Current key word coronavirus in memes: semantics and pragmatics of use

For citation: Prokofieva N., Shcheglova E. Current key word ‘coronavirus’ in memes: semantics and pragmatics of use // Mediascope. 2021. 2. Availabe at: http://www.mediascope.ru/2705

DOI: 10.30547/mediascope.2.2021.8

© Natalia A. Prokofieva

PhD in Philology, Associate Professor at the Chair of Media Linguistics, Saint Petersburg State University (Saint Petersburg, Russia), n.prokofieva@spbu.ru

© Ekaterina A. Shcheglova

PhD in Philology, Associate Professor at the Institute ‘Higher school of journalism and mass communications’, Saint Petersburg State University

Abstract

The article observes the word ‘coronavirus’ functioning which has dynamically rushed into the usage and quickly obtained the status of the word of the moment. A specific speech genre – meme – was chosen for the empiric base. A meme is perceived as a comic genre of contemporary folklore. Memes might be divided into two large groups: the foundation for one being a socially meaning event, the foundation of the other being a socially meaningless but widely spread image. A significant condition for creating a meme is the possibility of comic reconsideration of an event or an image. Within the presented study, we have considered memes which illustrate the situation related to the spread of coronavirus infection. The analysis of the empiric base has been conducted in accordance with the authors' method. The analysis results have revealed such connotative meanings as danger, plague, pandemic, disaster; the word semantics is described as well as pragmatics of its usage. The authors draw the conclusion that memes reflect the topical linguistic worldview of a language bearer, the speech component of memes allows renewing and forming the semantic meaning of current key words, and memes influence the word semantics formation and its perception of a certain mentality bearer.

Keywords: current key word, meme, coronavirus, media discourse, linguistic worldview.

Notes

The research was carried out with the support of the RFFI and ANO AESI, project № 20-011-31481 ‘Future in the reflection of the present: key words of the moment in memes’.

References

Arkhipov I.K. (2007). Delu – vremya, potekhe – chas. O smeshnom i nesmeshnom [Business before pleasure. About ridiculous and non-funny]. Logicheskiy analiz yazyka. Yazykovye mekhanizmy komizma. Moscow: Indik Publ. Pp. 112–120. (In Russian)

Bakhtin М.М. (1996) Problema rechevykh zhanrov [Issues of speech genres]. Sobranie sochineniy v 7 t. Moscow: Russian vocabularies Publ. Vol. 5. Pp. 159–206. (In Russian)

Blackmore S. (1999) The Meme Machine. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Blank A. (1999) Why do new meanings occur? A cognitive typology of the motivations for lexical Semantic change. In: Blank A. & Koch P. Historical Semantics and Cognition. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Pp. 61–99.

Borev Yu.B. (1970) Komicheskoe [Сomic]. Moscow: Iskusstvo Publ. (In Russian)

Dawkins R. (1976) The Selfish Gene. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Heylighen F. (1992) Selfish Memes and the Evolution of Cooperation. Journal of Ideam 2: 70–76.

Jiang Y. (2012) On the Formation, Replication and Transmission of Strong Memes and their Cognitive Psychological Motivations. Theory and Practice in Language Studies 2 (2): 398–401.

Kepa-Figura D. (2019) (Internet-)mem kak novyj mediazhanr [(Internet-)mem as a new media genre.]. Medialingisticsa1 (6): 103–121. (In Russian)

Koltunova М.V. (2015) Mediamemy v politicheskom propagandistkom diskurse [Media memes in political propagandistic discourse]. Medialingistica 3 (9): 85–94. (In Russian)

Popova Т.I., Kolesova D.V. (2015) Vizualizacija informacii kak tendencija razvitija sovremennogo teksta [Visualization of information as a trend of development of the modern text]. Medialingistica 4 (10): 85-94.

Propp V.Ya. (1997) Problemy komizma i smeha [Problems of comic and laugh]. Saint-Petersburg: Alteija Publ.

Salimovskii V.A. (2018) Rechevoj zhanr [Speech genre]. In L.R. Duskaeva (ed.) Medialingvistika v terminah i ponjatijah. Slovar'-spravochnik. Мoscow: Flinta Publ. Pp. 99–101.

Shcheglova E.A. (2019) Funkcionirovanie kljuchevyh slov v mediadiskurse [Functioning of keywords in news media discourse]. Problemy sovremennoj rusistiki 4 (8): 58–63.

Stern G. (1931) Meaning and change of meaning with special reference to the English language. Göteborg, Elander.

Surikova T.I. (2020) Demotivator v mediadiskurse: granicy i svojstva zhanra [Demotivator in media discourse: boundaries and features of the genre]. Medialingvistika 1 (7): 29–50.