Verbal aggression as reflection of group values: A study of substandard lexis in virtual communities

Abstract

Substandard vocabulary traditionally serves as a marker of territorially and socially specific communication. We decided to examine this feature from a new angle and study the characteristics of substandard vocabulary functioning in the context of conflict communication in various online communities. The aim of our research is to identify the statistical distribution of invective vocabulary across thematic groups, as well as to describe the mechanisms behind the transition of standard vocabulary to substandard, taking into account the specifics of intragroup values and ideologies. For this purpose, we compiled a dataset of comments from online communities of vegans/vegetarians and radical feminism, the processing of which took two iterations: on a sample of 10,548 comments, we identified lexical groups, and then we examined their distribution and actual functioning on a dataset of 958,591 comments. Analysis of the data showed that the formation of active clusters of substandard vocabulary in online communities is determined by group attitudes and can serve as a marker of its values both at the micro and macro levels. In the vegan/vegetarian community, vocabulary condemning meat consumption predominates, as well as appealing to the mental characteristics of opponents. In the radical feminist community, gender-oriented invectives and zoometaphors are more commonly used. The study also revealed differences in the intensity and regularity of conflict discourse reproduction, which may indicate varying degrees of community boundary permeability. The results obtained allow for a better understanding of the mechanisms of substandard vocabulary formation in the online space and can be used for further study of the dynamics of virtual community development.