Latin graphemes Z and V in Internet genres

The article compares the use of graphemes Z and V in written Russian Internet mass media of various genres: traditional (articles of Internet news portals and sites of regional governments), communicative (comments, messages, posts on social networks), marketing (names of brands, advertisements, event announcements, promotional posts) of two time periods, the watershed for which was the political event of February 24, 2022, which became known in the language under the name “military special operation in Ukraine”. We observe the dynamics of change in the semantics of Latin graphemes Z and V: the intensification of these letters continues the tradition of interaction between Cyrillic and Latin as a mechanism for creating occasionalisms and a means of creating expression, on the other hand, reflects such a linguistic phenomenon as the expansion of the semantics of a letter, its acquisition of ideological significance and turning to it as a tool in information war. In some cases, expressive graphemics becomes an effective means of implementing the genre of patriotic appeal, in others, it is used as a tool for expressing civic position, attitude to today’s political events. In the course of the work, general scientific methods of observation, description and comparison, as well as the method of contextual analysis were used. 

Z, V, mass media, letter, grapheme, Latin, Cyrillic, Z, V, special military operation, information war, language game