Classification of verbal threat markers based on English-language texts of internet discourse

The aim of this scientific research is to typologize verbal threat markers in English-language texts (short messages) published in open access on the social network “Twitter”. The article describes the features of communication in English-language social networks, within the context of which aggressive messages containing overt or covert threats occupy a significant place. Furthermore, the work examines verbal markers that function as means of expressing threatening intention in digital communication. The scientific novelty of the research is defined by the compilation of a classification of English linguistic units that are verbal markers of threat in the communicative space of internet discourse on the microblogging platform “Twitter”. As a result, the analysis established that verbal threat markers are classified into linguistic (lexical, grammatical, and stylistic) and extra-linguistic categories. According to the method of speech formulation of the utterance, verbal threat markers, which form the concept sphere of the modern English-language communicative space, in the texts of internet messages can be implicit and explicit. Additionally, verbal markers of low, medium, and high degrees of threat are distinguished according to illocutionary force.