Social Networks and the Regulatory Function of Language: Internet Debates on Virtual Verbal Intelligence

The article describes the regulatory function of the language of Internet communication. The research featured the Internet discussion triggered by Olga Yurochkina's blog called The Little Things of Life. The users expressed their attitude to the spelling and punctuation violations that are typical of online communication. According to the hypothesis, special (philological) knowledge is opposed to the vernacular one. Consequently, educated users demand stricter control of conventional language rules. The author used comparative approach to develop a typology of opinions. The Internet discussion differed from similar offline debates in its causes, patterns, and results. The regulatory function was never mentioned directly but could be deciphered from the way the users formulated their question and the latent content of the statements they made.