Russian Diminutives on the Social Network Instagram

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of communication on the Russian-speaking segment of the social net Instagram. The aim of the article makes the analysis of diminutives — the words with diminutive-hypocoristic suffixes. In course of the study, over 250 users’ pages of Instagram were analyzed, and the most high-frequency lexemes were chosen. The derivational analysis was carried out to sort out the groups of relevant suffixes, and such a phenomenon as the synonymy was revealed. As is proved, despite different formal expression, all suffixes of diminutives bear diminutive-hypocoristic (or just hypocoristic) meaning which helps express subjective positive evaluation in respect to the environment, and demonstrate emotions (also positive) in course of communication. As is marked, the use of diminutives on the social net is not an occasional occurrence, it’s one of the significant exponents of the world view of the Russian-speaking people. The demand of language bearers for the diminutives witnesses of their high linguistic potential allowing the forms to create aesthetical communication over the Internet virtual space. © 2021, RUDN UNiversity. All rights reserved.