An Internet comment as a speech genre: Axiological aspect

The article presents the analysis of evaluation in the speech genre “Internet comment” and focuses on the ways and means of its expression. The research is based on the comments on Instagram (organization banned on the territory of the Russian Federation) posts about sports, namely figure skating. The authors of the article define two relevant factors determining axiological characteristics of the Internet comment: anonymity of Internet communication and the desire of many users to stand out from other commentators. The anonymity factor leads to a more frequent use of negative evaluation and more explicit ways of its expression: online communication gives users more freedom in expressing their opinions. Since for many people expressing their opinion is equivalent to expressing disagreement with an opposite point of view, negative evaluation in the analyzed Internet comments significantly prevails over positive evaluation. Furthermore, anonymous and remote communication in cyberspace provides a suitable environment for criticizing other people’s ideas neglecting etiquette rules obligatory for face-to-face communication. The general tendency towards rather negative attitudes in the analyzed Internet comments results in more various means of expressing negative evaluation compared with the ones of expressing positive evaluation because users criticizing an Internet post may try to find more original ways of articulating their views. Thus, the research revealed that positive evaluation is mostly expressed with the help of evaluative vocabulary whereas negative evaluation in the analyzed comments can be also expressed by means of specific vocabulary as well as rhetorical questions, rhetorical exclamations, metaphors, neologisms. Indirect means of expressing evaluation can draw more attention to a comment, foster linguistic persuasion which finally helps the author of an Internet comment stand out from the crowd.

Internet comment, Internet communication, direct evaluation, indirect evaluation, negative evaluation, speech genre, axiological linguistics