The language of memes : patterns of meaning across image and text / Barbara Dancygier, Lieven Vandelanotte.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dancygier, Barbara, Author.

Vandelanotte, Lieven, 1978- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Language and the Internet.

Memes.

English language--Discourse analysis.

English language.

Internet users--Language.

Internet users.

Visual communication.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvii, 245 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2025.

Summary:

Internet memes have been studied widely for their role in establishing and maintaining social relationships, and shaping public opinion, online. However, they are also a prominent and fast evolving multimodal genre, one which calls for an in-depth linguistic analysis. This book, the first of its kind, develops the analytical tools necessary to describe and understand contemporary 'image-plus-text' communication. It demonstrates how memes achieve meaning as multimodal artifacts, how they are governed by specific rules of composition and interpretation, and how such processes are driven by stance networks. It also defines a family of multimodal constructions in which images become structural components, while making language forms adjust to the emerging multimodal rules. Through analysis of several meme types, this approach defines the specificity of the memetic genre, describing established types, but also accounting for creative forms. In describing the 'grammar of memes', it provides a new model to approach multimodal genres.

Contents:

Cover

Half-title page

Title page

Imprints page

Dedication

Contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

1 Why Study Memes from the Linguistic Perspective?

1.1 Memes as Multimodal Artefacts

1.2 Memes as Multimodal Constructions

1.3 The Structure of This Book

2 Memes and Multimodal Figuration

2.1 Metaphors and Blends in Multimodal Artefacts

2.2 Perception, Experience, and Similative Meaning

2.3 When-Memes and the 'Feel Like' Simile

2.4 When-Memes as Constructions

2.5 When-Memes, Experiential Meanings, and Multimodality

2.6 If 2020 Was X Memes and Further Constructional Complexities

3 Image Macro Memes

3.1 Social Media, Categorization, and Virality

3.2 Non-Entrenched Images and One-Off Memes

3.3 Entrenched Image Macro, Meaning, and Constructions

3.3.1 The Role of the Image Macro

3.3.2 Predictive Constructions and Good Girl Gina Memes

3.3.3 Constructional Networks

4 Labelling Memes

4.1 One-Off and Partly Productive Labelling Memes

4.2 Labelling Image Macro Memes as Constructions

4.3 The Distracted Boyfriend Meme as a Construction

4.4 Labelling Image Macro Constructions and Figuration

4.5 Sections of Memes

5 Memetic Grids

5.1 Scalar Grids

5.1.1 Vertical Grids and Tiers

5.1.2 Combining Scales in Grids with Four or More Cells

5.2 Non-scalar Grids

6 Memetic Use of Personal Pronouns

6.1 Entrenched Meme Character as Image Macro

6.2 Subject Argument Suppression: Entrenched Image Macro

6.3 Second Person Pronouns in Memes

6.4 The Use of Me

6.4.1 Me Verb-ing

6.4.2 Me/Also Me

6.5 What If I Told You Memes: Meme Character Addressing Meme Viewer

6.6 Referring to Meme Maker in Memes

6.7 Memes That Tell Stories

6.8 Pronouns and the 'Fourth Wall'

6.9 Memetic Roles and Pronouns in Memes.

7 Say, Tell, and Be Like Meme Constructions

7.1 Said No One Ever (SNOE) Memes

7.2 It Will Be Fun, They Said Memes

7.3 And Then X Said Y Memes

7.4 Be Like Memes

7.5 What If I Told You Memes

8 Embedding Discourse Spaces without Say Verbs

8.1 'Zero Quotatives' in Memes

8.2 Dialogue Labelling Memes

8.3 Me/Also Me and Related Patterns

8.4 Repeat after Me Memes: Combining a Range of Meme Types and Features

9 Memetic Form and Memetic Meaning

9.1 Meme Blends and Meta-Memetic Forms

9.2 Variability of Form versus Stability of Meaning

9.3 Recursion, or Memeception

9.4 Antimemes

9.5 Memetic Form for Form's Sake

10 Memetic Discourse on Social Media Platforms

10.1 Quick and Dirty Memeing: Platform Text and Image

10.2 Emoji in X/Twitter Labelling Memes

10.3 Textual and Visual Formulae on X/Twitter

10.4 Depicting and Responding to Attitudes in Fictive Interactions on X/Twitter

10.5 Embodied Emotions and Attitudes Expressed by Emoji

10.6 Quote-Tweeting as a Stance-Stacking Practice

10.7 TikTok Variations on Familiar Themes

10.8 Meme Awareness and Co-construction

10.9 Memetic Transfer and the 'Memeticization' of Online Discourse

11 Memes and Advertising

11.1 Distracted Boyfriend Memes in Advertising

11.2 What Do Painkiller Ads Really Promote?

11.3 Memes versus Ads

12 One Does Not Simply Draw a Conclusion

12.1 Why Should Linguists Study Memes?

12.2 How Is Memetic Image-Text Multimodality Different from Other Multimodal Genres?

12.3 Constructions, Snowclones, and the Image-Text Dynamic

12.4 The Grammar of Memes

12.5 Why Memes Are Important

References

Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 15 Sep 2025).

ISBN:

1-108-95248-8

1-108-95278-X

1-108-95085-X

OCLC:

1526230377