TY - JOUR

T1 - Directives and references in selected coronavirus-motivated internet memes

AU - Osisanwo, Ayo

AU - Falade, Toluwalope Mary

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 the author(s), published by De Gruyter on behalf of Soochow University.

PY - 2024/6/1

Y1 - 2024/6/1

N2 - The use of directives in communicating the nature of the pandemic and reference to social experiences were promoted using images on social media platforms. The images or memes are used to create awareness and reinforce the criteria for safety during the pandemic. Previous studies on internet memes have concentrated on humor generation, speaker-hearer shared knowledge, neologism, and multimodality among others, with insufficient attention paid to the use of directives and references in such coronavirus-motivated memes. This paper, therefore, examines how directives and references are employed in conveying expected social responsibilities through coronavirus-motivated internet memes in Nigeria and other socio-cultural contexts. For data, one hundred coronavirus-motivated memes were purposively selected from Facebook, and eight representative memes were subjected to pragmatic analysis using aspects of Jacob Mey's (2001. Pragmatics: An introduction, 2nd edn. USA: Blackwell Publishing) pragmatic acts theory to unearth insights from them. The paper observes that the various spheres of life that are relatable to an online audience help to express what the pandemic is about and enhance the meaning of the pandemic with the context of the use of the memes, giving clearer perspectives on the pandemic. Directives and references are useful tools for conveying social responsibilities to online audience.

AB - The use of directives in communicating the nature of the pandemic and reference to social experiences were promoted using images on social media platforms. The images or memes are used to create awareness and reinforce the criteria for safety during the pandemic. Previous studies on internet memes have concentrated on humor generation, speaker-hearer shared knowledge, neologism, and multimodality among others, with insufficient attention paid to the use of directives and references in such coronavirus-motivated memes. This paper, therefore, examines how directives and references are employed in conveying expected social responsibilities through coronavirus-motivated internet memes in Nigeria and other socio-cultural contexts. For data, one hundred coronavirus-motivated memes were purposively selected from Facebook, and eight representative memes were subjected to pragmatic analysis using aspects of Jacob Mey's (2001. Pragmatics: An introduction, 2nd edn. USA: Blackwell Publishing) pragmatic acts theory to unearth insights from them. The paper observes that the various spheres of life that are relatable to an online audience help to express what the pandemic is about and enhance the meaning of the pandemic with the context of the use of the memes, giving clearer perspectives on the pandemic. Directives and references are useful tools for conveying social responsibilities to online audience.

KW - coronavirus

KW - directives

KW - internet memes

KW - references

KW - social responsibilities

KW - English

KW - Literature studies

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85197501012&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1515/lass-2024-0008

DO - 10.1515/lass-2024-0008

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85197501012

VL - 10

SP - 245

EP - 266

JO - Language and Semiotic Studies

JF - Language and Semiotic Studies

SN - 2096-031X

IS - 2

ER -