Socially Meaning Events In Memes: Potential For Social Consolidation

Abstract

The research focuses on the stages of appearance and development of current key word semantics in their connection with socially and politically meaningful events/situations. The key word is considered in the dynamics, which is reflected in the appearance of new connotative meanings and the merge of lexical and semantic fields. The research material includes memes, which appeared due to the development of the situation of the Corona virus infection spread. The suggested process of analysis means several stages: 1) selection and classification of the empiric material following the stages of the development of the situation; 2) the analysis of meme visual component (precedence, symbolic meanings etc.); 3) the analysis of verbal components (units of the lexical and semantic field, the basis of language play, speech tools etc.); 4) revealing the basis for social consolidation at the given stage according to the data, received at previous stages; 5) defining the connotative meanings of words included into the lexical and semantic field. The analysis of memes, which chronologically appeared during the mentioned stages, demonstrated the direct connection between the character and the variety of memes and the situation's development. The appearance and development of the key words' connotative meanings happen due to the phatic meanings, appearing within verbal and visual memes. The consolidation is provided on various foundations at various stages and by addressing the addressee's apperception base.