The Pragmatics of Internet Memes

Editor
ORCID logoChaoqun Xie | Zhejiang International Studies University
HardboundAvailable
ISBN 9789027211361 | EUR 85.00 | USD 128.00
 
e-Book
ISBN 9789027257642 | EUR 85.00 | USD 128.00
 
Google Play logo
What is a meme? What is in a meme? What does ‘living in/with memes’ actually mean? What do memes mean to human beings dwelling in a life-world at once connected and fragmented by the internet and social media? Answers to and ways of answering these and other meme questions that arise in social events represent human assistance in or resistance to meaning making. A pragmatic perspective on internet memes as a way of seeing in social life experience offers a unique window on how meme matters in mediated (inter)actions turn out to be inextricably intertwined with human beings’ presencing and essencing in the life-world. Ultimately, this volume seeks to reveal what and how serious if not unsayable concerns can be concealed behind the seemingly humorous, carefree and colorful carnival of internet memes across cultures, contexts, genres and modalities. This book will be of some value to anyone keen on the dynamics of memes and internet pragmatics and on critical insights that can be garnered in kaleidoscopic multimodal communication. Originally published as special issue of Internet Pragmatics 3:2 (2020).
[Benjamins Current Topics, 120] 2022.  v, 183 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Table of Contents
“This volume is a stimulating addition to the study of internet memes, their discursive, transformative and emancipatory power, and their impact on social practices across genres and contexts. Eminent scholars build a rich picture of this fascinating discursive activity, representing a wide array of conceptualizations, such as multimodality, intertextuality, humorous incongruity, stance-taking, conventionalization and common ground. The book is a most welcome contribution to the growing body of research on internet pragmatics, and, in a wider sense, to socio-pragmatics in general.”
“In the fragmented communicative universe of the internet, memes are multimodal objects that uniquely reveal the dynamics of meaning-making: what must be kept constant, and what elements can users play around with creatively? Approaching this process from different angles, the contributors to this volume adduce essential pieces of the answer which should be of interest to pragmaticians in general.”
“Most chapters in it benefit from an empirical corpus of internet memes to expand and operationalize a range of pragmatic notions such as humor, common ground, implicit/explicit meanings, and shared knowledge/common ground. Addi­tionally, scholars with an interest in the emerging genres of digital communication will find many useful suggestions for future research throughout the volume.”
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Das, Dr. Shiv Shankar
2023. Rising Popularity of Internet Memes in India: A Media Psychology Perspective. Indian Journal of Social Science and Literature 2:3  pp. 5 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 20 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Subjects

Main BIC Subject

CFG: Semantics, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis

Main BISAC Subject

LAN009030: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Pragmatics
ONIX Metadata
ONIX 2.1
ONIX 3.0
U.S. Library of Congress Control Number:  2022011128 | Marc record