Ukrainian Political Internet Discourse: Signs of Language Aggression

Abstract

The problem of language aggression, hostility, and contempt is one of the most acute in the modern world. The rapid spread of this phenomenon is associated with the development of the Internet and social networks, which led to revolutionary changes in people's communication and the emergence of new types of socio-political interaction. The accessibility of internet resources, the absence of communication barriers that are present in real life, and the speed of information transmission have greatly expanded social contacts. The growth of language aggression, hostility, and contempt in society and the resulting need to invent and implement models of nonviolent language interaction have created new areas for research for Ukrainian linguists. The purpose of the study is to define such concepts as language aggression, hostility, and contempt; to identify the dominant areas of language aggression, hostility, and contempt in the Ukrainian political internet discourse. Language aggression, hostility, and contempt are aimed at humiliating other people or a group of people. The most frequent stereotypes of aggression are associated with discrediting based on political views, ethnicity, language views, less often – gender, age, religion, social status, etc.