LEXICAL MEANS OF EMOTIVENESS IN ONLINE COMMENTS
LEXICAL MEANS OF EMOTIVENESS IN ONLINE COMMENTS
Аннотация
This article explores the lexical means by which emotiveness is expressed in internet comments. Given the increasing importance of online communication, it is crucial to understand how emotions are conveyed and perceived in the digital environment. Based on examples from comments on the Twitter social network, it is shown that adjectives and adverbs play a key role in shaping the emotional tone, modulating the intensity of feelings. Adjectives allow for the expression of subjective evaluations and personal opinions, creating a positive or negative impression on the reader. Adverbs amplify or mitigate emotional coloring, reflecting the speaker's attitude toward what is happening. Particular attention is paid to evaluative adverbs, which significantly enhance expressiveness and allow for the transmission of a wide range of emotions, from confidence and approval to doubt and rejection. The use of specific lexical constructions directly affects the perception of the message, making it more convincing and emotionally charged, or, conversely, creating an impression of artificiality. Sentiment analysis was used to determine the overall emotional tone of each tweet. The quantitative data was supplemented by analyzing carefully selected examples, providing a richer understanding of how adjectives and adverbs create emotional impact. The results of the study demonstrate how lexical means shape the emotional landscape of online discourse and influence audience engagement.
1. Introduction
Understanding the dynamics of online communication is increasingly crucial in today's digital age. Internet comments, in particular, offer a unique window into the ways in which individuals express and perceive emotions in online environments. This study focuses on the lexical means of emotiveness within internet comments, exploring how specific vocabulary choices contribute to the overall emotional tone of these interactions. The aim of this article is to explore the lexical means by which emotiveness is constructed and conveyed in internet comments.
2. Research methods and principles
This study investigates the lexical means of emotiveness in Twitter comments. A corpus of 1200 tweets was collected using a targeted search strategy, ensuring representation from various topics and user demographics. The corpus was processed to identify and categorize the different parts of speech using natural language processing techniques. Sentiment analysis was performed to determine the overall emotional tone of each tweet, providing a baseline for comparison. Qualitative analysis of selected tweets was conducted to provide illustrative examples of how parts of speech work together to create nuanced emotional meanings. Combining quantitative corpus analysis and qualitative close reading, this research aims to comprehensively understand the role of parts of speech as lexical means of emotiveness in Twitter communication.
3. Main results
The results of the study showed that in online comments, both adjectives and adverbs play a vital role in creating emotional tone. Adjectives are used to express subjective opinions, shape the reader's impression, evoke feelings, and regulate emotional intensity. Adverbs, in turn, add emotional coloring to other words, amplifying or softening their meaning and reflecting the speaker's attitude toward what's happening. Evaluative adverbs enhance expressiveness, conveying both positive emotions (such as skill or sincerity) and negative ones (such as clumsiness or insincerity). Intensifying adverbs amplify or mitigate meaning, while adverbs expressing attitude towards reality convey certainty, doubt, surprise, or regret.
4. Discussion
Interest in the emotional aspects of language gained significant traction at the 1987 IV International Congress of Linguists. F. Danes' presentation highlighted the crucial interplay between cognition and emotion, solidifying the linguistic value of this area of study . The conference subsequently designated "Language and Emotions" as a key research priority, catalyzing research among linguists worldwide . This led to a surge in dissertations and scholarly publications, marking the development of a distinct field of "emotiology." Further evidence of this growing interest came at the 1991 Anglistentag in Düsseldorf, where the language of emotions was a central theme, encompassing topics from lexicon and syntax to cross-cultural expression .
Since the early 1980s, the emotional aspect of language has gained prominence in international linguistics, with key contributions from scholars like A. Wierzbicka, V. Volek, and J. Aitchison . This growing interest in emotions, also seen in other disciplines, led to the creation of the International Center for the Study of Emotions at Harvard in 1985. The period has seen the publication of numerous specialized dictionaries of emotional and even obscene vocabulary, with general dictionaries also including invectives .
Evaluative vocabulary is crucial for expressing emotions, allowing commenters to clearly show their positive or negative opinions about a topic. This category includes adjectives, adverbs, nouns, and verbs that carry inherent evaluative connotations. This article provides a detailed analysis of adjectives and adverbs, exploring their role in creating emotional tone and conveying subjective meaning in online communication .
Positive evaluation is expressed through adjectives such as amazing, fantastic, brilliant, awesome, and outstanding to convey approval and enthusiasm . Nouns, such as masterpiece, success, triumph, and gem, similarly convey positive assessment. Verbs, such as love, adore, appreciate, enjoy, and praise, demonstrate a positive emotional connection:
This game is absolutely amazing! The graphics are stunning, and the gameplay is incredibly addictive.
What a fantastic performance! She's a true artist.
Negative evaluation is expressed through adjectives such as terrible, awful, horrible, disgusting, pathetic, and ridiculous:
This movie was absolutely terrible. The plot was ridiculous, and the acting was pathetic.
Indeed, adjectives are among the most obvious and effective means of expressing emotiveness. They directly describe the qualities and characteristics of objects, people, and phenomena, thereby conveying the speaker's attitude toward them and evoking specific emotions in the reader.
Adjectives describe the feelings and emotions that a person experiences or that are experienced towards them: happy, sad, angry, afraid, excited, anxious, bored, calm, content, depressed, disappointed, enthusiastic, grateful, hopeful, jealous, lonely, nervous, proud, relieved, surprised.
I'm so happy for you!
I feel so sad about what happened.
I'm excited for the new season to start!
Adjectives serve to intensify or diminish the emotional effect of other lexical items (e.g., adverbs, nouns, verbs): a terrible tragedy (amplification), a minor issue (mitigation):
"It's just a minor setback."
The emotiveness of adjectives is characterized not only by contextual dependence, where the same word can carry different emotional weight depending on the situation, but also by differences in the degree of intensity. For example, the adjective "good" possesses less emotional force than "fantastic." Finally, the collocational context of the adjective with other words in the sentence significantly influences its emotional coloring.
In terms of the intensity of emotional evaluation, adjectives can be categorized into two primary types: explicitly emotive and implicitly emotive. Explicitly emotive adjectives inherently possess a pronounced emotional charge, readily discernible irrespective of context. Examples include terms such as awful, brilliant, and delightful. Conversely, implicitly emotive adjectives acquire emotional coloring solely within a specific context. For instance, the adjectives big, small, old, and new, while not intrinsically expressive of overt emotions, accrue negative connotations when combined with particular terms, as exemplified by the phrase a big problem.
Within the realm of internet comments, adjectives are essential in shaping emotionally resonant discourse, fulfilling a multiplicity of significant communicative purposes. Primarily, they enable the articulation of subjective evaluations and personal viewpoints, empowering authors to directly convey their attitudes toward the subject of debate and to cultivate a particular impression on the reader, be it favorable or unfavorable. Furthermore, the adept deployment of adjectives facilitates the elicitation of emotional responses from the audience, engendering a broad spectrum of sentiments, including joy, indignation, empathy, or astonishment, thereby fostering reader engagement in the discussion. No less crucial is the capacity for emotional intensity modulation. Adjectives, in conjunction with other linguistic devices, facilitate the amplification or attenuation of a text's emotional impact, with the goal of achieving a specific audience response. Lastly, the incorporation of varied and inventive adjectives imbues the text with individuality and expressiveness, affording authors the opportunity to show their unique perspective and render their comments more enduring .
Adverbs also play an important role as a means of expressing emotiveness in language, including in internet comments. They add emotional coloring to verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs, amplifying or mitigating their meaning and expressing the speaker's attitude toward what is happening. Evaluative adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs to enhance the evaluative meaning .
Positive emotions are expressed by adverbs such as: skillfully, artfully, beautifully, elegantly, gracefully (describing actions performed with mastery and evoking positive emotions); honestly, sincerely, truthfully, genuinely (emphasizing sincerity and truthfulness, inspiring trust and sympathy); successfully, effectively, efficiently, productively (indicating a positive result, evoking satisfaction and approval); cleverly, wisely, intelligently, thoughtfully (describing actions performed with intelligence and inspiring respect). Negative emotions are expressed by adverbs such as: awkwardly, clumsily, carelessly, negligently (describing actions performed ineptly and evoking irritation or ridicule); dishonestly, insincerely, falsely, deceptively (emphasizing insincerity and deceit, inspiring distrust and animosity); ineffectively, inefficiently, poorly, inadequately (indicating a negative result, evoking disappointment and dissatisfaction); foolishly, unwisely, stupidly, thoughtlessly (describing actions performed foolishly and evoking scorn or pity:
She sings beautifully! (положительная оценка вокальных данных)
They handled that situation poorly. (отрицательная оценка действий)
He honestly seems to care about this issue. (подчеркивание искренности).
Intensifying adverbs amplify or mitigate the meaning of other words, adding emotional coloring . They can be either positive or negative, depending on the context: extremely, incredibly, remarkably, exceptionally, extraordinarily, unusually (intensifying positive qualities); terribly, awfully, horribly, dreadfully, surprisingly (intensifying negative qualities); very, quite, rather, fairly, somewhat, slightly (mitigating, making less categorical):
This movie is incredibly boring. (сильное отрицательное отношение)
I'm extremely happy with the results. (сильное положительное отношение)
It's slightly disappointing. (смягчение отрицательной оценки)
Adverbs expressing attitude toward reality convey certainty, doubt, surprise, regret and other emotional evaluations related to the reliability or probability of the information being conveyed: certainly, definitely, surely, undoubtedly, obviously, clearly (expressing certainty); possibly, probably, perhaps, seemingly, apparently (expressing doubt or supposition); surprisingly, shockingly, amazingly, unexpectedly (expressing surprise); unfortunately, regrettably, sadly, lamentably (expressing regret):
Certainly, this is the best solution. (выражение уверенности)
Perhaps they will change their mind. (выражение сомнения)
Surprisingly, the update is actually good! (выражение удивления)
Adverbs expressing manner of action describe how an action is performed and can express emotions or the speaker's attitude toward that action: eagerly, enthusiastically, passionately, fervently (expressing enthusiasm); reluctantly, hesitantly, cautiously, suspiciously (expressing reluctance or doubt); angrily, furiously, violently, aggressively (expressing anger); sadly, mournfully, sorrowfully, dejectedly (expressing sadness):
She eagerly awaits the new season. (выражение воодушевления)
He reluctantly agreed to the terms. (выражение нежелания)
They angrily responded to the criticism. (выражение гнева)
It is important to note that the emotive coloring of an adverb often depends on the context. The same adverb can express different emotions in different situations. For example, the adverb remarkably can express both positive surprise (Remarkably, the project was completed ahead of schedule) and negative surprise (Remarkably, no one seemed to care about the consequences).
The use of adverbs in internet comments can significantly affect the overall tone of the message. Appropriately chosen adverbs can make a comment more expressive, persuasive, and emotionally charged. Inappropriate use of adverbs, on the other hand, can create an impression of artificiality or even sarcasm .
5. Conclusion
Returning to the central question posed at the outset of this article, our analysis of internet comments has demonstrated the critical role of lexical choices in shaping the emotional landscape of online interactions. We have shown how adjectives and adverbs function to convey a wide spectrum of emotions, from explicit expressions of joy and anger to more nuanced displays of sarcasm and irony. These findings highlight the dynamic and context-dependent nature of emotional expression in digital environments, and underscore the importance of considering both the explicit and implicit meanings of words when interpreting online communication.