Formal Discourse of the 18th Century and the Internet Discourse of the 21st Century: Similarities and Differences

Abstract

The article is devoted to the comparative study of linguistic changes in the critical historical periods when radical political, socio-economic, cultural and ideological reformation causes underlying changes in the public consciousness, language and the conditions of its functioning. One of the historical periods is associated with the activities of Peter I and the transformation of all government-controlled spheres as well as that of society. The discourse of managerial public administration and records management becomes the one that rapidly changes during this historical period, and it is that discourse that encourages the development of new means of expression, genres and speaking etiquette. In the 21 st century, the Internet discourse can be considered a special information and communication environment that develops specific mechanisms and means of interaction between communicants. These two types of discourse, each in their own time, become unique experimental platforms where new phenomena are being discussed and new genres introduced, which sets conditions for the activation of their donor function to feed other types of discourse. Keywordsformal discourse of the 18 th century, Internet discourse of the 21 st century, watershed periods of the Russian language development, cultural and linguistic situationI.