse is interpreted in different ways. It is understood as 1) a cognitive-communicative space of the Global Network, in which the communicative interaction is performed using electronic data transmission channel and the hypertext mechanism and nonverbal means. It is characterized by the substitution of a real image by an imaginary one; 2) Internet-based text, in which a pervasive communicative setting implicitly reflects a subjectively personal attitude, based on psychological, linguistic, and technological factors; 3) the process of creating texts, combining pragmalinguistic, socio-cultural, psychological factors and purposeful social action which includes people interaction and mechanisms of their consciousness (cognitive processes); 4) complex text system, conditioned by extra-linguistic, socio-cultural factors and the specific situation of entering the communicative process using a computer or other electronic devices by both users with each other and users with a discursive Internet space (Hudz, 2015, p. 73).

Various terms are used to define electronic language: е-language, net lingo, e-talk, geekspeak, netspeak, weblish and its communicative space is called computer - mediated CMC (Computer-Mediated Communication) in the English language scientific paradigm (Goroshko, 2006, p. 220). The status of the Internet language is also ambiguous as it is sometimes interpreted as a form of written language as it exists as «text displayed on a computer monitor screen» and sometimes as an oral speech because sentences are made up of short messages. These messages are simple and often semantically unrelated, with low sequences of communicative interactions; dialogues are brief and short (Boardman, 2004, p. 73). Also, users tend to view their text-sharing as «conversations», using predominantly verbs «to speak» and «to hear» rather than Past Participles «written» or «read» to describe their activities. This linguistic review indicates that users experience computer-mediated communication as a conversation, even though it occurs in writing (Crystal, 2001, p. 239). However, there is also a point of view that the Internet is a combination of oral speech and written language. Moreover, there is a problem with the definition of the electronic text: whether they are written or spoken. A Website is a specific kind of electronic text that technologically and culturally is treated as a definite aspect of recorded communication, simultaneously dealing with conversational interaction and other forms of electronic text (Boardman, 2004, p. 84). In this case, we should take into account the features of different genres of the Internet that combine the features of both oral (a chat, Skype) and written communication (website, a blog, an email, electronic dictionaries, and encyclopedias).

There are definite genres of Internet communication, such as online communities, commentary, online games, etc., that are difficult to attribute to one type of communication. Therefore, some linguistics regard the language of the Internet a specific intermediate form of speech: «The language of the Internet can be attributed to a new kind of language, which occupies a significant place in the life of society together with such large subsystems as, for example, the language of fiction, spoken language, etc.» (Askehave & Nielsen, 2005). It is worth mentioning that the dynamic nature and diversity of linguistic norms of the Internet make it difficult to determine the status of a language. Internet discourse strategies are determined by their goals and are implemented in their genres. The main goals of the Internet discourse are: 1) implementation of prompt resolution of topical issues; 2) search for necessary information; 3) the variety of leisure. Based on this, within the framework of the Internet discourse, we distinguish communication and socialization strategies. If we move on to the theory of digital genres, a review of both foreign and native literary sources suggests that these studies are currently developing in three problem areas depending on the function of the genre, its evolution and the relationship between the genre and the philosophical and cultural paradigm (Kompantseva, 2007, p. 11). According to the sociolinguistic approach, we can speak of Internet discourse as a linguistic category that combines features of personally - and status - oriented discourse, regardless of whether it is communication in ICQ, webchats, blogs or posts and thematic forums and network conferences. Being an artificially created communication medium, Internet discourse is essentially conditional and has no temporal and spatial boundaries. With these features the Internet makes it possible to communicate with two or more interlocutors at a single point in time from anywhere in the world, causing a blurring of national, ethnic, economic, political and cultural boundaries. The virtual space of the Internet is thus reorganized and appears in the form of online entities such as chats, forums, blogs, etc.

Among other peculiar features of English Internet communication we can also point out is the anonymity of the interlocutor. Although it is sometimes possible to obtain certain questionnaires and even a photo of an interlocutor, they are not sufficient for adequate personal perception. Besides, it is very common to present false information that results in the use of profanity, images, etc., since the risk of exposure and condemnation is minimized. The lack of non-verbal information in the process of Internet communication influences the processes of interpersonal perception (Dedova, 2006). The user can voluntarily initiate communication and optionally terminate the communication at any time. Another one is a lack of emotional component of communication, accompanied by a persistent desire for emotional filling of the text using special icons for marking emotions or describing emotions in words. Internet users are almost completely devoid of extra-linguistic aids, including voice, gestures, facial expressions. This emotional shortage is compensated by the introduction of substitute emotional reactions - «emoticons» into the virtual discourse (Kompantseva, 2005, p. 19). In addition to emoticons, the phrase or word in capital letters, sometimes interpreted as raising your voice, is used to get the attention of the person you are talking to. The lack of transmission of color, sound, etc. on the Internet is replaced by symbolic analogs - exclamation marks, means of other language genres. There may also be some difficulty in describing the research material, as the electronic text stored on the network servers may be modified to update the information in any way, and then the link to this text becomes inactive (Crystal, 2001, p. 176).

Let us consider the possible reasons for accessing the Internet as a communication tool. The first possible cause for that can be the insufficient communication intensity with real interlocutors. In such cases, users quickly lose interest in Internet communication, if there are opportunities to meet the corresponding needs in real life. Another reason is the ability to use personal traits, playing roles, experiencing emotions for one reason or another absent in real life. The features of Internet communication (anonymity, loose standards, and special interpersonal perception) enable that. The desire to experience certain emotions is probably due to the desire for emotional filling of the text. We can state that a new form of linguistic interaction has developed at present, i.e. a written colloquial speech (Herring, 2010). A new world and a new lifestyle require either new language means of communication or the transformation of the old ones. We can conclude the mutual interpenetration and influence of the Internet and common vocabulary of the English language. Internet communication has significantly altered the fate of the language, resulting from the basic aspiration of a person to creative self-expression. The language of the Internet, combining the features of oral and written language, differs from them a bit. D. Crystal described the essence of this type of communication with the original formula: «oral language + written language + computer-mediated features» (Crystal, 2001, p. 39). Electronic texts reveal the dynamic, constant variability of the linguistic picture of the world, the transaction of national pictures of the world. They are characterized by a correlative structure and an abundance of heterogeneous connections. The linguistic genres that exist in reality are undergoing various modifications in the Internet discourse, making the Internet language a true third means of communication.

Conclusions and prospects for further research. Thus, today the Internet discourse remains one of the most promising, relevant and interesting subjects of study and the number of research works on this topic is constantly growing both in Ukraine and abroad. Modern Internet discourse is a complex system of different functional styles and forms of speech. The language of the Internet is treated as a new kind of language, which plays an important role in the life of society alongside such large subsystems as for example the language of fiction, spoken language, etc. The developed genre system is another indicator of the dynamic paradigm formation of Internet communication. Moreover, not only the whole genre system, which has developed in the world culture, influences the formation of network genres, but on the contrary, the phenomenon of Internet communication develops so actively that it begins to affect the genre system of offline communication.

The paradigm of Internet communication has been formed under the influence of different language practices, the dominant influence of the individual and his communicative and semantic intentions. In our opinion, possible spheres of research of Internet discourse are the Internet language interpretation, the impact of the Internet language on literary English, the linguistic analysis of the Internet vocabulary; the role of linguistic and extra-linguistic elements of the Internet language in the communicative process, etc.

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