Affiliation:
1. University of Texas at Arlington
Abstract
Abstract
By examining a collection of health-related memes, I propose ways to categorize the illocutionary force of memes
functioning as the speech act of advice. 200 English-language memes were gathered in the period 2018–2023 through Google image
searches. I found the affiliative and disaffiliative strategies that Placencia (2012)
described within Yahoo! Respuestas advice exchanges; meme multimodality, however, offered additional versions of
these strategies: characters generated affiliation or disaffiliation and more humor appeared in affiliative and disaffiliative
moves. I highlight four characteristics of advising in memes: the speech act is performed indirectly; both characters and wordplay
can create humor; peer advisors must signal what authorizes them to give advice; and advice deploys mythbusting. Thus, memes align
interlocutors within vernacular online conversations.
Publisher
John Benjamins Publishing Company