Analiza popularnih internet mimova o mačkama – postizanje efekta humora i značaj mačaka

Abstract

Relevance theory is a cognitive pragmatic approach to communication. Within this framework we aim to analyze some popular Internet memes that feature cats and examine how the humorous effects are achieved in the search of relevance. Since memes are a specific kind of communication, interpretation of which relies heavily on cultural and social context, as well as background knowledge on globally accepted stereotypes, we expect that humorous effects will be found on both explicit and implicit level of communication. The objective of the paper is also to examine potential affective attitudes that are ostensively communicated. On the other hand, non-intended non-propositional effects refer to the feelings and emotions that are not ostensively communicated, while in the context of mass communication they are closely related to the bonding witin groups and solidarity. The corpus consists of various memes that feature cats divided into three groups – image macro memes, memes with restricted forms of linguistic content and freestyle memes. The analysis of the content of the memes supports the theory of epidemiology of representations, within which imitation is considered as a borderline case, not as a norm.