Semantics of enmity: aggressive subject naming in modern internet communication

The article presents research results, and highlights the peculiarities of hostile-minded subject naming in Internet communication in the 21st century. The composition of the paradigmatic subset under consideration is determined, its internal structure, word-formation features, semantics, syntagmatics and functioning of constituents are characterized. The research is carried out through purposeful sampling, semantic, definitional, contextual analysis, some aspects of motivational, word-formation and syntactic analysis, quantitative method. It is shown, that the majority of the new names are borrowed from the English language and derived from Anglicisms. Mental and linguistic representation of a hostile subject reflects such parameters as: the verbal / nonverbal nature of the subject’s actions; animate / inanimate object of hostility; the membership of the subject and object of hostility of a certain group; obligatory / optional allies of the subject; the degree of the subjects emotional involvement; the purpose of the actions / needs of the subject. The studied designations differ in the frequency of use in the described network communicative practices and are used to characterize the corresponding phenomenon or class of subjects, a particular member of the Internet community; for the speakers self-presentation; as an evaluative appeal. There is a tendency to romanticize certain classes of the named aggressive subjects. The emergence of new designations of a hostile subject and their functioning are determined by the turn towards intensification, intellectualization, integration and internationalization.