From hooligans to thrash talk: Evolution of the genre

The article deals with the thrash talk as a speech genre. The term, which came to modern Russian from English, refers to a speech practice in which offensive statements are formulated against the opponent, designed to disturb the opponent’s psychological equanimity. It can be a form of bragging or insulting in competitive situations. The research was conducted in the context of Russian and foreign works on invective practice in Russian linguoculture, which not only represent a constant, but evolve as well. Such problems as the correlation between national-specific and universal aspects, linguistic and extralinguistic aspects, development of new phenomena on a national basis and borrowings are taken into account. Thrash-talk, if we use this term in a narrow sense, is autochthonous for Russian linguoculture. The methodology of the study is based on the comparison the description of speech practice with the standard. For our purposes we have formulated the standards “accusation”, “humiliation” and “hyperidenticity”, the components of the description of which were linguistic and psychological features. Thus, we can say that our research is carried out within the paradigm of psycholinguistics. This is justified by the fact that thrash talk balances on the edge of language and psyche. As a result of the comparison procedure we can conclude that there is a correspondence or discrepancy between these descriptions. The basis of our research were open Internet sources that contain examples of thrash talk as an element of characters’ speech behavior in texts or videos. As a result of the study it was possible to describe and systematize speech goals – persuasion and demonstration, the use of figurative, stylistically marked, expressively colored language means, psychological manipulative means of inducement and threat. In conclusion the article outlines the prospects for research related to such genres as flaming, flying, sledging, wolf-whistling, cat-calling, street-harassment, etc.