Semiotic Hybridisation as the Basis of Internet Meme Semantics

Abstract

The authors study the process of semiotic hybridisation in internet memes, which are a popular internet communication phenomenon. The relevance of the topic is conditioned by the lack of academic research into multimodal features of internet memes. The aim of the research work is to analyse the process of semiotic hybridisation in internet memes. The authors hold that semiotic hybridisation in internet memes construes the semantics of these units, while their verbal and non-verbal components interact on the conceptual level. The theory of conceptual integration elaborated by J. Fauconnier and M. Turner can provide a theoretical foundation for the analysis of semiotic hybridization. English internet memes are used as examples to illustrate the main research findings.

Keywords

• internet meme
• conceptual integration
• semiotic hybridisation
• mental space