WORD CREATION IN BLOGOSPHERE

The article considers word usage in the current Russian blogosphere, with a particular stress on transformations of lexical units of the national language. Various transformations are viewed as a tool for creating neologisms. In the blogosphere, words, expressions, and graphic images invented in one community spread to other communities, becoming markers of the Internet speech; further on, they spread to other spheres of speech, providing stylistic colouring. We call this phenomenon «Internet vernacular». From vernacular as traditionally understood, it differs, first of all, in the type of users; it is a stylistic tool used by bloggers. The data for this paper are texts by a LiveJournal author, Kirill Eskov. Our analysis of his operations with words follows the anthropocentric approach Е.Ю. Кукушкина 228 and is based on the assumption that all genres where he works are connected with the same «language personality», the same image of the author: paleontologist, popularizer of science, high-school teacher, phantasy writer, and blogger.