Abstract
The texts of aphoristic orientation in the Arabic cultural and entertaining content of the social media are analysed. The subject of the study involves linguistic, sociolinguistic and pragmatic features of Arabic aphoristic Internet sayings. The analysis of more than 500 text units reveals that aphoristic posts are published online in the form of memes in order to express cultural, moral and ethical values and orientations, philosophical and aesthetic views of users, as well as for their emotional support. It was found that the main functions of aphoristic memes are emotional, communicative and phatic with such sayings mainly including motivational and narrative messages, advices, greetings, and appeals, that are often accompanied by a chain element inherent in the social networks (such as a direct call to spread the message). On top of that the thematic classification of the studied memes was offered, with the following themes being involved: human behaviour and character, emotions and experiences, moral and ethical values, philosophical reflections on the attitudes to life, human relationships, everyday life, etc. The linguistic features of expression of the binary opposition "self – other" in the context of its influence on the emotional expressiveness of the aphoristic lexicon are outlined as well. On the other hand, it is noted that the important feature of aphoristic memes is the active use of emotionally expressive lexis, colloquial elements, figures of speech (metaphors, epithets, similes, etc.), verbs of the imperative mood. The language code in the aforementioned sayings is represented primarily with Modern Standard Arabic (with minor deviations). This reflects the identity of a wide circle of Arabic-speaking online users, regardless of their affiliation with a particular ethnic, social or gender group.
Publisher
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv