Verbal Means of Negative Assessment in Online Restaurant Reviews

The article describes the verbal means of expressing a negative assessment in online reviews. The study included online reviews on the Shashlykoff restaurant in the Russian digital directory 2GIS. The author addressed the issue of virtual genres, e.g., online reviews, online comments, etc. Online reviews as a genre appeared to be secondary and dialogic in nature, linguistically unlimited, informative, and evaluative. Evaluativeness was the main genre-forming component. While objects of evaluation were diverse, the article concentrates on the means of expressing a negative assessment towards cuisine, which proved to be units of the lexical level, i.e., adjectives, adverbs, nouns, and idioms. Colloquial and slang words with a negative connotation proved especially popular. Adverbs of measure and degree intensified evaluation at the lexical level. The group of stylistic means included hyperbole, litany, irony, and pun. Vocabulary expressed the negative assessment explicitly, while grammar and graphics only enhanced the evaluative component. Exclamation points, interrogative sentences, and comparative phrases also helped to bring forward the negative assessment. Graphic means included excessive punctuation, capitalization, and emoji.