Everyday business communication: A commercial chat, its specifi c features and role in organizing the life of citizens

The article deals with the study of everyday virtual business communication. The digital age has a huge impact on individuals, signifi cantly changing their lives, and the life of society is increasingly immersed in the virtual space. The material of the study is Internet communication, specifi cally group communication of citizens, residents of Saratov, in one of the commercial chats: the speech of women’s clothing sellers and buyers. The purpose of the study is to show the development of the chat genre and its functioning in business communication. The methods applied are those of participant observation and of discursive analysis. The specifi c features of the chat were manifested in a steadily followed topic of communication (no changes of topic occur). This refl ects one of the important communication practices in people’s daily lives – the one related to the purchase / sale of goods. The business sphere leaves its mark on the choice of the type of communication: a mixed type of communication (semi-offi cial) is being implemented. The dominant communicative strategy is the strategy of cooperative speech interaction, including courtesy tactics (tactics representing initial and fi nal contact, gratitude expression tactics, compliment tactics, etc.). These developments represent the process whereby a culture of virtual business communication based on the principle of mutual respect is being formed. The article also studies linguistic features of the chat. In the speech of the communicants, the vocabulary of the thematic group “Clothes and hats” is mainly used: blouse,turtleneck, jeans, jumper, bonnet, etc. Another word group constitutes foreign vocabulary related to the world of fashion which has not yet been fixed in the Russian language (jeggings, snood, skinny, moms, etc.). Conversational signals used in the chat include diminutives (blouse, skirt, novelty), communicatives (for example, the conjunction A used in the initial position in interrogative constructions). The chat contains manifestations of the offi cial business style in the fi eld of trade – professional speech stereotypes: available, new arrival, etc. Attention is drawn to the use of emoticons: their set is limited and chat-specifi c. Chat communication can be defi ned as eff ective communication that improves the life of citizens.

Russian language, Internet communication, trade, business communication, speech genres, strategies and tactics, chat, culture of speech