Imperative internet comment as a special genre of conflict internet communication

The article examines the imperative internet comment as a special genre of conflict internet discourse. The research was based on the study of two communities of the social network “VKontakte”, differing in the structure of social connections: vertical type (official community “VKontakte with authors”) and horizontal type (“Showbiz stars news”). Using automatic methods of data collection and analysis, it was established that this type of text demonstrates a stable negative tonality (about 30% of all comments), confrontational character, and expressiveness of linguistic means. In communities with a vertical structure, imperative internet comments occur three times more frequently and are predominantly used to criticize platform administrators. Analysis of illocutionary characteristics showed the prevalence of appeals and requestives in a community with a vertical structure, and the dominance of conflict statements aimed at excluding “outsiders” from communication in a community with a horizontal structure. Linguistic features include the use of lowered expressive nominations of people, distorted spelling, and elements of expressive syntax. The research made it possible to justify the identification of the imperative internet comment as an independent speech genre and determine its specificity in various types of internet communities.