Karpa I. Functional and Pragmatic Characteristics of Interactive Virtual Communication (A Study of Information-and-Reference Service Yahoo!Answers)

This thesis reveals functional and communicative-pragmatic characteristics of interactive virtual communication in English information-and-reference service Yahoo!Answers. It determines the properties of interactive virtual communication as a type of the Internet interaction explicating its typical models, the peculiarities of questions, dominant functions of text messages, verbal and nonverbal means of their realization (visualization, smiles), which contain certain cognitive potential and influence the contextual and notional aspects of communicative process. The research focuses on the analysis of pragmatic means of influence in interactive virtual communication used to satisfy the cognitive needs of addresser and addressee, on revealing strategies and tactics of interactive virtual communication, its subcultural linguistic system and the origin of communicative deviations. Key words: interactive virtual communication, cognitive potential, subcultural linguistic system, Internet discourse, information-and-reference service, electronic genre, addresser, addressee.