Personality in the medium of discourse: linguistic representation of psychological types (based on the discourse of virtual music fan communities)

This paper presents an aspect of the linguo-cognitive model of a discursive personality. A typical discursive language personality is modeled on the basis of the analysis of texts belonging to one discourse that concentrates on the distinctive features of units at different levels typically expressed in discourse texts. The identification of language features allows describing the cognitive and psychological specificity of individuals that the given discourse actualizes, and modeling the psychological features of the "average" typical discursive personality. The study examined the fragments of communication texts of participants of fan associations "Eric Saade | Eric Saade [Official VK Group]" and "Official Russian Fan Club of Dead by April" in the Russian-language social network VKontakte. The authors understand this type of communication practices as subdiscourse which is formed at the intersection of virtual discourse and a subculture discourse of fan communities. Virtuality, providing a common information transmission channel, predetermines its essential features (chronotope, multimedia, etc.). The discourse of subcultural music fan associations determines the content and purpose of communication, strategy for reaching it, values and ideals. The leading methods of analysis are verbal portraiture and content analysis. Data obtained as a result of linguistic analysis formed the basis for identifying discursively relevant personal characteristics whose language representation is important and relevant for participants of the discourses under study. First, common features of personalities that appear in the discourses of fan groups of both the pop artist and the metal band are characterized. Such features include the dialectical combination of the actualization of self-centeredness and responsiveness. The first apparent incompatible combination of self-centeredness and responsiveness is a clear indication of the contradictory, dualistic nature of musical fanaticism, which, on the one hand, stimulates the individual to form a unique attitude to the idolized object and to consciously isolate from the rest of society, and, on the other hand, urges the fan to communicate with like-minded people with the aim to interact in the selected sub-cultural environment. Variability and even oppositivity of other discursively relevant personality traits are determined by the difference of the object of worship (pop and metal styles), sex, age and social differences between fan associations participants. Fans of the pop star are opposed to fans of the metal band by the level of self-esteem (low vs. high), manifestations of conformity and criticality, peacefulness and aggression, dreaminess and practicality. These psychological characteristics are reflected in the features of the use of linguistic resources. The authors characterize the specifics of the use of personal and possessive pronouns, abstract and concrete nouns, qualitative evaluative adjectives and adverbs, their individual semantic groups, typical verb tenses as indicators of the actualization of discursively relevant personality traits.

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