Polyphonic parenting debate in Russian social media: A pragmatic perspective

The article examines the evolution of a new language for discussing private and personal matters in the public space of Russian social media. The goal of the study is to reveal the formats of talk that may serve the manifestation of the new public language, reflected in multiple discourses through w...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Claudia Zbenovich
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) 2025-06-01
Series:Russian Journal of Linguistics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.rudn.ru/linguistics/article/viewFile/44881/24935
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849714921854468096
author Claudia Zbenovich
author_facet Claudia Zbenovich
author_sort Claudia Zbenovich
collection DOAJ
description The article examines the evolution of a new language for discussing private and personal matters in the public space of Russian social media. The goal of the study is to reveal the formats of talk that may serve the manifestation of the new public language, reflected in multiple discourses through which Russian parents position themselves in the Internet parenting forum debate. The data for the research were obtained from the conversation analysis of parents’ posts on Alpha Parenting, a popular Russian Facebook community platform. The study aimed to analyze more than 400 posts of parents of young children (6-12 years old) uploaded from 2017 to 2019. The emerging formats of talk are examined from a perspective of pragmatic communicative acts that shape the interactional situation in a chat forum. An interplay of the multiple forms of talk in the online forum is understand through the prism of Bakhtin’s analytical apparatus, which is based on the concepts of voice and polyphony . The results illustrate the simultaneous presence of different languages in public discussions of private life. These may pertain either to everyday informal communication constituted in the private and interpersonal sphere, to discursive practices of authoritative talk, to the meta-ways of discourse monitoring and management, or no less important, to the therapeutic public emotional talk about one’s private inner world and emotional experience. The study suggests that the ways of communicating about emotions represent an emerging emotional therapeutic attitude and language that has been regulating and reshaping Russian Internet communication.
format Article
id doaj-art-2c8167d717584d40854930beeed035d7
institution DOAJ
issn 2687-0088
2686-8024
language English
publishDate 2025-06-01
publisher Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University)
record_format Article
series Russian Journal of Linguistics
spelling doaj-art-2c8167d717584d40854930beeed035d72025-08-20T03:13:33ZengPeoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University)Russian Journal of Linguistics2687-00882686-80242025-06-0129225027110.22363/2687-0088-3969520946Polyphonic parenting debate in Russian social media: A pragmatic perspectiveClaudia Zbenovich0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6127-9488Hadassah Academic College (HAC)The article examines the evolution of a new language for discussing private and personal matters in the public space of Russian social media. The goal of the study is to reveal the formats of talk that may serve the manifestation of the new public language, reflected in multiple discourses through which Russian parents position themselves in the Internet parenting forum debate. The data for the research were obtained from the conversation analysis of parents’ posts on Alpha Parenting, a popular Russian Facebook community platform. The study aimed to analyze more than 400 posts of parents of young children (6-12 years old) uploaded from 2017 to 2019. The emerging formats of talk are examined from a perspective of pragmatic communicative acts that shape the interactional situation in a chat forum. An interplay of the multiple forms of talk in the online forum is understand through the prism of Bakhtin’s analytical apparatus, which is based on the concepts of voice and polyphony . The results illustrate the simultaneous presence of different languages in public discussions of private life. These may pertain either to everyday informal communication constituted in the private and interpersonal sphere, to discursive practices of authoritative talk, to the meta-ways of discourse monitoring and management, or no less important, to the therapeutic public emotional talk about one’s private inner world and emotional experience. The study suggests that the ways of communicating about emotions represent an emerging emotional therapeutic attitude and language that has been regulating and reshaping Russian Internet communication.https://journals.rudn.ru/linguistics/article/viewFile/44881/24935russian social mediavirtual parenting debateformats of talkmutivoicednessemotionalizationbakhtin
spellingShingle Claudia Zbenovich
Polyphonic parenting debate in Russian social media: A pragmatic perspective
Russian Journal of Linguistics
russian social media
virtual parenting debate
formats of talk
mutivoicedness
emotionalization
bakhtin
title Polyphonic parenting debate in Russian social media: A pragmatic perspective
title_full Polyphonic parenting debate in Russian social media: A pragmatic perspective
title_fullStr Polyphonic parenting debate in Russian social media: A pragmatic perspective
title_full_unstemmed Polyphonic parenting debate in Russian social media: A pragmatic perspective
title_short Polyphonic parenting debate in Russian social media: A pragmatic perspective
title_sort polyphonic parenting debate in russian social media a pragmatic perspective
topic russian social media
virtual parenting debate
formats of talk
mutivoicedness
emotionalization
bakhtin
url https://journals.rudn.ru/linguistics/article/viewFile/44881/24935
work_keys_str_mv AT claudiazbenovich polyphonicparentingdebateinrussiansocialmediaapragmaticperspective