11 “Loanword translation and corrective acts are incongruous”: Debating metapragmatic stereotypes through humorous memes
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Villy Tsakona
Abstract
Internet memes constitute multimodal ideological texts (Wiggins 2019) conveying speakers’ views and values concerning language use, among other things. Such memes may either support “correct” language use or criticize and parody those who support “correct” language use (White-Farnham 2019). Thus, they are employed by speakers participating in metapragmatic debates to convey their (often opposing) metapragmatic stereotypes, namely their culture-dependent and context-specific internalized models on how language should (not) be used (Agha 2007). The present study investigates a corpus of Greek memes produced as part of an online debate concerning the translation of specific English loanwords into Greek. The analysis concentrates on the humor attested in these memes, which expresses participants’ conflicting views about, and resistance to, loanword translation. More specifically, it is shown that humor is employed to frame the proposed translation practices and equivalents as incongruous. Its analysis also brings to the surface participants’ metapragmatic stereotypes concerning when a translation equivalent is deemed (un)successful, (un)usuable, stylistically (in)appropriate, etc.
Abstract
Internet memes constitute multimodal ideological texts (Wiggins 2019) conveying speakers’ views and values concerning language use, among other things. Such memes may either support “correct” language use or criticize and parody those who support “correct” language use (White-Farnham 2019). Thus, they are employed by speakers participating in metapragmatic debates to convey their (often opposing) metapragmatic stereotypes, namely their culture-dependent and context-specific internalized models on how language should (not) be used (Agha 2007). The present study investigates a corpus of Greek memes produced as part of an online debate concerning the translation of specific English loanwords into Greek. The analysis concentrates on the humor attested in these memes, which expresses participants’ conflicting views about, and resistance to, loanword translation. More specifically, it is shown that humor is employed to frame the proposed translation practices and equivalents as incongruous. Its analysis also brings to the surface participants’ metapragmatic stereotypes concerning when a translation equivalent is deemed (un)successful, (un)usuable, stylistically (in)appropriate, etc.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
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Part 1: Face-to-face interactions
- 1 A multimodal approach to children’s development of humor in family life 15
- 2 On target. On the role of eye-gaze during teases in face-to-face multiparty interaction 53
- 3 Humorous Smiling: A Reverse Cross-Validation of the Smiling Intensity Scale for the Identification of Conversational Humor 87
- 4 Alternative conceptualizations of the Smiling Intensity Scale (SIS) and their applications to the identification of humor 109
- 5 Facial gestures and laughter as a resource for negotiating humor in conversation 131
- 6 Multimodal humor in human-robot interaction 169
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Part 2: Mediated interactions
- 7 Facial expressions as multimodal markers of humor: More evidence from scripted and non-scripted interactions 209
- 8 Emojis and jocular flattery in Chinese instant messaging interactions 231
- 9 More than laughter: Multimodal humour and the negotiation of ingroup identities in mobile instant messaging interactions 263
- 10 Humour and creativity in a family of strangers on Facebook 289
- 11 “Loanword translation and corrective acts are incongruous”: Debating metapragmatic stereotypes through humorous memes 319
- Index 355
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
-
Part 1: Face-to-face interactions
- 1 A multimodal approach to children’s development of humor in family life 15
- 2 On target. On the role of eye-gaze during teases in face-to-face multiparty interaction 53
- 3 Humorous Smiling: A Reverse Cross-Validation of the Smiling Intensity Scale for the Identification of Conversational Humor 87
- 4 Alternative conceptualizations of the Smiling Intensity Scale (SIS) and their applications to the identification of humor 109
- 5 Facial gestures and laughter as a resource for negotiating humor in conversation 131
- 6 Multimodal humor in human-robot interaction 169
-
Part 2: Mediated interactions
- 7 Facial expressions as multimodal markers of humor: More evidence from scripted and non-scripted interactions 209
- 8 Emojis and jocular flattery in Chinese instant messaging interactions 231
- 9 More than laughter: Multimodal humour and the negotiation of ingroup identities in mobile instant messaging interactions 263
- 10 Humour and creativity in a family of strangers on Facebook 289
- 11 “Loanword translation and corrective acts are incongruous”: Debating metapragmatic stereotypes through humorous memes 319
- Index 355
