Cognitive mechanisms and emergent grammatical features in Internet memes

Internet memes of the type composed of an image macro and text, have a strong form-meaning correlation that is shared among users of social media. Their frequency of usage and the immediacy of their broad reach around the world make them an interesting field of investigation for linguistic studies....

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Main Author: Elke Diedrichsen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin 2018-12-01
Series:LingBaW
Subjects:
Online Access:https://czasopisma.kul.pl/index.php/LingBaW/article/view/5663
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author Elke Diedrichsen
author_facet Elke Diedrichsen
author_sort Elke Diedrichsen
collection DOAJ
description Internet memes of the type composed of an image macro and text, have a strong form-meaning correlation that is shared among users of social media. Their frequency of usage and the immediacy of their broad reach around the world make them an interesting field of investigation for linguistic studies. I will argue in this article that Internet memes resemble linguistic signs. Users develop a literacy, i.e. a command of their usage through convention and shared usage history. Popular Internet memes can be found in a multiplicity of variations, where details of the shown picture are changed, while the general mood or topic of the meme, mostly expressed in the caption, remains broadly the same. This article will discuss cases where the development of meme variations works along the lines of known cognitive mechanisms like metaphor and metonymy, and their prerequisites, like abstraction. Some meme variations can be represented as grammaticalisation paths that lead to the emergence of grammatical features like morphemes.
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spelling doaj-art-7d62d916db3f4338af5c1fb197b0f80b2025-01-21T05:13:56ZengThe John Paul II Catholic University of LublinLingBaW2450-51882018-12-014110.31743/lingbaw.5663Cognitive mechanisms and emergent grammatical features in Internet memesElke Diedrichsen0Institute of Technology, Blanchardstown, Dublin Internet memes of the type composed of an image macro and text, have a strong form-meaning correlation that is shared among users of social media. Their frequency of usage and the immediacy of their broad reach around the world make them an interesting field of investigation for linguistic studies. I will argue in this article that Internet memes resemble linguistic signs. Users develop a literacy, i.e. a command of their usage through convention and shared usage history. Popular Internet memes can be found in a multiplicity of variations, where details of the shown picture are changed, while the general mood or topic of the meme, mostly expressed in the caption, remains broadly the same. This article will discuss cases where the development of meme variations works along the lines of known cognitive mechanisms like metaphor and metonymy, and their prerequisites, like abstraction. Some meme variations can be represented as grammaticalisation paths that lead to the emergence of grammatical features like morphemes. https://czasopisma.kul.pl/index.php/LingBaW/article/view/5663Internet memesemergent grammargrammaticalisationmetaphormetonymy
spellingShingle Elke Diedrichsen
Cognitive mechanisms and emergent grammatical features in Internet memes
LingBaW
Internet memes
emergent grammar
grammaticalisation
metaphor
metonymy
title Cognitive mechanisms and emergent grammatical features in Internet memes
title_full Cognitive mechanisms and emergent grammatical features in Internet memes
title_fullStr Cognitive mechanisms and emergent grammatical features in Internet memes
title_full_unstemmed Cognitive mechanisms and emergent grammatical features in Internet memes
title_short Cognitive mechanisms and emergent grammatical features in Internet memes
title_sort cognitive mechanisms and emergent grammatical features in internet memes
topic Internet memes
emergent grammar
grammaticalisation
metaphor
metonymy
url https://czasopisma.kul.pl/index.php/LingBaW/article/view/5663
work_keys_str_mv AT elkediedrichsen cognitivemechanismsandemergentgrammaticalfeaturesininternetmemes