Linguistic and Semiotic Analysis of Memes with English and Arabic Humor Captions
Abstract
This study aimed to examine memes from a linguistic and cultural perspective, focusing on humor expressed through English and Arabic captions in memes collected from Facebook and Instagram. Using a mixed-method approach that combined quantitative and qualitative methods, corpus linguistics was employed to collect 60 memes—30 Arabic and 30 English. The study sought to highlight the similarities and differences in the methods used to express humor through memes while examining the socio-semiotic aspects underlying their linguistic and cultural structure. Drawing on Halliday's socio-semiotic theory, the analysis was conducted at three levels: ideational, interpersonal, and textual metafunctions, described in terms of the situational context through the variables of field, tenor, and mode. The findings revealed that mode was the most frequently used semiotic metafunction across the four sub-corpora, represented by ellipsis, exophoric and anaphoric references, conjunction, lexical collocation, and repetition. Linguistic features of mode were more prominent in Instagram English memes and Facebook Arabic memes. Tenor emerged as the second most used metafunction, particularly in Facebook Arabic memes and Instagram English memes, expressed through mood, polarity, modality, and dialogue. Conversely, field, encompassing themes such as social commentary, relationships, and politics, was the least used metafunction, with no significant differences among its sub-corpora. The study concludes that memes are a complex socio-semiotic phenomenon where linguistic and visual elements interact to communicate meaning. It recommends further research on cross-platform memes and longitudinal analyses to explore evolving linguistic and cultural dynamics.
Full text article
References
Alcantara, A., & Yocampo, J. (2022). Popular internet meme templates through the semiotic-symbolic interactionist lens: A look into meme culture. International Journal of Recent Innovations in Academic Research, 6(4), 53–59. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6529040
Bakhtin, M.M. (1986). The Problem of Speech Genres. In Speech Genres and Other Late Essays, trans. Vern W. McGee, 60–102. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Bakuuro, J. (2017). Demystifying Halliday's metafunctions of language. International Journal of Language and Literature, 5(2), 211–217. https://doi.org/10.15640/ijll.v5n2a21
Bardakis, T. (2021). A semiotic approach to Greek internet memes during the Covid-19 pandemic. Punctum: International Journal of Semiotics, 7(1), 31–43. https://doi.org/10.18680/hss.2021.0003
Dawkins, R. (1976). The selfish gene (1st ed.). Oxford University Press.
Dwivedi, S. (2023). Social media memes: A study of its impact on intercultural communications. International Journal of Development Research, 13(1), 61307–61311. https://doi.org/10.37118/ijdr.26159.01.2023
Grundlingh, L. (2017). Memes as speech acts. Social Semiotics, 28(2), 147–168. https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2017.1303020
Gunawat, G., & Kapoor, V. (2023). Emerging meme culture: Usage of memes as a source of political and social awareness. Pacific Business Review (International), 16(5), 80–88. http://www.pbr.co.in/2023/2023_month/November/7.pdf
Ibnu, S. (2016). Internet meme analysis: Interpretive semiotic analysis on the "Scumbag Steve."
Kavitha, G. (2018). A study of memes using semiotics. Research Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 9(1), 219-224. https://doi.org/10.5958/2321-5828.2018.00039.6
Hakoköngäs, E., Halmesvaara, O., & Sakki, I. (2020). Persuasion through bitter humor: Multimodal discourse analysis of rhetoric in internet memes of two far-right groups in Finland. Social Media + Society, 6(2), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120921575
Halliday, M. (1975). Language as social semiotic. In J. Maybin (Ed.), Language and literacy (pp. 23-43). Clevedon: Open University.
Halliday, M. (1978). Language as a social semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning. London: Edward Arnold.
Halversen, A., & Weeks, B. E. (2023). Memeing politics: Understanding political meme creators, audiences, and consequences on social media. Social Media + Society, 9(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051231205588
Halliday, M. (1985). An introduction to functional grammar (1st ed.). London: Edward Arnold.
Huang, X., Han, Y., Ran, Y., Yang, Y., & Yang, Y. (2024). The rise of cross-language internet memes: A social semiotic analysis. Signs and Society, 12(2), 125-141. https://doi.org/10.1086/729125
Kariko, A. (2013). Analysis on Internet Memes Using Semiotics. English BINUS University. https://english.binus.ac.id/2013/06/24/analysis-on-internet-memes-using-semiotics/
Kitazume, S. (2000). Does repetition create humor? The National Institute of Informatics, 73-91.
Leiser, A. (2022). Psychological perspectives on participatory culture: Core motives for the use of political internet memes. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 10, 236-252. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.6377
Lestari, F., Duwila, S., & Probowati, Y. (2022). Semiotics study on Skripsi's memes. EL2J: English Language and Literature Journal, 1(2), 12-22. https://doi.org/10.38156/el2j.v1i2.10
Liu, M. (2014). The social interpretation of language and meaning. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 4(6), 1238-1242. https://doi.org/10.4304/tpls.4.6.1238-1242
Long, J., & He, J. (2021). Cultural semiotics and the related interpretation. Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, 586, 1268-1272. https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.211020.340
Octavita, A., & Zaimar, Y. (2019). Semiotic analysis of satire memes connecting women's identity in Brillio Net. Journal of English Language Teaching, 3(1), 38-45. https://doi.org/10.30998/scope.v3i1.3004
Ounjian, N. (2018). Analysis and the elements of the lifespan of memes from the scope of semiotics and Darwinian theory. American University of Armenia.
Pauliks, K. (2020). Memes of the virus: Social criticism of the corona pandemic on the internet. TelevIZIon, 33(E), 46-49.
Radden, G., & Dirven, R. (2007). Cognitive English grammar. Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/clip.2
Rao, C. (2018). The importance of collocations in teaching vocabulary. Journal for Research Scholars and Professionals of English Language Teaching, 2(7), 1-8.
Saussure, F. (1916). Course in general linguistics. London: Duckworth.
Sayani, M. (2013). Semiotic analysis of meme in 9gag.com. Humanis. Retrieved from https://ojs.unud.ac.id/index.php/sastra/article/view/5005
Sebeok, T. (2001). Signs: An introduction to semiotics (2nd ed.). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Shifman, L. (2013). Memes in a digital world: Reconciling with a conceptual troublemaker. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 18(3), 362-377. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12013
Shifman, L. (2014). Memes in digital culture. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9429.001.0001
Mukhtar, S., Ayyaz, Q. U. A., Khan, S., Bhopali, A. M. N., Sajid, M. K. M., & Babbar, A. W. (2024). Memes In The Digital Age: A Sociolinguistic Examination Of Cultural Expressions And Communica-tive Practices Across Border. Educational Administration: Theory and Practice, 30(6), 1443-1455. https://doi.org/10.53555/kuey.v30i6.5520
Sultonov, K., & Numonova, Z. (2021). The analyses of reference in discourse and its main. European Scholar Journal, 2(4), 200-202.
Tannen, D. (1989). Talking voices: Repetition, dialogue, and imagery in conversational discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Taecharungroj, V., & Nueangjamnong, P. (2015). Humour 2.0: Styles and Types of Humour and Virality of Memes on Facebook. Journal of Creative Communications, 10 (3), 288–302. https://doi.org/10.1177/0973258615614420
Vásquez, C., & Aslan, E. (2021). Cats be outside, how about meow: Multimodal humor and creativity in an internet meme. Journal of Pragmatics, 171, 101-117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2020.10.006
Verstraete, J. C. (2015). The role of mood marking in complex sentences: A case study of Australian languages. Word, 57(2-3), 195-236. https://doi.org/10.1080/00437956.2006.11432563
Wagener, A. (2023). Semiotic excess in memes: From postdigital creativity to social violence. Internet Pragmatics, 6(2), 239-258. https://doi.org/10.1075/ip.00098.wag
Wang, D. (2024). A brief analysis of the cultural and social phenomenon of internet memes in the context of media convergence. Communications in Humanities Research, 37, 136-140. https://doi.org/10.54254/2753-7064/37/20240185
Wang, J., & Wang, H. (2015). From a marketplace to a cultural space: Online meme as an operational unit of cultural transmission. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 45(3), 261-274. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047281615578847
Winiharti, M. (2012). The difference between modal verbs in deontic and epistemic modality. Humaniora, 3(2), 532-539. https://doi.org/10.21512/humaniora.v3i2.3396
Xu, D. (2012). A social semiotic analysis of the multimodality of an advertisement. Chinese Semiotic Studies, 6(1), 154-165. https://doi.org/10.1515/css-2012-0110
Yaacob, H., Azahari, M., & Ismail, A. (2013). Social commentary on photographic images. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 91(1), 185-191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.08.416
Zenner, E., & Geeraerts, D. (2018). One does not simply process memes: Image macros as multimodal constructions. In E. Winter-Froemel & V. Thaler (Eds.), Cultures and traditions of wordplay and wordplay research (1st ed., pp. 167-194). De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110586374-008
Authors
Copyright (c) 2024 Juhaina Maan Al-Issawi, Wajed Al Ahmad, Nasaybah Walid Awajan
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This journal provides immediate and free open access to all its content and is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This means readers are permitted to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author, as long as proper attribution is given. This policy is consistent with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of open access.