Etiquette of female weblog

Abstract

The issue of gender influencing the language has long been discussed in linguistics. But a great number of researches are focused on making a list of speech means, the use of which must reflect the specifics of female and male communicative types. From our viewpoint it is more fruitful to make a complex study of speech behavior in a single society united by some signs, outlining typical communicative scenarios. In this relation it is methodically correct to outline the etiquette line and to consider its peculiarities to determine the specifics of female speech behavior in the web. As an empiric material we used female weblogs as a unique deflection of the traditional genre of personal diary. The weblog is different from its offline version by the initial orientation on the wide (occasional, it is better to say) audience. Gradually the author forms a range of regular readers — subscribers who leave comments under each publication (or post) in the log. Inside each log along with typical for all female weblogs etiquette rules there exist own ones, due to the peculiarities of speech and non-speech self-presentation of the weblog author. As the study shows, it is typical for female speech behavior to strictly follow the selected rituals, to find violations of etiquette and to struggle with such violations, to long to psychological comfort as a main communicative value, to follow topical unity inside a single dialogue cycle, emotional dynamic which leads to the appearance of specific aggressive forms in speech — catfights, discussion of private life, entering the private sphere.