LEXICO-SEMANTIC GROUPS OF VIRTUAL NAMES IN SOCIAL NETWORKS: GENERAL OVERVIEW

Abstract

Social networks attract the opportunity to communicate with colleagues, friends, read news, watch videos regardless of place and time. The creative approach and purpose of creation, the rules of social networks and user preferences determine the semantic diversity of virtual names. The purpose of the article is to analyze the lexical-semantic groups of nicknames in social networks Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and to identify virtual names of mixed type. Research methods. The article uses the continuous sampling method (selection of material for research), the descriptive method (determining the general trends in the use of nicknames in social networks), the method of typological analysis (systematization and semantic classification of nicknames). The results are related to the identification of general trends in the use of network names and the definition of their lexical-semantic groups. Nicknames are usually consistent with the content of the account and promote it. In today’s virtual world, a network name presents not only a person as a user, but also a store, organization, blog, etc. The Facebook social network regulates the process of creating nicknames. Virtual names perform nominative and identification functions. They are mainly created according to the following models: ‘surname + first name”, “first name + surname”, “first name and patronymic”, “surname and patronymic” – decorated in Cyrillic and Latin letters. TikTok has no nickname restrictions for users. Instagram has one limitation – no more than 30 characters. The source for the formation of network names in TikTok and Instagram are personal names, surnames, patronymics, nicknames, names of managerial positions, nationalities, associations of people, names of animals, plants, geographical objects, products of immaterial and material human activity. The novelty of the study is that part of the nicknames belongs to the mixed type, as it contains components of different lexical-semantic groups. They have a situational nature, because they function only in the virtual world. Other network names correlate with real onyms (verbal trademarks) that are transposed into the realm of nicknames without any modifications. Conclusions. The requirements of the Facebook social network determine the use of anthroponyms as nicknames. Virtual names, in addition to nominative and identification, perform an advertising function. This is due to the fact that the nickname is usually consistent with the content of the account and presents it. In Instagram and TikTok nicknames are not only innovations, but also any proper or common name that has become a network name. We consider the research of structural and semantic features of nicknames to be promising.