‘LOL I DUNNO’: LINGUISTIC AND COGNITIVE MECHANISMS OF FORMING INTERNET-MEMES

Abstract

The article studies the phenomenon of the Internet-meme as the main structural unit of the modern media discourse, performing the functions of integration, translation, representation, information, as well as emotional and phatic functions. The main characteristics of the Internet meme as a media image, which has been considered for a long time as an Internet phenomenon of the game plan, aimed at achieving a comic effect, are analyzed.
 The paper applies a semiotic-linguistic approach to the analysis of forming Internet-memes, allowing to understand how any sign turns into a meme as well as narrows the object of the analysis to communication phenomena expressed through verbal and non-verbal means. The mechanism of compression is considered as a linguo-cognitive technique for creating Internet-memes. Firstly, the compression mechanism involves the simplification of the text of the meme and its surface structure according to the law of language economy, the requirements of the genre, and the characteristics of the information carrier, which leads to an increase in the information content of language units and the elimination of components that can be restored using the non-verbal part of the text without changing its informative side. That is why there is a frequent use of various kinds of elliptical structures in Internet memes. Secondly, compression allows reflecting colloquial language in Internet memes through the use of compressed units and constructions. At the same time, the mechanism of compression in Internet memes inevitably leads to an increasing role of background knowledge and initiates the process of inference, which is necessary for the recipient to understand the author’s implication.