A Study of English Language Used on Social Media Memes

2. A Study of English Language
Used on Social Media Memes

3. 1. Background
Social media has influenced on people’s daily life in terms of the
popularity of technology. In fact, there are many features that are used for
entertainment purposes on social media, such as Facebook posts,
Tweets, Youtube videos, and Instagram photos etc. These features are
used to express social media users about their favorable concepts.
“Memes” are popular online pictures which appear in most social media
and there are some language changes due to matching the context within the
meme photos and they seem to be “a trendy internet feature” nowadays.

4. 2. Objectives
1. To identify the common language use in
social media memes
2. To investigate the change of English
language used social media memes

5. 3. Literature Review
1. The definition of memes
2. The characteristic of memes
3. Influential factors in memes’ language used
4. Language usage appeared in memes

6. Richard Dawkins (1976) defined memes as
small cultural units of transmission,
analogous to genes, which are spread from
person to person by copying or imitating.
1. The Definition of Memes

8. The word meme is employed by Internet users mainly to describe the rapid uptake
and spread of a ‘‘particular idea presented as a written text, image,
language ’move,’ or some other unit of cultural ’stuff.’’
( Knobel and Lankshear, 2007, p. 202)

9. The term Internet meme refers to
the phenomenon of content or concepts
that spread rapidly among Internet users.

10. Text
❏ Bolded font impact with
white text on black border
❏ Centered on the top and
bottom of the image.
❏ These texts are generally
referred to as "Top Text"
and "Bottom Text".
2. The Characteristic of Memes

11. Image
❏ Placed behind the text.
❏ A set of "known images" that are
understood by many Internet users,
such as Bad Luck Brian.
2. The Characteristic of Memes

12. Influential Factors in Memes’ Language Used
The study states that memes in natural language
may, as we see it,come from three sources:
● Education and knowledge impairment
● Idiomatic usage of words and phrases
● Casual exchanges in communication
(Linxia & Ziran, 2006)

13. Language Usage Appeared in Memes
Based on the concept of meme, capiable and quickly spread,
He (2008) categorized meme as
✘ Same information spread directly.
✘ Same information spread in different forms.
✘ Same sound with different meanings.
✘ Same form association and grafting.
✘ Same structure with different contents.

14. 1.100 memes were gathered
from social media, namely
Facebook, Twitter, Google,
Instagram, and Pinterest.
2. each meme were analyzed
based upon:
- Word construction methods
- The characteristics of
grammatical structures
- Cappitalization
- The use of punctuations
- Non-verbal aspects of
communication
3. Data Collection

15. 4. Data and Analysis

16. Word construction methods
❏ Abbreviation
Ur > Your
N > and
U > You
Idk > I don’t know
❏ Contraction
There’s - There is
Can’t - Cannot

17. The characteristics of
grammatical structures
❏ The usage of subordinating
conjunction ‘when’ and the
picture is used as the main idea
❏ “Fragment “ in terms of
grammars, but it is widely
acceptable

18. ❏ All capital letters to
emphasize on the text.
❏ Some are not capitalize at all
to focus on the picture instead.
❏ Some memes are capitalized
only the first letter of each
word in the text.
Capitalization

19. The use of punctuations
❏ Many clauses are subordinate
clauses and supposed to be
followed by the main clause.
❏ The main clause is in the format of
photo to express the main idea.
❏ Some are followed by Emoji .
“ Punctuation marks are omitted.”
*** some completed sentences also omit
the punctuation marks***

20. ❏ The variety of meme
understandings based on
individual background
knowledge: cultures,
education, genders, and age
etc.
❏ In order to fully understand
memes, facial expressions,
gesture, and posture are
also prominent.
Non-verbal aspects of communication

21. In conclusion, many English grammatical errors occurred, such as the
loss of punctuation marks, fragment sentences, and capitalization as the
common language use shown in social media memes. Moreover, English
language is evidently changed from formal language to be informal
(conversational tone) to be understood easily and less complicated.
Pictures, which clearly show facial expressions, gesture, and posture, are
necessarily used to support the completed ideas. Also, many spoken
language is used in the written form of memes.
5. Conclusion and Discussion

23. References
Dawkins, R. (1976). The selfish gene. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Knobel, M., & Lankshear, C. (2007). Online memes, affinities, and cultural production. A new
literacies sampler, 29, 199-227.
Linxia, C., & Ziran, H. (2006). Analysis of memes in language. Foreign Language Teaching
and Research, 2, 004.
Ziran, H. (2008). On meme and memetics in language. Retrieved from
http://pragmatics.gr.jp/content/files/SIP_010/SIP_10_He.pdf