Lard-eaters, gay-ropeans, sheeple and prepositions: lexical and syntactic devices employed to position the other in Russian online political forums

Abstract

The study focuses on the linguistic means employed by Russians in online political message boards to position both the political self and the political other in a time of crisis. It investigates how insults and the prepositional choice of either v/na + Ukraine were used to demarcate socio-political identity boundaries. The paper highlights the typologically different insults used by each group to position the other politically and then proceeds to examine how prepositional choice is employed to position the political self. Data were gathered from two online news platforms – svoboda.org and slon.ru – dating from the beginning of February 2014 to the end of March 2014 and focus on the discourse of two polarised political groups of commenters – pro-Kremlin and anti-Kremlin. It is a mixed methodological approach drawing on comments posted in response to 361 articles by 476 separate posters. The data are subsequently analysed according to positioning theory within the paradigm of computer-mediated discourse.