Functional Aspect Of Speech Etiquette In Runet

Abstract

This article is devoted to the functioning of the speech etiquette formulas in the genre of "social network" in the Internet dialogue between the users of the Russian segment of the Internet. Identification and description of the functional features of speech etiquette in various forms of Internet communication, determining the basic trends in the functioning of speech etiquette, were carried out by means of continuous sampling, linguistic observation, comparison and description of speech material, linguistic interpretation, and quantitative analysis. The formulas of speech etiquette, used in the Internet communications of network publications, first of all carry a phatic function, so emotional-modal function is realized to a certain extent. Social regulating function is expressed very weakly or is not expressed at all. The analysis of the functioning of the speech etiquette formulas in the Internet space contributes to an in-depth understanding of the social and linguistic nature of speech etiquette. The results of investigating the speech etiquette formulas on the electronic pages of the online publications allow us to conclude that in this area of Internet communication most users do not use the formula of politeness. The results of quantitative analysis of the use of polite formulas in electronic network publications show a tendency to reduce the level of the general culture of the users of capital web-sites (Echo of Moscow, fontanka.ru) as opposed to local provincial web-sites (orsk.ru).

Keywords: Internet communicationInternet dialoguesocial networkonline publicationsspeech etiquette formulasspeech etiquette functions

Introduction

The creation and constant technological improvement of the Internet make it possible to talk about the onset of a revolutionary stage of communication, which might open up unlimited possibilities for the process of communication.

For a contemporary person, online interpersonal communication becomes the most important type of interaction; therefore this phenomenon attracts attention of many scientists, who investigate it in various aspects.

Interpersonal communication involves the use of certain tools that express the polite tone of verbal interaction. Thus, the study of the functioning of speech etiquette in the new communicative environment becomes an important aspect of studying the peculiarities of the speech behaviour of the Internet users.

The following article is devoted to the issues of the functioning of speech etiquette formulas in the genres of blog and social networking in the Internet dialogue between the citizens using the Russian segment of the Internet and the representatives of authority.

The most frequent situations of speech etiquette in the Internet dialogues between the representatives of authority and people are the situations of appeal and request, while the least frequent are apology and invitation. Polite tone of communication on administrational websites can be explained by the fact that all the messages from the users are published under their real names.

Some insignificant amount of speech formulas, instances of rudeness, vulgar tone of communication and cases of anti-etiquette in online publications are connected with anonymity of communicants. The formulas of appeal, compliment and approval are regularly used in the messages of the participants of online conversations with speech etiquette formulas, while formulas of request, greeting and farewell are used very rarely.

The formulas of speech etiquette can perform phatic, social-regulating and emotive-modal functions in the dialogues on administrational websites. In the online communication on web resources social-regulative function is performed quite scarcely or not performed at all.

Analyzing the functioning of etiquette speech formulas in the Internet space advantages for a deeper understanding of social-linguistic nature of speech etiquette.

Problem Statement

Internet linguistics, as a relatively new area of scientific analysis and description of communicative processes, was developed in the works of Goroshko and Polyakova (2014), Mukhtarova (2015), Chandler (2015), Crystal (2003, 2011), Herring (2014, 2015) and others.

The investigations of such forms of electronic text as the Internet dialogue, which stands out as a type of ordinary dialogue, occupy a special place in modern linguistic studies of virtual interpersonal communication.

The scientific research of various aspects of the speech etiquette functioning is one of the main tasks of linguistics, since the use of linguistic means of expressing politeness is not only a factor in speech communication, but also an important sign of the culture of society and an element of the national cultural code.

Research Questions

Numerous studies of speech etiquette conducted in Russia and abroad, rarely affect the issues of its presence and performance in the Internet space.

Therefore the relevance of the given research is determined by the ever-increasing importance of Internet communication in various areas of speech communication. The questions of the functioning, normalization and variation of speech etiquette in the Internet space appear to be relevant, since they present particularly important problems of the speech behaviour of the new format.

The study of the features of the functioning of the politeness formulas in the Internet space may contribute to a more detailed understanding of the social and linguistic nature of speech etiquette.

Studying the specifics of the functioning of speech etiquette in social networks requires to determine both the most common or frequent formulas of speech etiquette, and the least commonly used formulas, so it could be possible to identify the degree of politeness in the Internet dialogue.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the presented research is to study the features and patterns of the use of the formulas of speech etiquette in the process of Internet communication on the pages of Russian online publications. In order to achieve this purpose it is necessary to implement the following tasks:

  • to select an experimental case of research and develop an algorithm for the study;

  • to determine the units of analysis;

  • to sample the formulas of speech etiquette, and to distribute the identified formulas of speech etiquette into the thematic groups;

  • to carry out a quantitative analysis of the speech etiquette formulas used in the Russian online publications and to establish the functions, implemented by the speech etiquette formulas on the social networking sites.

Research Methods

In order to identify specific features of the functioning of speech etiquette in the Internet communication, the following methods were used:

  • continuous sampling;

  • linguistic observation;

  • description of speech material;

  • mathematical data processing;

  • linguistic interpretation.

To carry out our research in the most effective way, we have developed an algorithm, following which made it possible to choose the sources of factual material and to define the subjects of the Internet dialogue.

It also helped to pick out the speech etiquette formulas from the factual material for the further mathematical elaboration and linguistic interpretation of the discovered data.

Findings

According to the Legislation, applied to the electronic media, there is an acclaimed concept of “online publication”. Separate issues or updates are considered to be the production of the networking websites (Federal Law of 27.12.1991 N 2124-1, 2018).

All sorts of publications on the social networking websites or newsfeeds are becoming the most important sources of information that shape the language norms of modern society, having a real influence on the speech behaviour of large groups of people, and therefore it influences the culture of society itself.

In our investigation we attempt to consider the features of the functioning of language means of expressing politeness on the basis of examples of electronic network publications (Echo of Moscow (online edition), fontanka.ru (online edition), orsk.ru (Saratov Airlines has been shutting down since May 31, 2018)).

In total, we have analysed the texts of five hundred informational messages and comments, and we have discovered 121 formulas of speech etiquette and the polite form “You” in 77 of the texts. In the other 473 texts and comments the language means of expressing politeness are not used by the subjects of communication.

The discovered formulas of speech etiquette can be classified into the following thematic groups: appeal (37), compliment (11), gratitude (4), approval (4), regret (1), farewell (1), greeting (1), request (1), congratulation (1), and also “you” as a specific form of appeal (59).

So it may be stated that the most frequent language means of expressing politeness is “you” as a form of reference and appeal. Such forms as a compliment, gratitude and approval are less frequent, but still quite common. The speech formulas of regret, greeting, farewell, request and congratulation are used only occasionally.

Conclusion

The integration of speech etiquette into the general context of communication is carried out through its specific functions, such as phatic, social-regulating, emotional-modal, social-characterizing, national-cultural. The main specialized function of speech etiquette is the phatic function which is implemented in all thematic groups of speech etiquette from greeting or appeal to farewell (Agarkova & Putilina, 2017).

The results of the research allow us to conclude that the Internet dialogue on the pages of online publications in most cases may occur without the use of any speech etiquette formulas: 88% of the users of the “Echo of Moscow” website, 84% of “fontanka.ru” and 79% of the “orsk.ru” website do not include language means of polite expression in their comments.

The subjects of dialogues that contain speech etiquette in the texts of their messages most often use the polite "you" as a form of reference (48%), the formulas of addressing (30%), compliments (10%) and approval (10%). In some rare cases greetings, farewells, regrets, requests and greetings are used.

Linguistic observation of dialogic communication in online publications suggests a widespread use of so-called anti-etiquette, which is expressed in the publications with some offensive and rude statements, addressed to a particular subject of Internet dialogue.

The most aggressive speech behaviour is expressed on “Echo of Moscow” website; so in other electronic media under study, such as “fontanka.ru”, “orsk.ru” similar vocabulary is much less common.

The results of mathematical data processing and linguistic interpretation indicate that there is no social-regulating function of speech etiquette in the online communication through network publications, because the communicants ignore the differences in their social status. Social-characterizing and national- cultural functions in these areas of Internet communication are also not implemented.

The emotional-modal function manifests itself in situations of compliment, approval, congratulation, gratitude, request and regret. In spite of single cases of the use of greeting and farewell, the phatic function in the Internet dialogue is expressed through the use of appeals and the polite “You” as a form of reference.

The data that we have discovered in the course of analysing the speech etiquette on the online resources that are used by the local authorities in their communication with the general public allows us to conclude that the online interaction between the citizens and the representatives of executive authority is implemented with all the norms of politeness, as the most of the subjects of the Internet dialogue have used the speech etiquette formulas.

It could be stated that the most frequently happening situations of speech etiquette functioning in the online dialogue between citizens and authorities are the situations of appeal and request, and the least frequent are apologies and invitation.

The findings of our investigation made it possible to prove that the general politeness that can be observed in the Internet dialogue between the local citizens and the representatives of executive authorities is mainly caused by the fact that the messages posted on the corresponding websites are published under the real names of those who has sent them.

References

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About this article

Publication Date

20 April 2020

eBook ISBN

978-1-80296-082-2

Publisher

European Publisher

Volume

83

Print ISBN (optional)

-

Edition Number

1st Edition

Pages

1-787

Subjects

Discourse analysis, translation, linguistics, interpretation, cognition, cognitive psychology

Cite this article as:

Agarkova, O. A., Putilina, L. V., & Melnikova, E. A. (2020). Functional Aspect Of Speech Etiquette In Runet. In A. Pavlova (Ed.), Philological Readings, vol 83. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 501-506). European Publisher. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2020.04.02.57