The use of directives in communicating the nature of the pandemic and reference to social experiences were promoted using images on social media platforms.The images or memes are used to create awareness and reinforce...The use of directives in communicating the nature of the pandemic and reference to social experiences were promoted using images on social media platforms.The images or memes are used to create awareness and reinforce the criteria for safety during the pandemic.Previous studies on internet memes have concentrated on humor generation,speaker-hearer shared knowledge,neologism,and multimodality among others,with insufficient attention paid to the use of directives and references in such coronavirus-motivated memes.This paper,therefore,examines how directives and references are employed in conveying expected social responsibilities through coronavirus-motivated internet memes in Nigeria and other socio-cultural contexts.For data,one hundred coronavirus-motivated memes were purposively selected from Facebook,and eight representative memes were subjected to pragmatic analysis using aspects of Jacob Mey’s(2001.Pragmatics:An introduction,2nd edn.USA:Blackwell Publishing)pragmatic acts theory to unearth insights from them.The paper observes that the various spheres of life that are relatable to an online audience help to express what the pandemic is about and enhance the meaning of the pandemic with the context of the use of the memes,giving clearer perspectives on the pandemic.Directives and references are useful tools for conveying social responsibilities to online audience.展开更多
Internet memes,as multimodal cultural products disseminated through the Internet,usually take the form of short videos or images that express humor or satire.The creation and dissemination of humor in memes are both c...Internet memes,as multimodal cultural products disseminated through the Internet,usually take the form of short videos or images that express humor or satire.The creation and dissemination of humor in memes are both creative and complex,and the successful perception of meme humor reflects humans’universal thinking capacity.Based on the theoretical framework of conceptual blending,this paper selects a set of COVID-19 publicity posters from the official Weibo account of China Guangzhou Fabu(Guangzhou Internet Information Office),analyses the multi-level structure of Internet memes,and explores the dynamic cognitive process in the interpretation of humorous memes to reveal people’s ability to make simultaneous analogies and integration between elements in different mental spaces.展开更多
文摘The use of directives in communicating the nature of the pandemic and reference to social experiences were promoted using images on social media platforms.The images or memes are used to create awareness and reinforce the criteria for safety during the pandemic.Previous studies on internet memes have concentrated on humor generation,speaker-hearer shared knowledge,neologism,and multimodality among others,with insufficient attention paid to the use of directives and references in such coronavirus-motivated memes.This paper,therefore,examines how directives and references are employed in conveying expected social responsibilities through coronavirus-motivated internet memes in Nigeria and other socio-cultural contexts.For data,one hundred coronavirus-motivated memes were purposively selected from Facebook,and eight representative memes were subjected to pragmatic analysis using aspects of Jacob Mey’s(2001.Pragmatics:An introduction,2nd edn.USA:Blackwell Publishing)pragmatic acts theory to unearth insights from them.The paper observes that the various spheres of life that are relatable to an online audience help to express what the pandemic is about and enhance the meaning of the pandemic with the context of the use of the memes,giving clearer perspectives on the pandemic.Directives and references are useful tools for conveying social responsibilities to online audience.
文摘Internet memes,as multimodal cultural products disseminated through the Internet,usually take the form of short videos or images that express humor or satire.The creation and dissemination of humor in memes are both creative and complex,and the successful perception of meme humor reflects humans’universal thinking capacity.Based on the theoretical framework of conceptual blending,this paper selects a set of COVID-19 publicity posters from the official Weibo account of China Guangzhou Fabu(Guangzhou Internet Information Office),analyses the multi-level structure of Internet memes,and explores the dynamic cognitive process in the interpretation of humorous memes to reveal people’s ability to make simultaneous analogies and integration between elements in different mental spaces.
