Linguopragmatic Mechanisms of Speech Manipulation in Cyberbullying

Abstract

Cyberbullying has become one of the most widespread forms of digital aggression in contemporary online communication, transforming traditional models of manipulative speech influence into complex mechanisms of social control. Within the framework of this study, cyberbullying is conceptualised not merely as a form of online verbal aggression, but also as a multidimensional linguopragmatic phenomenon implemented through intentional communicative strategies in digital environments. In order to establish a clear theoretical position, existing definitions of this phenomenon found in the scholarly literature were systematised and presented in a unified typological table. Within the scope of this research, cyberbullying is regarded as one of the most severe forms of manipulative speech influence. The aim of the study is to identify and analyse the linguistic, pragmatic, and discursive mechanisms underlying cyberbullying, with particular emphasis on manipulative speech strategies, metaphorical models, speech acts, and impoliteness patterns. The study employs descriptive and comparative-descriptive methods of linguistic analysis. The empirical material includes examples collected from social networking platforms, online gaming environments, media texts, and the film Cyberbully (2011). The findings demonstrate that cyberbullying functions as a purposeful communicative strategy aimed at exerting psychological pressure, damaging social reputation, controlling the target individual's behaviour through manipulative speech influence, and establishing asymmetrical power relations within digital communities. The analysis reveals that aggressors extensively employ both linguistic and extra-linguistic resources, including dehumanising metaphors, evaluative language, directive speech acts, imperative constructions, sarcasm, and other communicative devices intended to humiliate the target individual. The study concludes that cyberbullying should not be regarded as a mere collection of isolated manifestations of aggressive speech, but rather as a complex discursive mechanism employed to establish and maintain communicative dominance in virtual environments. From a practical perspective, the criteria proposed in this article may be of particular significance for the legal assessment of cyberbullying-related cases.