Никнеймы игроков Dota 2 и психические границы языка в эпоху глобализации

Вопросы психолингвистики. 2020. № 1(43). С. 36–53.

Klimova M.

The study deals with the problem of the impact of globalization on the mental language boundaries in the ethno-lingual consciousness of Russian-speaking gamers. Their nicknames in Dota 2 were chosen as the object of the research due to the worldwide popularity of the given online game presupposing intercultural communication. The choice of language and graphic system for the nicknames was considered the subject of research because of being both obligatory and informative in terms of the ethnocultural identity and language loyalty of the bearer. The paper is thus aimed at the sociopsycholinguistic diagnosis of language boundaries in the ethno-lingual consciousness of Dota 2 players. The choice of language and graphic system and the metalanguage reflection directed at the creation and perception of a nickname were analysed through an online survey and experiment. The results testify to the superior status of the English language both in the quantitative and qualitative respect,  which is reflected in the functional dominance and positive evaluation gained by English nicknames as well as in characterising dubious cases as English. The expansion of English does not lead to the increase in the loyalty level towards Russian: virtual pseudonyms in Russian, unlike those in English, have been found to cause negative reaction of the respondents. Certain findings, however, are unlikely to be attributed solely to the weakening and displacement of the mental language boundaries. Those that require further research concern lack of differentiation between the concepts of language and graphic system, the widespread rejection of transliteration in nicknames and the negative attitude to spelling deviations declared by the respondents.

Keywords: глобализация, globalization, метаязыковая рефлексия, компьютерные игры, ethnopsycholinguistics, этнопсихолингвистика, nicknames, videogames, никнеймы, mental language boundaries, ethno-lingual consciousness, sociopsycholinguistics, metalanguage reflection, психические границы языка, этноязыковое сознание, социопсихолингвистика