THE LANGUAGE OF THE INTERNET FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF CONTEMPORARY BULGARIAN LINGUISTIC STUDIES

Abstract

The paper traces the development of the Internet as a communicative space and examines language use in an online environment. From a review perspective, it presents Bulgarian linguistic studies that outline the typologies of the main online genres and the concept of “conceptual orality,” denoting the transfer of oral communication strategies into written form. Attention is drawn to the techniques of linguistic minimization accompanying conceptual orality, as well as to the transformations of text in a digital environment. The study examines the current linguistic processes online in light of the universal tendencies of democratization and intellectualization. It also addresses the future prospects of language in social networks in the context of the growing influence of artificial intelligence.