Threat in social networks: features of semantics and pragmatics

The paper considers the phenomenon of threat as a speech act and a discursive strategy in social networks. Semantic explication of the threat presupposes two main types: threats-punishments and threats-warnings. Speakers use each type of threats in different communicative situations. The threat-punishment is related to the past, and the threat-warning is related to the future. Linguists - specialists in forensic linguistics - should distinguish between threats-punishments and threats-warnings, since different types of crimes are associated with different types of threats. Identification of threats in social networks and their linguistic analysis are a difficult task, complicated by the addressee factor. The fact is that in social networks, one and the same speech act - including the speech act of threat - can refer to different recipients. Moreover, the illocutionarysemantics of a speech act may vary depending on who it is addressed to. In addition, speech acts of threats in the discourse of social networks often occur along with other speech acts similar to the semantics of the threat. Another problem is the use of multimodal texts in Internet communication that combine visual and verbal information proper. The article suggests elements of a categorical apparatus, the use of which allows to identify and describe threats in situations of multiple addressees of a speech act, in the contexts of speech acts similar in illocutionary semantics to threats, as well as in cases of discursive strategies for threat implementation.