Value-based epithets in the ethical system of modern Internet users

The study was conducted in the last decade on the basis of texts of some professional and amateur Internet communities and comments to them at forums, blogs, etc. The aim of the research is to define the direction of semantic shift in the words that reflect the traditional ethical views of native speakers of Russian. The article describes semantic and collocational features of axiological, or value-based, epithets razumnyj, poleznyj, pravil’nyj, zdorovyj, zdravyj and their negative correlates (nerazumnyj, nepravil’nyj, nezdorovyj, etc.). The author notes violations of common combinability of these words in contexts where they function as attributes to words denoting personal qualities. The study revealed that adjectives of positive evaluation are actively used in combination with words denoting negative qualities qualities (razumnaja naglost’, poleznyj egoism, pravil’naja agressija, zdravyj tsynizm, etc.), and, on the contrary, positive traits of a person can be characterized by adjectives of negative evaluation (nerazumnaja chestnost’, nezdorovaja dobrota). The analyzed contexts show relativism towards major moral categories, confusion of ethical evaluations. The author makes a conclusion that in the mind of modern people there exist values that are alien tо Russian linguistic mentality. One of such values is aggressive cult of strength. Previously the analyzed adjectives did not demonstrate such collocational features.