The facets of the communicant virtual I in the space of the internet discourse

The article defines the main tendencies of the Internet discourse research, the author considers the genre originality of this type of discourse, defines its new property such as the self-reference which is considered as the interrelationshipof the discourse with the central referent who is the internet-user himself.The author also highlights the various facets of virtual I of the Internet user (I unauthorized, I authorized, I real, I masked, I professional, I set by the system).