Internet Pragmatics - Online First

It is well established that the internet meme has come to represent a highly creative discursive device used to “facilitate the […] communication of one’s own political beliefs, attitudes and orientations” ( Ross and Rivers 2017 : 1). Although internet memes and political internet memes in particular have been addressed to many communicative situations such as participatory culture (e.g., Jenkins 2006 ; Shifman 2014 ; Theocharis 2015 ), one aspect that has not been paid enough attention to concerns the forms in which users refer to individual political figures and events in political memes. This being said, the present paper focuses on referring strategies (see Kirner-Ludwig and Zimmermann 2015 ; Kirner-Ludwig 2020 ) as employed in political internet memes on Reddit, including direct and indirect quotes, citations and allusions. A specific focus is going to be on such political internet memes that employ pop cultural and telecinematic reference points and recontextualize them from their original into new target contexts (see Bublitz 2015 ; Gruber 2019 ). As shall be shown, practices such as combining constructed speech elements into recontextualized elements in political internet memes create multiple intertextual references that may enhance visibility, saliency and, thus, the ‘lifetime’ of a political meme.

Based on questionnaire data in response to six excerpts of Australian online health information, this study investigates university students’ attitudes towards elastic language (EL). The findings show that averaging all six cases a neutral attitude is found, with no strong preference for EL or non-EL. This indicates that it is unnecessary to deliberately use more or less EL – the key is to use EL appropriately when and where it is needed. Examining the reasons for participants’ choices, we identify ten frames. Often the same EL generated positive and negative comments: a phenomenon that can be explained in terms of two sides of a frame. The findings may help healthcare professionals to deliver medical information in ways most accessible to the public and to find effective ways of communicating uncertainty. A ‘one fits all’ rule for language use does not exist, and instead multiple standards guide our use of it.

Metaphor production is a creative process of thinking out of the box, which can be of great communicative value to language users. In this study, we explored how metaphor production can be stimulated by different types of cues in an internet environment. Participants (N = 318) were invited to co-create a metaphorical campaign slogan in a social media setting with randomly selected sets of real campaign slogans. We measured how linguistic (metaphor markers) and social media cues (likes) prompt direct metaphor. Results show that the metaphor marker ‘so’ stimulated metaphor production. Likes for previously posted metaphorical slogans did not affect the creation of a metaphor. We found a correlation between the actual and self-perceived creativity of the co-created slogans. Besides, the co-created metaphors both echoed and deviated from previously posted campaign slogans, leading to different degrees of creativity. Co-creation in a social media setting seems a fruitful environment for metaphor production.

This paper presents a case study of identity construction and performance by examining the dynamic translanguaging practices of a Chinese student in the UK on a widely-used social media platform, WeChat. Drawing on data from WeChat Moment posts, chatting records, face-to-face interviews and online interviews over a period of 10 months, the study discusses identity construction in a digital world with a particular focus on heterogeneity and fluidity. The main findings include the following two points. First, the participant is the epitome of his world; he selects and manipulates linguistic and other semiotic resources indicating his beliefs, attitudes and life trajectory, and he actively, creatively, critically and strategically uses resources from his communicative repertoire to construct heterogeneous and fluid self-identities in his interactions with others. Second, the participant actively creates a virtual translanguaging space on WeChat, within which his new and old identities and different knowledge meet, integrate and fuse. The findings of this research provide detailed insights of digital translanguaging practices of WeChat users and contribute to a comprehensive understanding of identity (re)construction and (re)formation of an increasing number of overseas Chinese students.

This article undertakes the first linguistic analysis of the innovative online pseudonyms (e.g., , <00Q007Narry>, ) used by fanfiction authors. Specifically, this research explores the most frequent lexical formation processes employed when creating pseudonyms, why these processes are used, and what they reveal about authorial identity in fanfiction communities. The most common formation methods identified across the 600 names analysed are compounding, blending, and variant spellings. All three of these processes allow authors to create memorable and unique names which distinguish their work from that of other writers in their community. Indeed, despite their use of pseudonyms, these authors are still highlighting their individual authorial identities, and they do this by turning the process of creating a pseudonym into a ludic experiment in linguistic innovation. Consequently, future studies should further explore the relationship between self-selected names and the articulation of identity.

This paper analyzes humorous comments created through a popular viewing-and-commenting system used in China and Japan, known as danmu (or danmaku). This system enables its users to superimpose anonymous comments on the video frame, which are displayed in subsequent viewing. We collected 327 user-selected ‘funniest’ screenshots of comments from danmu video sharing sites. Using content and discourse analysis, we re-contextualized the comments and identified main mechanisms of humor. Results show that speakers make fun of the plot, characters and of each other, relating to the video frame, Chinese culture and Japanese fandom. They rely on non-aggressive but rather playful teasing, allusions and retorts, and apply multimodal resources such as color, layout, and symbols to enhance the humorous effect. Our study contributes to the emerging research focus on multimodal humor ( Yus 2016 ), social semiotics and a discursive approach to danmu-mediated communication.

This article presents the results of a critical discourse analysis of internet memes. This analysis considers the highly visual nature of internet memes situated in a context of meme-as-utterance prompting other remixed versions as memes-as-responses. Prior to the analysis an orientation to pragmatics as related to internet memes is presented. Following this is an overview of memes research and a necessary discussion of the role of media narratives in the construction and dissemination of internet memes. Finally, a series of memes tweeted in response to Nike’s inclusion of former National Football League player, Colin Kaepernick, in its Just Do It anniversary campaign, serves as the corpus of analysis.