Abstract
Purpose. The article presents the results of a structural-semantic analysis of person nominations functioning in Internet discourse. Based on speech and lexicographic sources, the composition of the card index was determined – 145 slang personal nouns. The analysis of speech material was carried out within the framework of the derivational paradigm, which involves the complex use of several methods – morphemic, morphonological, word-formational and semantic.
Results. The analysis of lexical material allowed to establish the main ways of replenishing the lexicon of person nominations. Thus, 35.8 % of units are borrowings, and 64.2 % are Russian derivatives. Almost all borrowings in the card index (50 out of 52 lexemes) are Anglicisms; cases of borrowing from the Japanese language are unique. A third of the units in in the card index (44 words) are neolexemes that is, new phonetic units with new semantics The formation of person nominations on the basis of the Russian language occurs through semantic derivation, affixation, compounding, fusion, and phonetic truncation.
Conclusion. Suffixation turns out to be the most productive way of producing personal nouns (the share of suffixal derivatives is 66 %, 13 different formants form neologisms with the meaning ‘person’ have been identified). The other methods of word formation listed earlier are less relevant in Internet discourse.