Lexical pragmatic indicators of conflictogenicity in the information field of migration: Mexico - USA (based on Mexican social media)

Davtyants Irina Igorevna ORCID: 0000-0003-3877-1612 Senior Lecturer; Department of Ibero-American Studies in the Field of Language, Translation and Intercultural Communication; Southern Federal University 344037, Russia, Rostov region, Rostov-On-Don, Bolshaya Sadovaya str., 105/42, office 310 4283953@gmail.com Other publications by this author

Modern media in all its manifestations are extremely diverse and represent an inexhaustible resource for scientific research. Currently, they include not only newspapers and magazines, radio and television, but also all the variety of communication channels that the Internet provides. The twenty-first century, with its technological breakthrough in the field of Internet communication, has given rise to new types of media, including so-called user-generated content, displacing official news resources in popularity and scale. The emergence of the term user-generated content is associated both with the social activity of people in the media space, carried out through the use of various platforms and social networks, and with the availability of innovative software tools that allow users to easily "... generate content of such a nature as memes, demotivators, audio and video clips, photos, graphics and collages, podcast, presentation" ^{[7, p. 71]}.

The interactive nature of user-generated content is particularly evident in its form, such as comments on a news/publication/event, since readers' messages appear in real time and, as a rule, require a reaction/ assessment from other network users. When considering comments, it is important to take into account the fact that they represent a special type of dialogue that combines the features of oral and written discourse. On the one hand, communicants have the opportunity to immediately respond to messages, adjust their speech tactics, on the other hand, their speech is not always spontaneous and communication does not always occur synchronously. As T.G. Skrebtsova notes, virtual communication is characterized by ellipticity, abnormality and weak structuring ^{[10, p. 25]}.

Media users around the world are turning into direct participants in the information process, who are interested not only in consumption, but also in creating in-demand content material, which leads to blurring the boundaries between producers and consumers of information. According to K.A. Karyakina, the main difference between user-generated content and professional journalistic materials is that the latter are created "... at a high professional level, meet ethical standards and contain carefully verified data. While user content is often subjective and may be based on the evidence of unreliable sources or ambiguous information" ^{[6, p. 6]}. It is important to note that the special nature of the virtual space, where restraining social norms are not so strong due to anonymity and distancing of communication participants, allows the authors of posts on social networks to express what what they would not dare to voice in reality, and go beyond the norms of communication accepted in society.

User comments, which can represent both the verbalized opinion of individual individuals regarding a particular news, topic, video, etc., and a lively discussion by a large number of people of various, including acute topics without the pressure of censorship, not only reflect the real state of the language, but also represent, according to S.M. Karpoyan, socially conditioned opinions that carry information about the reality available in the minds of users ^{[5, p. 243]}.

Being a promising material for study within the framework of the modern anthropocentric paradigm, user content provides access to the cognitive base of an ethnic group, by which V.V. Krasnykh understands "...the information and emotional ("ethnic") field as a set of all individual and collective cognitive spaces, as the whole variety of really existing and potentially possible knowledge and representations of national speakers mental-linguistic complex" ^{[8, p. 23]}. At the same time, many researchers note that such information about the external and internal world, fixed in language, is not so much a mirror image of the surrounding reality as its interpretation (E.I. Zinovieva ^[3], L.P. Khalyapina ^[12]), but The linguistic forms used in this case are ethnospecific and serve to structure and organize the infinite variety of reality ^{[1, p. 92]}. It should be noted that such a psycholinguistic representation of the social experience of an ethnic group makes it possible to extract valuable information about the peculiarities of national consciousness by studying the specifics of axiological archetypal structures characteristic of it. Such universal oppositions, which underlie the formation of our self-awareness and national identity, include the "friend–foe" opposition.

In the information field of migration processes, the juxtaposition of "we are groups" and "they are groups", where "they", migrants, are often seen and exposed as the culprits of most negative social and economic processes in society, plays a special role, as it is a means of world modeling of interlocutors through the interpretation of facts presented by the author of the message (comment) ^{[11, p. 156]}. As an example confirming this thesis, one can cite the fact that the formation of attitudes towards representatives of other cultures is often influenced by prevailing prejudices and stereotypes in society, promoted by both official media and individual radical personalities in the process of intergroup virtual interaction.

A number of scientists (T.A. van Dijk ^[14], U. Eco ^[15], V. Brown ^[13], K.M. Lerka ^[16], L.M. Lodogno ^[17], E.P. Belinskaya ^[2]) note that among the linguistic means of forming the image of an "Alien" in the modern information field, the predominance the tools of the category of conflictogenicity, explaining this by the radicalization of public consciousness and the psychological need for a person to have an antagonist figure and even an enemy.

In the context of migration problems, it seems promising to study such means of expressing the category of conflictogenicity as lexical pragmatic markers (LPMC), which in this work are understood as "pragmems with negative emotional and evaluative coloring and high cognitive and pragmatic potential in terms of expressing a subjective assessment of aggressiveness, belligerence, hostility, intolerance, etc., while updating the potential of these units in speech contributes to the emergence of conflict situations" ^{[4, p. 18]}.

The Mexican segment of the popular online platform Reddit, which combines the features of a social network and a forum where various issues can be discussed, served as a material for the study of lexical pragmatic markers of conflict in the information field of migration processes. About 3,000 comments on this topic published over the past six years have been analyzed. The choice of the period is due to the change of two US presidents during this time, which had a great impact on US migration policy and its relations with Mexico.

The migration crisis of recent years, caused by the unprecedented flow of migrants faced by both Mexico and the United States, along with the anti–Mexican discourse of supporters of the Republican Party of D. Trump, contributed to the further growth of anti-American sentiments and active discussion of the behavior of gringos (in Mexican culture, gringo is a foreigner with white skin who speaks English [Diccionario del español de México: https://dem.colmex.mx/Ver/gringo ]) on the territory of Mexico.

It is the gringos who become one of the objects of expressing negative attitudes in Mexican user content. Let's turn to the selected LPMC.

In user comments, there are both negativisms that initially have a negative connotation in their meaning (Group 1) and LPMC, for the realization of the cognitive and pragmatic potential of which it is necessary to understand the context of their use (Group 2). Group 1, in turn, is represented by invective (obscene, reduced and literary vocabulary of negative modality, used as insults) and non-invasive negative-evaluative lexical units.

Let's turn to the latter, since they are more informative than invective vocabulary, and allow us to identify those qualities that are attributed to gringos in Mexican linguoculture. The spelling and punctuation of the authors of the posts are preserved in the examples given.

Among the LPMC definitions, the following are distinguished by their frequency of use: arrogantes, con aires de superioridad, racistas, despectivos, groseros. The main focus in this case is on the arrogant behavior of outsiders. For Mexicans, it is especially important that this arrogance of the Gringos is based only on their belonging to the white race. Cf.:

«…lo que mueve a la xenofobia mexicana, es el hecho de que muchos llegan con aires de superioridad inherentes al hecho de ser gringos» [https://www.reddit.com/r/mexico/comments/wcuopn/viendo_la_ola_de_xenofobia_en_este_sub_siendo/]

«Y aparte se dan aires de grandeza porque "white/americano" y piensan que todos los mexicanos les van a lamer los pies por algún tipo de sentimiento de inferioridad»[https://www.reddit.com/r/mexico/comments/wcuopn/viendo_la_ola_de_xenofobia_en_este_sub_siendo/]

Among the LPMC nouns/phrases with nouns, there are those that note the lack of respect for Mexicans on the part of the gringos: falto de respeto, racismo; convey their greed: voracidad, rapi?a; indicate the consequences of their interference in life in Mexico: aumento en los precios de renta; emphasize their aggressive tendencies: invasores, and their commitment to the ideology hated by most Mexicans: trumpistas.

«… cada vez veo a más y más extranjeros pendejos, pero ya se viene con ganas la invasión… En Tijuana hay una cantidad inmensa de Karen's y trumpistas, con todo y sus ideologías pendejas»

[https://www.reddit.com/r/mexico/comments/skn1c3/mexico_is_so_cheap_o_gringos_siendo_gringos/]

In this fragment, we see a fairly high density of LPMC. Visiting foreigners and their ideology are not only called by the rude word pendejos (dumb), but also characterizes the gringos as people seizing foreign territory, which is of particular importance to Mexicans. The name Karen is also characterized by high cognitive and pragmatic potential in the Mexican linguistic culture. This is the name of white-skinned women who are always dissatisfied with everything and require special treatment.

Among the LPMC actions, the following can be distinguished: no respetar a México, humillar a los Mexicanos, robar todo, creerse dueños, provocar que la renta se incremente. In addition to the verb respetar, a verb with pronounced negative semantics is also used in a negative form – to humiliate. Cf.:

«…y no tardan en llegar las pinches Karens a humillarnos en nuestras propias tierras» [https://www.reddit.com/r/mexico/comments/skn1c3/mexico_is_so_cheap_o_gringos_siendo_gringos/]

Mexicans constantly point out that U.S. citizens treat them in a similar way: not respecting, but humiliating them, not only in the United States, but also in Mexico itself, which causes them a special sense of injustice. The pronoun nuestras (ours) in the context of the opposition "friend – foe" is designed not only to convey the indignation of the author of the statement about this situation, but also to emphasize that the gringos are outsiders who take what does not belong to them.

In addition to negativisms, irony and sarcasm are often found in the Mexican user context: words with a meaning that is the opposite of the one they want to convey are used. Consider the following case:

«Y se hacen llamar "expats" porque recuerden que sólo la gente feíta morenita es inmigrante» [https://www.reddit.com/r/mexico/comments/14xza1q/gringos_que_se_vienen_a_vivir_a_m%C3%A9xico_y_se/]

The author of the post believes that despite the fact that the Gringos call themselves expats, in fact they are the same immigrants, since skin color in this case, according to him, is not an objective reason for such a division. This comment, like many others, is caused by the influx of relocators from the United States to Mexico, since the remote work format allowed them, while maintaining U.S. wages, to settle in a poorer country, where they began to feel very wealthy people.

Quite often, there are occasional and neologisms in the comments, many of which are derived from the names of D. Trump (el trompas, señor trompetas) and J. Baydan (Dark Brandon). As for the USA itself, some users call the country Gringolandia (Gringo Land).

Neutral vocabulary deserves special attention, which acquires negative connotations in a nationally determined context. Ethnocultural and socio-economic types of contexts predominate in Mexican user content, less often personality-oriented types of contexts.

As for the ethno-cultural context, the history of relations between Mexico and the United States played a decisive role in its formation. The US seizure of a large part of the territory of a neighboring country, as well as interference in domestic and foreign policy, contribute to the growth of Mexicans' fears of US imperialist ambitions. It is noteworthy that even the words el ingl's and los americanos turn into LPMC in this context. Gringos require special treatment both in Mexico and in the United States, they do not learn Spanish, but prefer to speak English.

«…cuando ellos vienen siempre quieren que se les acomode y casi casi que se modifique la cultura del país para que ellos estén a gusto» [https://www.reddit.com/r/mexico/comments/14xza1q/gringos_que_se_vienen_a_vivir_a_m%C3%A9xico_y_se/]

Such double standards irritate Mexicans, who are required to speak English, both when they are in the United States and when they communicate with gringos in Mexico. It is noteworthy that the term los Americanos, in the understanding of Mexicans, was appropriated by US citizens illegally, since the Americans include the indigenous inhabitants of North and South America, and the Gringos are descendants of the Anglo-Saxons, who appeared in North America only in the XVI century. Now, most Gringos behave like masters on the territory of Mexico, which contributes to the growth of social tension.

As an example of the acquisition of negative connotation by neutral vocabulary in a socio-economic context, let's turn to the hashtag #mexicoisocheap, which caused outrage among Mexicans who disagree that Mexico is a cheap country. The influx of wealthy foreigners into Mexico, who live in style and do not pay taxes, has led to an unprecedented increase in prices, and many families are forced to leave their homes and move to the outskirts.

«Pague impuestos y vera que mexico isnt cheap as you think» [https://www.reddit.com/r/mexico/comments/wcuopn/viendo_la_ola_de_xenofobia_en_este_sub_siendo/]

With regard to the personality-oriented context, it should be noted that in the context of the "friend-stranger" dichotomy, the representative of the "group-they" is not perceived as an individual, but automatically acquires all the negative characteristics peculiar to outsiders. Thus, even interpersonal conflict passes into an ethnocultural or socio-economic context, cf.:

«Si cabron, pero nosotros somos de aquí tu no… la opinion de los ingleses no cuenta» [https://www.reddit.com/r/mexico/comments/wcuopn/viendo_la_ola_de_xenofobia_en_este_sub_siendo/]

This fragment is the response of one of the users to a post by an immigrant from the UK that the complaints of Mexicans about the difficulties of life in Mexico are exaggerated.

According to the results of the study, a negative image of an English-speaking foreigner, who is essentially an immigrant in Mexico, and ultimately behaves like a host in a foreign country, is actively being formed and promoted in Mexican social media. To objectify it, they are used as LPMC, which initially have a negative connotation: arrogant, greedy, invader, racist, disrespecting Mexico and causing price increases, as well as words that acquire it in ethnocultural, socio-economic and personality-oriented contexts: Americans, English, English speakers, Mexico is a cheap country, etc. At the same time, there is a rather low index of conflict tension in the texts of Mexican user content in comparison with, for example, Russian, which, according to M.N. Lyasheva and her colleagues, is characterized by vulgarity and irony, a large number of words containing a negative assessment and aimed at insulting an opponent ^[9].

As a result of the analysis of the selected factual material, it can be argued that LPMC can be both universal and nationally specific, while the actualization of the cognitive and pragmatic potential of the latter is most often provided by the national context. At the same time, an increase in the density of the use of LMPK when discussing certain topics allows us to talk about an increase in the level of social tension in this area of public life.