The Reflection of the Socio-Cultural Context in Russian, French and Azerbaijani Internet Memes

Abstract

Internet texts represent the most mobile and eclectic type of a text. Therefore, the methodology of their analysis is integrative and polyparadigmatic; and for adequate interpretation it is required to consider them taking into account modern socio-cultural context and presuppositional knowledge. The article is devoted to the description of meme-creating components associated with modern sociocultural context in various forms of Internet memes: comics, demotivators, cartoons, presented in three segments of the Internet (Runet, French and Azerbaijani segments). The novelty of the research is based on the fact that for the first time, the meme-creating plots in the Russian, French and Azerbaijani segments of the Internet were identified and correlated; the authors carried out an analysis of the authentic material formed under the influence of the socio-cultural context - the influence of various external factors and cultural background. A continuous selection of network sources from various segments of the Internet allowed compiling an author’s card-file containing more than 2 500 Internet memes, the examples from which became an empirical basis for the study. The material was аnalysed with the use of a descriptive and analytical method that involves direct observation of the phenomena under analysis and their systematization, generalization of language material; we also used elements of discursive, componential and linguopragmatic analysis.A comparative analysis of memes in the Russian, French and Azerbaijani segments of the Internet showed, on the one hand, a quantitative asymmetry (Russian memes prevail), and on the other hand, differences in the forms of Internet memes (for example, demotivators prevail in Runet, comics and cartoons are commonly found in the French and Azerbaijani segments). The analyzed material showed that both words and phraseological units of different categories realize the functional potential in the verbal part of Internet memes of the three linguocultures under consideration. In a number of cases, there is an actualization and complete rethinking of lexical and precedent units. The nature of the presentation of images in the visual part may be associated with the cultural tradition of the nation. The study shows that such 21st century attraction events as migration and threat of coronavirus infection are reflected in Internet memes regardless of the system of values, religion and mentality. When creating national images and presenting artefacts, the role of ethno-linguistic markers perceived by a particular nation is decisive. The visual element can also be actualized in connection with ongoing socio-political events. All this proves that adequate interpretation of memes requires presuppositional knowledge, so that understanding such a polycode formation as an Internet meme does not become a communicative failure. Memes about labour migration and the coronavirus pandemic in the Belarusian segment of the Internet, content and forms of which are conditioned by the multicultural originality and socio-cultural openness of modern Belarus, confirm and typify the main provisions about the factors, conditions, methods and motivations of meme formation in Russian, French and Azerbaijani linguocultures.