Horizon Of Adaptation Phenomenon Of Cyber Language Memes

There are plenty of meme phenomena in the network language, to which thousandsof netizens pay attention and apply various types of words or expressions to transmitinformation on the Internet everyday. Meanwhile the imitation and replication of thenetwork language prevailing in different internet communication platforms havecontributed to the transmission for the meme phenomena.In the thesis, memes in the network language are regarded as the linguisticphenomena and Adaptation Theory as the theoretical foundation. Contextual correlatesand dynamics of adaptability for the meme phenomena in the network language areinvestigated from the perspective of Adaptation Theory. However, the research on thelinguisitic memes on the Internet from this perspective has not been widely examined.There are three chapters in the main part of the thesis. Chapter one interprets theconcept of meme and expounds the innovative aspects based on the review of memestudies at home and abroad. In addition, characteristics and types of the memephenomena in the network language are described resorting to a systematic analysis ofthe language data. And then the research orientation has been summarized after thedetailed exploration of the theory of adaptibility, the theory of four steps for memereplication and transmission together with the properties of the Internet. Finally, thecontextual correlates and dynamics of adaptability for memes in the network languageare analysed with illustrations. The conclusions are as follows: the exploitation of thememe phenomena in the network language can be defined as the communicators’continuous making of linguistic choices who adapt to various contextual factorsincluding cognitive and emotive elements in utterer and interpreter’s mental world;cultural factors, social realities and social roles in utterer and interpreter’s social world;as well as the characteristics of the Internet media. Meanwhile the choice-makingprocess of memes in the network language is a dynamic one adapting to the contextualfactors mentioned above with high level of salience.