The article is devoted to the study of the use of verbal and non-verbal methods of creating a comic effect in English-language and Russian-language Internet texts, as well as the specifics of their influence on Internet users. The study identified the main techniques for creating a comic effect in texts of Russian-language and English-language Internet discourse, and conducted a comparative study of linguistic means used to create a comic effect in texts of Internet discourse in Russian and English. The material for the study was comic texts (memes and anti-proverbs), selected using a continuous sampling method from
social networking sites and service sites. As a result of the study, it was established that the techniques for creating a comic effect in these texts of Russian-language and English-language Internet discourse are common: language play, precedent and the use of a visual component. In both Russian-language and English-language Internet discourse, the comic is expressed at the phonetic, lexical-semantic and grammatical levels, the main linguistic-stylistic means being a pun built on homonymy, polysemy, contrasting words with direct or figurative meaning, and the use of transformed phraseological units. Characteristic features of the functioning of virtual comic texts in Russian or English are the choice of linguistic style, determined by the sociocultural specifics of the user audience.
For citation: Pastukhova E.N. Pragmastylistic features of creating humorous effect in the English- and Russian-language Internet discourse, Ivanovo State University Bulletin, Series: Humanities, 2024, iss. 2, pp. 55—63