Semantic word change as the main way to create a comic effect in the speech genres of Internet communication

Egorova Natalya Valentinovna ORCID: 0009-0001-7841-1390 PhD in Philology Associate Professor, Department of Russian Philology and Methods of Teaching Russian, Orenburg State University 13 Pobedy Ave., Orenburg, Orenburg region, 460018, Russia stella-env@yandex.ru Shchipanova Yuliya Vladimirovna ORCID: 0009-0001-4099-9678 PhD in Philology Assistant Professor, Department of Russian Philology and Methods of Teaching Russian, Orenburg State University 13 Pobedy Ave., Orenburg, Orenburg region, 460018, Russia yuliya_yuliya_77@mail.ru

Goroshko Valentina Sergeevna ORCID: 0009-0005-3867-3889 Teacher, MOAU 'Lyceum No. 1' of Orenburg 460018, Russia, Orenburg region, Orenburg, Kharkov str., 14 valya03.03@mail.ru

Introduction

 Changes in language are a natural process that accompanies human development and the improvement of communication methods used by them. Transformation affects all levels of language, but lexical is more susceptible to it: some words go out of constant use, new ones appear in their place, while others acquire other or additional meanings. Such phenomena are especially active in indirect communication, which is provided by the Internet, which is defined by researchers as: "A worldwide computer system for storing, receiving and transmitting information, combining many computers located in different places with the help of special means of communication and providing their users with both access to common information sources and individual contacts" ^{[8, p. 472]}. The exchange of information through the worldwide computer system is interpreted as Internet communication - "computer–mediated communication between two or more persons, characterized by the invisibility of communicants, the written form of messages sent, the possibility of immediate feedback, as well as the exchange of electronic messages" ^{[14, p. 298]}. Due to the fact that comic and humor have always occupied an important place in human interaction with society, they also exist in Internet communication. M. R. Zheltukhina notes that comic "reflects objects and phenomena of reality characterized by internal inconsistency, that is, the discrepancy between what they are essentially and what they are what they pretend to be" ^{[5, p. 155]}. One of the types of comic is humor, "expressing a soft attitude towards the object of ridicule, combining an outwardly comic interpretation with an inner seriousness" ^{[5, p. 156]}. Such signs of the online environment as the use of media content in communication, anonymity, and the possibility of asynchronous communication form favorable conditions for semantic changes in the lexical layer of the Russian language and the implementation of various techniques for creating a comic effect. The features of Internet communication formed the basis of specific comic speech genres: demotivator, catfight, comic, advice. Traditionally, they are grouped under the term "Internet meme" ^{[12, p. 75]}. S. V. Kanashina defines "Internet meme" as "a complex phenomenon of Internet communication, which is an integral, complete unit with text and picture" ^{[6, p. 2]}. Note that Internet memes are created not only with the help of images, but also on the basis of video and audio files. The key difference between an Internet meme is precisely the comic effect inherent in it, which is realized under specific conditions. N. N. Shokov identifies two main conditions for the occurrence of a comic effect: firstly, the presence of superficial and hidden semantic plans; secondly, the hidden meaning should be understandable and pleasant to the recipient ^{[15, p. 171]}. The emergence of this comic genre was accompanied by a rapid increase in its popularity, which led to the creation and dissemination by many Internet users of their own Internet memes. At the moment, the number of memes cannot be counted, and it is not possible to identify the authors of most memes.

Ways to create a comic effect by semantically changing a word

To study the semantic changes of lexical means in the comic genres of Internet communication, we examined memes from the popular Internet services Vkontakte and Pinterest. As a result of the study, it was possible to identify the following ways to create a comic effect using semantic word modification:

1. A large number of Internet memes are based on an unexpected (not appropriate to the context / not implied by the context) interpretation of a polysemous word, leading to wordplay. In this case, the comic effect is created by the simultaneous actualization of several meanings in the same context. For example, on one of the memes, an image in the section of a blood vessel with red blood cells is accompanied by the inscription "Boys, let's curl up", which can have two meanings. In the dictionary of D. N. Ushakov, eight definitions of the lexeme "curl up" are given, of which the fourth one fits the context: "having condensed, turn into a lump or lumps, freeze in lumps (about something liquid). The blood has clotted" ^{[13, p. 529]}. The nonverbal component also indicates the same value (Figure).

In combination with the address "boys", the named verb is also realized in the meaning recorded in the Large Universal Dictionary of the Russian language: "temporarily reduce, limit or terminate the activity of something" ^[9]. Accordingly, the very phrase "Boys, we are winding down" is a call to a group of people to stop certain activities.

Thus, the phrase "Boys, we are folding" in this Internet meme has two interpretations: one that arose purely on textual material (in the sense of termination of activity) and one that was obtained as a result of the interaction of text with an image (in the sense of "thicken, turn into lumps)". The combination of verbal and non-verbal components and two semantic planes transforms the recipient's perception of the picture: These are not just blood cells (erythrocytes), but a group of young people with specific intentions ("boys").

A similar process is observed in the meme "Classics", which consists of an inscription of the same name and a photograph of a children's game drawn in chalk on the asphalt, where portraits of famous writers are placed in squares instead of numbers. The word "classics" has several meanings. One of them is "a children's game, according to the rules of which, jumping on one leg, you need to hold a pebble along a figure drawn on the ground, divided into cells" ^{[6, p. 110]}. The literary encyclopedia records two interpretations of the lexeme: firstly, these are "exemplary writers of antiquity, on whose works one should cultivate one's taste" ^{[10, p. 385]}, and, secondly, "all those writers who created in the spirit of the aesthetic codes of this literary trend" ^{[10, p. 385]}. These interpretations of the word "classics" in the context of a meme lead to a wordplay underlying the comic effect.

2. In some cases, a comic effect is created through the formation of occasionalisms. N. A. Batyreva defines occasionalism as follows: "individually authored words created by a poet and a writer in accordance with the laws of word formation of a language, according to the models that exist in it, and used in a literary text as a lexical means of artistic expression or linguistic games" ^{[1, p. 6]}. The researcher also notes that the comic effect of occasionalisms is created with the help of the surprise of the compared phenomena, the unusual sound of the author's words ^{[1, p. 6]}. So, in the meme "Georgian", the text is accompanied not by an illustration of a representative of a particular nationality in accordance with the expectation, but by an image of a human figurine with a download icon instead of a head. Occasionalism is formed in a lexico-semantic way (semantic derivation), namely by reinterpreting the word that led to the emergence of homonyms. As a result of semantic derivation, the lexeme "Georgian" in the above meme loses its primary meaning. Based on the similarity in sound, the word is interpreted as a derivative of the verb "to load" in the meaning of "to inform, obsessively transmit to someone information that the interlocutor considers unnecessary, burdensome, to tire someone with reasoning, obsessive presentation of something (colloquial, figurative, disapproving)" ^[3], that is, it acquires the meaning "a person who tires someone with unnecessary, burdensome information, reasoning, obsessive presentation of something." At the stage of the appearance of a new meaning for the token, the non-verbal part of the meme (figure) comes to the fore, correcting the recipient's interpretation of the text or word. The download icon depicted in this meme, also called the "download indicator" or "progress indicator", is an interface element used in modern software applications to indicate the current state of processing or downloading a specific operation or request. Thus, the nonverbal component indicates that the painted human figure with a badge instead of a head is not the subject, but the object of the action conveyed by the verb "to load"; "Georgian" is a person who "loads" for a long time (figuratively, he is burdened with information, so he thinks for a long time). It can be assumed that this occasionalism is also used by the author to designate a group of people who are experiencing difficulties in terms of rapid decision-making.

3. It should be noted that puns are often used to create a comic effect. N. A. Batyreva believes that a pun is "a figure of speech consisting in the humorous use of a polysemous word or the sound similarity of various words" ^{[1, p. 2]}. The researcher notes that a pun can be formed by literalizing a metaphor. The literalization of metaphor is a stylistic device, the essence of which is that the metaphorical expression is deliberately interpreted and used in an intolerable meaning ^{[1, p. 2]}. O. E. Voronichev highlights the criteria for the success of a pun: "a contrasting explicit or implicit clash of the content plans of homonymous or paronymous dominants and the contextual environment of these keywords optimal for such a clash" ^{[2, p. 8]}

An example is the meme, which is the text "Why did the widower leave his girlfriend? She was not a fountain", written in fonts of different sizes and colors on the background of an image of a guy and a girl hugging. The lexeme "Vdvshnik" refers to a person who is an active or former serviceman of the airborne forces. Attention is drawn to the deliberate violation of the spelling norm in order to highlight the name of the military branch within the lexeme. The comic effect is created using the second phrase. The expression "not a fountain" in the dictionary of Russian argot by V. S. Elistratov has the interpretation "about something bad or about unwillingness to do something" ^[4]. This definition builds the meaning of the phrase as a whole: "The widower" abandoned the girl because she was not good enough." However, in the meme under consideration, the user also guesses a well-known precedent situation based on the tradition of bathing in fountains on their professional holiday, which is common among those who have served in the airborne forces. In this context, the key word is "fountain" as "a jet of liquid forcefully ejected upward from a pipe or hole under pressure" ^{[11, p. 796]}. Taking into account this precedent situation, the meaning of the meme text boils down to the fact that the "Vdvshnik" abandoned the girl because she is not a fountain (a device for supplying water). Thus, the comic effect arises with the help of a pun, namely as a result of the implementation of not the expected figurative meaning of the expression "not a fountain" (something bad, undesirable), but a direct one (something that is not a device for supplying liquid upwards), updated with the help of precedent.

In the meme, an "Unassembled" drawing in which a girl collects scattered parts of a mannequin in a basket is accompanied by the phrase "What an unassembled person you are." In O. M. Prokhorov's encyclopedic dictionary, "unassembled" means a person who is scattered, disorganized ^{[11, p. 582]}. In the context of an Internet meme, this word is interpreted in the direct meaning: not assembled into a whole, but disassembled into parts. Consequently, in this Internet meme, the comic effect is created with the help of a pun.

4. To create a comic effect by means of semantic word modification, the division of lexical units into independent components (lexemes) is used. For example, the meme uses a photo of the "Delivery" sign at the order pick-up point and the signature slogan "You are the cottage!". Accordingly, in this meme, the word "issue" is not understood entirely, but is divided by morphemes into the personal pronoun "you" and the noun "cottage". The comic effect arises as a result of an unexpected misinterpretation of the lexeme "issue" for the viewer's perception.

5. The comic effect can be created by a combination of precedent and the division of lexical means into components, in which the meaning of the word is transformed. This technique is used in the meme "An attack of laziness and punishment", where the named phrase is located against the background of a portrait of F. M. Dostoevsky. The similar sound of the phrase "attack of laziness" with the word "crime", the lexeme "punishment" and the portrait of the Russian writer refer the recipient to one of the famous works of F. M. Dostoevsky – the novel "Crime and Punishment".

The verbal component of the meme, represented by a precedent name, the lexical units of which are divided into elements-words, and the non-verbal one are aimed at building a certain associative series associated with the content of the work and the corresponding meaning: a negative phenomenon (laziness) is followed by a mandatory consequence (punishment).

It should be noted that the elements that have arisen again on the basis of a precedent name demonstrate semantic viability and create a comic effect exclusively in the context of a meme.

6. Such a method of semantic word change as the formation of new lexical units (occasionalisms) by combining two words into one lexeme by superimposing their parts that coincide in sound has found wide application in Internet communication. These memes are often based on the combination of two different lexemes with a similar sound of the last part of one component and the first part of the other, but other combinations are possible. For example, the meme "tiramisu" is based on combining the words "tiramisu" and "gopher" with the same sounding parts of these words. At the same time, the meme is complemented by a photo of a gopher peeking out of a dessert. The comic effect arises from the unexpected combination of completely different words in meaning. The memes "bacon" ("bacon" and "horse"), "trampoline" ("trampoline" and "duck"), "hamster" ("hamster" and "crumb"), "cinder block" ("cinder block" and "perch") and many others are constructed in a similar way. When using this method, an important condition for creating a comic effect is the recognition of the lexemes (text) and objects (image) that are part of the combined word, called them.

By the same principle, proper names and common names are combined, forming a lexeme that emphasizes one or another trait of a certain person. It is noteworthy that the memes of this group are designed in the form of a photo of a dictionary entry and include a word and its explanation. For example: "Hooligan – (s.) Anna, who likes to make fun." This Internet meme is formed by combining the common name "bully" and the proper name "Anya". The interpretation of the dictionary entry indicates its lexical meaning. The memes "Nastyalgia – when you miss Anastasia", "Katyastrophe is the same as Cataclysm", "Tanchous – Tatiana, who is everywhere like a fish in water" are formed in the same way.

A separate group is represented in memes by words that include the names of famous people: "marmeladze", "zheleps", "kolbaskov", "kilkorov", "sobchakchak" and others. The nonverbal block necessarily includes a photo of the person mentioned.

7. Another way to create a comic effect is the appearance and fixation of a special meaning in word combinations. Some of these combinations are first fixed as stable within the genre, and then become widespread in other genres (mainly comic) and in oral speech. So, the phrase "Natasha, we dropped everything" became famous. She came from a meme with a photo of cats that wake up the hostess named Natasha and "inform" her that they dropped all the things in the house. To date, the phrase is used to refer to situations in which a group of certain persons has suffered certain damage. The phrase "I can't, I have paws" has become entrenched and is widely used in the meaning of "unwillingness to perform any action." Also, the rhetorical question "How do you like this, Elon Musk?" became an example of a stable combination of memes. A mandatory non-verbal element of memes with this phrase are photos of some strange, illogical, broken mechanism, and the question itself is addressed to a famous inventor in order to find out his opinion. 

Thus, it can be concluded that a word in the meme genre, in order to create a comic effect, either acquires a new meaning, or actualizes one of the existing ones, which initially did not correspond to the context. The new meaning of a stable combination of words can exist not only in the limited space of a meme, but also beyond it.

Conclusions:

In the process of studying the meme as a genre, we have identified the following ways to create a comic effect using semantic word changes:

- unexpected (not appropriate to the context / not implied by the context) interpretation of a polysemous word, leading to wordplay;

- the formation of occasionalisms;

- Pun intended;

- division of lexical units into independent components;

- a combination of precedent and the division of lexical means into independent components, in which the meaning of the word is transformed;

- formation of new lexical units (occasionalisms) by combining two words into one lexeme by superimposing their parts that coincide in sound;

- the appearance of special meaning in word combinations.

In addition, it is necessary to say separately about the features of using these methods, which increase their effectiveness in creating a comic effect:

- the ambiguity of the lexemes that became the basis of the pun;

- assigning an essential role to the non-verbal component of the meme, including the function of choosing a specific lexical meaning (non-verbal marker);

- the meaning of a word actualized in a meme often has a colloquial (and even slang) character, is figurative;

- the presence of a token token in the verbal component of the meme, which gives a signal to the realization of a specific meaning of the word;

- recognition of the verbal and non-verbal components included in memes;

- violation of spelling rules, if necessary.