Linguistic Analysis of Insta, Twit Posts and LJ Blogs in the Context of their Functions

—The present article is concerned with identifying the linguistic and extralinguistic features of Instagram, Twitter, and Live Journal hypertexts, depending on their functional focus. The relevance of the topic is due to the need for a more detailed study of Internet communication from the point of view of functional and stylistic aspects. The study provides a comparative analysis of Instagram, Twitter, and Live Journal online services based on the Russian language material. The following methods of analysis were used: the hypo-thetical-deductive method, methods of linguistic analysis, and the survey method. The results are correlated with the questionnaire data on the studied problem. The article discusses graphic, lexical, stylistic, syntactic, and spelling features. The authors conducted a comparative analysis of the hypertexts of Instagram, Twitter, and Live Journal online services in the context of their functions; identified linguistic and extralinguistic features of the hypertext of the services under study; established the relationship between the language of the text and the function implemented. It has been established that all three online services perform, first of all, a communicative function, which is expressed through the use of slang, vernacular, online discourse vocabulary, graphic means, markers of increased emotionality, recreation of a specific accent / dialect, spelling and punctuation violations, incomplete, unextended sentences. Along with the socialization function, Instagram performs the function of self-presentation, for the implementation of which the authors of publications resort to linguistic creativity. Unlike Instagram, Twitter, and Live Journal fulfill a more political function, expressed in stylistic devices such as metaphor, comparison, irony, hyperbole, and repetition. The results were verified using a questionnaire survey conducted among Russian students. The questionnaire survey shows that the dominant function of the analyzed online services is socialization, which corre-lates with the function of self-presentation. The survey results demonstrate that stylistically reduced vocabulary (slang, jargon) has become the norm of modern Internet communication.

Based on the communicative and pragmatic norm, the text of the online format is a paralinguistically active text with full creolization, including a verbal component, an image, and an accompanying signature.
This paper analyzes three of the most popular online services -Instagram, Twitter, and Live Journalto investigate them as a special form of virtual communication. The object of this research is hypertext as a set of many branching texts of online format connected by cross-links. The research subject is the functional potential and linguistic and extralinguistic features of modern hypertext based on the material of the considered online services.
The Internet is a multilingual sphere where people from different backgrounds and social groups conduct the business, study, and communicate informally. The cosmopolitanism of the World Wide Web cannot but affect the selection of language means for interaction. [15] The relevance of this research is due to the attention to Instagram, Twitter, and Live Journal microblogging potential in information dissemination in terms of their functions, extralinguistic and linguistic means of expression, as well as the ability to customize based on the needs of communicants.
As a result of observations, the following hypothesis was put forward: grammatical and stylistic presentation of hypertexts in Instagram, Twitter, and Live Journal directly depends on their functional potential.
The aim of the study is to identify the relationship between the linguistic and extralinguistic features of the analyzed hypertexts and their functional focus. The stated aim shapes the solution for the following objectives: 1. To conduct a comparative analysis of the hypertexts of the studied online services in the context of their functions. 2. To identify linguistic and extralinguistic features of the hypertext of Live Journal, Twitter, and Instagram services. 3. To establish a link between the language of the text and the implemented function. 4. To verify the results obtained using a questionnaire survey of Russian students.
The novelty of the study is that Russian-based Live Journal, Twitter and Instagram were compared to determine the dependence of the language of posts and blogs on their functional potential. For the first time, the results of the linguistic analysis of the studied hypertexts correlate with the survey data on the studied problem.

Research design and sample
Blogs, posts, and comments taken from Instagram, Twitter, and Live Journal social services for 2020 were the material of this study. Of particular interest were blogs, posts, and comments that reflect topical events of the current year and occupy top positions in the news feed of the analyzed services. The corpus of examples consisted of about 300 units collected by the continuous sampling method. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used for the data analysis.

Data analysis
The aim and objectives of the study led to the use of the following methods of analysis: the hypothetical-deductive method, methods of linguistic analysis, and the survey method. [16] The hypothetical-deductive method is leading to research. It provides a scientifically based construction of the research course. This method was used at the stage of making assumptions, initial observations, collecting and selecting research material and formulating a hypothesis, and at the stage of verifying the hypothesis and generalizing the data obtained.
Verification of the hypothesis that the grammatical and stylistic presentation of the Instagram, Twitter, and Live Journal hypertexts depends on their functional potential is determined using the methods of linguistic analysis and questionnaire survey.
The linguistic analysis method aims to study linguistic and non-linguistic means of different levels in the hypertext system from their perspective of their functions and compliance with language norms. Linguistic analysis of linguistic and non-linguistic means includes studying the graphic, lexical, syntactic, and stylistic presentation of the text, the study of creolization means, and the degree of intertextuality. This method was widely employed while analyzing the study material.
The survey method involves collecting information from respondents using a specially designed list of questions (questionnaire) compiled by the authors to determine the functional focus of the posts and their language presentation.
The questionnaire survey was conducted in April 2020 among students of Bashkir State Agrarian University using the Google Forms service. Among the 1st year students of bachelor's and master's degree programs, 145 respondents (Russian and international students), regardless of gender, voluntarily agreed to take part in the survey. They were asked to answer 14 questions. Multiple choice and open-ended questions were used in the survey. The survey was used to find out which of the services under study (Instagram, Twitter, and Live Journal) respondents are familiar with and actively use, and for what purpose, what is the role of hashtags/ tags in online communication, what graphic and morphological means (slang, abbreviations, neologisms, emoticons) respondents use when posting, whether the authors of messages pay attention to the competent (normative) speech.

Statistical processing
The data obtained were processed using elements of the statistical analysis method by the online tool Google Forms. This tool provides automatic processing of respondent responses in real-time and presents survey results in charts and automatically created Google tables. The responses of all respondents were found to be relevant.

Research limitations
The following limitations were identified during the survey: the quantitative parameter -145 people, the qualitative parameter -1st-year students of bachelor's and master's degree programs of Bashkir State Agrarian University, research material limitation -Instagram, Twitter, and Live Journal online services.

Ethical issues
All responses are anonymous and do not include the respondent's full name. The survey results are available only to the respondents and questionnaire creatorsthe authors of the article. This data are not shared with third parties.
All data were legally received and transmitted to https://docs.google.com/forms/u/0/, i.e., with the voluntary consent of their owners and in compliance with their legal rights (including compliance with the Federal law "On personal data" dated 27.06.2006 No. 152-FZ).

Results and Discussion
Analysis of the functional potential of posts and blogs showed a certain dependence of the hypertext language on the implemented function.
Posts and blogs are based on a communicative function that can be viewed from two perspectives: communication with existing acquaintances and communication to meet new people and expand one's audience. This format of communication is represented by the following means. The use of strikethrough text is typical for LJ blogs. As a rule, a statement that categorically expresses the author's opinion is marked by a strikethrough. Such a statement is often accompanied by an uncrossed statement that explicates a similar opinion but is expressed in a milder, tolerant form. Incomplete, unextended sentences in which the content of the message comes first, rather than its grammatical design:

Я падаю, настоящая девушка, выражение лица (Insta) I'm falling, real girl, facial expression
Such cases are associated with implementing the principle of linguistic economy, which increases the speed of interaction between interlocutors. Compensatory prag-matic strategies ("semiotics of compensation") are also considered in the works of foreign authors. [17][18][19] Analysis of examples shows that the communicative function is most clearly represented in Instagram and is dominant since this application is based on the idea of socialization, in contrast to LiveJournal and Twitter, whose function is public blogging (online diary) and instant reaction to events, respectively.
The variety of means of expression allows authors of blogs and posts to attract and hold the reader's attention, make the text bright and memorable, and display the desired information to the fullest extent possible. This conclusion is confirmed in the work by Gustilo and Dino. The authors believe that acronyms, emoticons, truncation of unnecessary information, and ways of transcoding information in an utterance contribute to more effective and expressive message transmission, compensating for the lack of nonverbal means of communication. [20] To make speech more figurative and even metaphorical, authors often use phraseological units:

Such suspicions were fueled by meetings between diplomats of the US Consulate General (which Edward Snowden called a "CIA station") and protest leaders, waving American flags at protest actions, and calls from the opposition for the US authorities to impose sanctions against the PRC for Hong Kong.)
The verb 'fuel' is in the meaning "pour oil on flames"aggravate, worsen.

P. ordered to stop growththe virus snapped a salute.
Metaphor affects the reader's imagination, forms a figurative representation of the world, makes the image more vivid and visual, and represents an individual author's model of the world: Они просто начали бояться вместе и вместе надеяться, что вторая волна (коронавируса -прим. авторов) не обрушится на Токио десятиметровым цунами, а отступит быстро и без жертв, будто и не было ее вовсе. (LJ) They just started to be afraid together and hope together that the second wave (coronavirusauthors' note) will not hit Tokyo with a ten-meter tsunami but will retreat quickly and without casualties, as if it did not exist at all. Comparison as a stylistic device serves as the basis for the deployment of the image, as a result of which the subject matter renders concrete becoming more evident and expressive. Often authors combine comparison with irony using two types of lexical meanings: subject-logical and contextual, based on contrast: As we can see from the above examples, such stylistic devices as metaphor, comparison, irony, hyperbole, and repetition, as well as the use of phraseological units, are reflected in the implementation of the political function, the main purpose of which is to form a political world view, inform and explain. They are presented mainly in LJ blogs and Twit posts. Some works describe the dependence of linguistic means on the communicative situation related to politically and socially significant events [21].
It should be noted that the stylistic devices described above can also be found in Insta posts, but due to the specifics of this online service, they perform a different function, namely the function of self-presentation in order to attract attention to one's account.
Since people are self-centered by nature, self-expression is an important component of both real and virtual life. They create the image they want and learn to express their thoughts structurally following the online service format. To create a unique image and attract attention to their account, authors of publications resort to linguistic creativity using various devices in speech, such as slang, borrowings, neologisms, using foreign vocabulary in a Russian sentence, coining new words, deliberately breaking spelling and punctuation, using rhyme, allusion and wordplay. Many researchers note that such linguistic creativity gives online texts humor, irony, and pronounced evaluativity. [22,23].
Hrjuktov: the merger of the words "grunt" and "fruits". The self-presentation function is closely correlated with the marketing function responsible for promoting products and services on the market, conducting PR campaigns and generating revenue through advertising, and promoting one's account and web resources.

Intentional violation of spelling and punctuation
Взаимный Thus, all three analyzed online services equally perform the function of selfpresentation, which is implemented in language terms through a variety of lexical and stylistic means.
At the same time, the memoir feature is typical for the Live Journal service. LJ bloggers often keep records in order not to forget the details of certain events in their lives or to think about them later, thus creating a kind of deferred communication with themselves. [24] Analysis of blogs made it possible to identify the following models of text presentation: 1. Question and answer (a kind of simulation of a dialogue with the reader)
This device emotionalizes the blog text and sensifies continuing communication; also, with the help of ellipses, the blogger pauses to get feedback from the reader.
To confirm the above observations, the authors conducted a questionnaire survey to identify the popularity of Instagram, Twitter, and Live Journal among Russian students and analyze the dependence of linguistic and stylistic features of hypertexts on their functional focus.
One hundred and forty-five respondents from Bashkir State Agrarian University (Ufa, Russia) took part in the survey. Figure 1 demonstrates the use of the analyzed online services by respondents, where the horizontal axis represents the number of respondents, and the vertical axis lists the services. The survey results showed that Instagram is the most popular app for Internet communication -89% of respondents are active users. Twitter is the second most popular site (6.9%). Statistics shows that none of the respondents are registered in Live Journal, and only 1.4% of respondents use this service as unregistered users. Obviously, this can be explained by the specific format of this platform and the age of the survey participants. It should be noted that 9.7% of respondents do not use the analyzed services at all.
The functional potential of the analyzed online services can be described as follows: 80.1% use Instagram, Twitter, and Live Journal for socialization, 69.5%for transmitting and receiving information, 5.7%for product promotion (advertising), and 0.7% pursue such goals as expressing political views and positions, working with children, viewing memes, entertainment, storing photos, leisure, and other (see Figure  2, where the horizontal axis shows the number of respondents and the vertical axis represents the functional potential of the services). It should be noted that 50.3% use the analyzed online services to keep up to date with news and comment on them. About as many (49.7 %) use Instagram, Twitter, and Live Journal to get information without feedback (comments, likes). 38.5% of respondents said they do not like to write posts and just post photos. About a third of respondents (35.7 %) make reposts and retweets if they are interested in the information received. And only 7% of respondents actively post and blog. This ratio of the verbal and non-verbal can be explained by the type of personality of respondents (auditory-visual, introvert-extrovert) or by the dominant type of speech activity (productive-receptive) (see Figure 3, where the horizontal axis shows the number of respondents and the vertical axis represents the scope of activities in the online services). Such an analysis of the user's "digital footprint" permits making a psychological portrait of the individual. [25] Also, the nature of activity in the service may depend on the user's objectives and tasks. 45.1 % reported that they pay attention to the correctness of speech and always correctly present posts and blogs following the language norm, 59.9% try to write correctly, and only 2.8% admitted that they write with errors.
The identified cases of language interference correlate with the idea of "network multilingualism" described in the paper by Androutsopoulos. [26] Although the online services under study have taken the scientist attention since their inception, a review of literature sources showed that hypertext analysis was mainly based on the English language material. [27,28] However, since most users are non-English speakers, the issue of language interaction in a globalizing world is of interest. One of the first papers analyzing the place of other languages in the blogsphere was the study by Herring et al. [1] At the same time, there is not enough data to determine the specifics of the language of posts and blogs based on the Russian language. A number of linguists study individual discourses of social networks to define their structural and content features and linguistic/non-linguistic "constitutive elements". [29][30][31] In the research by Kiuru, [32] Volokhonsky, [24] Goncharova, [33] the functional potential of online services is considered in isolation from the linguistic and extralinguistic characteristics of hypertexts. Some papers reveal the intentional and thematic focus of Insta and Twit posts. [34] Functional and stylistic features of microblogging are considered in the work of Idowu-Faith. [35] There are various approaches to the theory of hypertext research and analysis, as well as to understanding the term itself. The study of this problem is associated with such experts in metatext as Bakhtin, Vezhbitskaya, Genette, Lotman, Riabtseva, Perfil'eva, Shaimiev, Crismore, Hyland, Vande Kopple, et al.
In this article, hypertext is considered in its particular manifestation on the material of the studied online services (posts in Twit and Insta and blog entries in LJ). This type of text is notable for certain stability, on the one hand, and for certain mobilityon the other hand. [32] Its main features are a limited number of characters, creolization, intertextuality, linearity/ non-linearity, synchrony / asynchrony, and the use of hashtags. A detailed analysis of these features of LJ, Twit, and Insta texts is presented in an earlier study. [36] The use of a wide variety of linguistic and non-linguistic means to transmit the information due to restrictions on the number of characters in a message requires an adequate understanding by the recipient. However, it should be emphasized that the author's creativity often leads to cognitive overload and, as a result, to the incomplete understanding of the text. [37] Several reasons account for the creation and use of the analyzed words and phrases: 1) limited discourse -Internet-mediated communication; 2) the segment of respondentsstudents; 3) the desire of users to feel like co-creators of the lexical component of communication in order to make their speech more emotional and expressive, give it a distinctness and show that they are in a trend.

Conclusion
The main features of hypertext are stylistic antihomogeneity, a combination of external features such as cross-references in the text, creolization, various structural and graphic presentation, interactivity, and others. When considering the features of the functional potential of the hypertext of the analyzed services, an anthropocentric approach to the text is taken into account, in which it is regarded as combined with extralinguistic factors including socio-cultural, pragmatic, psychological, and other aspects.
A comparative analysis of the hypertexts of Live Journal, Twitter, and Instagram revealed linguistic and extralinguistic features of hypertexts depending on their functional focus. Thuswise, first of all, all three online services perform a communicative function. Along with the socialization function, Instagram serves a self-presentation function and is often used for advertising products or services. Unlike Instagram, Twitter, and Live Journal serve the political function to an increasing degree, with Live Journal often used as a platform for keeping diaries, thus performing the function of memoirs.
The communicative function (socialization function) is expressed through slang, colloquialisms, online discourse vocabulary, graphic tools, markers of increased emotionality, simulation of a specific accent/ dialect, violation of spelling and punctuation, incomplete, unextended sentences. Such stylistic techniques as metaphor, comparison, irony, hyperbole, and repetition, as well as the use of phraseological units, are reflected in the implementation of the political function. To implement the function of self-presentation, authors of publications resort to language creativity, use slang, borrowings, neologisms in speech, use foreign vocabulary in Russian sentences, coin new words, intentionally violate spelling and punctuation, use rhyme, allusion, and wordplay.
The questionnaire survey results also correlate with the analysis of the studied Instagram, Twitter, and Live Journal hypertexts. It should be noted that the dominant function of socialization (80.1%), which is associated with the function of selfpresentation, is implemented in the analyzed hypertexts through stylistically reduced vocabulary (slang, jargon), which, unfortunately, is the norm of modern Internet communication. The obtained data can serve as the subject of further analysis in the framework of language norm studies. The study can have a great impact on such urgent issues as ecology of language acquisition and language socialization. It can also be of interest to scholars engaged in social networking discourse studies. The examples analyzed can be used in the university courses in stylistics.