Dynamics of Russian language internet discourse: peculiar representation of lexis in dictionaries

The study presents linguistic description of the dynamics of Internet discourse. Nowadays, Internet discourse is not only individual speech practice, but also global communication. Linguists are naturally interested in the issues of the Internet, studies devoted to the emergence and consolidation of the corresponding linguistic means, including ones used in the Russian language, are certainly relevant. In this regard, practically relevant tasks are to consider the sufficiency of modern Russian vocabulary in the context of Internet communication and to identify its corresponding potential for further development of the Russian lexicography. The aim of this study is to analyze the lexicographic reflection of linguistic units associated with the Internet and the trends in their dictionary representation under modern conditions. The empirical possibilities of both this study and linguistic papers devoted to IT issues in general are provided by statistically significant data of modern discourse, in particular, data available through corpus methods and Internet search. To achieve the goal of the study, the representative material available in Russian National Corpus was used. In accordance with the topic of the study, the analysis was focused on the dictionaries of the Russian language: the ones interpreting it, for example, the “Modern Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language” edited by T.F. Efremova, and the ones regulating real speech practice, for example, the “Russian Spelling Dictionary’ edited by V.V. Lopatin and O.E. Ivanova. The study used a set of analytical methods, including discourse analysis, component analysis, as well as synthesis, modeling, comparison, and other general scientific and linguistic methods. In general, the authors conclude that the Russian Internet discourse is highly dynamic. At the same time, the model of the ongoing changes shows that lexicographic sources reflect the dynamics of the language incompletely and selectively. The results obtained can be used in organizing scientific support for the modern Russian communication, optimizing lexicographic work, and studying a wide range of theoretical and practical issues of linguistics.