Obscene vocabulary in the «gaming field» of live colloquial speech and Internet communication

Abstract

The article examines two complementary trends in the game employment of obscenities in modern live colloquial speech and Internet communication: euphemization of obscenities and obscenization of normative vocabulary. The models of euphemization and obscenization are analyzed, the patterns of their lexicographic interpretation are shown. It is determined that within the framework of the first trend, traditional ways of forming euphemisms and new techniques for their creation in language games are being implemented: «included» homonymy, allusive use of foreign language borrowings, etc. Special attention is paid to abbreviation as a productive way of euphemization. Based on linguistic material of the last two decades, the dynamics of euphemistic playing with the most frequent obscenities is shown. The second trend, the obscenization of normative vocabulary, is illustrated by examples of game transformations of normative vocabulary, bringing its sound and writing closer to obscenities. Due to game epenthesis, metathesis, prosthesis, homophonic transformation of words of the literary language, obscene «pseudo-roots» appear in such words. The same result is obtained by contamination and merging of combinations of words. Materials of the article can be used in the development of problems of linguoecology and in lexicographic practice by creation of dictionaries of obscenities and youth slang.