Deyneka N. Cognitive and Pragmatic Features of the Communicative Situation of Cyberbullying in the English Internet Discourse

This dissertation focuses on revealing cognitive and pragmatic peculiarities of the communicative situation of cyberbullying in the context of English Internet discourse. Cyberbullying is viewed as the intentional aggressive behavior on the part of a person or a group which results in the emotional distress and social injury of a victim. Cyberbullying occurs in cyberspace, the latter being the conducive environment for the abuser's performance. Cyberbullying is represented by flaming, trolling, cyberharassment, cyberstalking, discreditation, personation, public exposure, cyberostracism, and happy slapping. The most dominant formats of cyberbullying are forum, chat, blog, electronic periodical as well as social network. The regulatory interaction within cyberbullying discourse appears to be the conflict interaction between the opponents, which becomes actual by way of step-by-step verbal utterances occasionally comprising the signs of other semiotic systems (pictograms, photo, video, and audio). The basic confrontation strategies of cyberbullying are those of discrimination and discreditation, which are localized in the tactics of downgrading, opposition, the show of experience, logical and emotional reasoning, accusation, pinning labels. The mentioned behavior is typical of both cyberbullying discourse participants. Key words: aggression, cognitive and pragmatic features, conflict, cyberbullying, Internet discourse, invective.