Spoiling the Memes: A Semantic-Pragmatic Analysis of Spanish and English Social Media Jokes

FACULTAD DE FILOLOGÍA TRABAJO DE FIN DE GRADO GRADO EN ESTUDIOS INGLESES CURSO ACADÉMICO: 2024/2025 TÍTULO: Spoiling the Memes: A SemanticPragmatic Analysis of Spanish and English Social Media Jokes. AUTOR: María de los Ángeles Laguna Benítez TUTOR / A: Luisa García García. FECHA: 26 de mayo de 2025 Contents 1.Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………1 2.Pragmatic and Semantic framework….…….……………………….…………………….2 What is Pragmatics?……………………………………………………………...2 Grice’s Maxims and the Cooperative Principle……………………………3 Relevance Theory…………………………………………………………..3 Pragmatic Enrichment….…………………………………………………..4 What is Semantics?……………………………………………………………….5 Ambiguity.…………….…….…………….…………………………………5 Word relations .……….…………….…………….………………………….6 Reference and denotation……………….…….……………….…………….6 3.Methodology.………………………………………………………………………………..7 4.Results and Discussion……………………………………………………………………...8 4.1 Spanish memes………………………………………………………………..8 4.1.1 Pragmatic strategies……….………………….……….………………9 4.1.2 Semantic strategies…………….…………….…….…………………12 4.2 English memes……………………………………………………………….15 4.2.1 Pragmatic strategies…….………….………….……………………..16 4.2.2 Semantic strategies……………….……….……….…………………19 4.3 Spanish vs English memes in contrast …………………………………….23 4.3.1 Pragmatic strategies……….………….……………….……………..23 4.3.2 Semantic strategies……….…………………….………….…………24 5.Conclusions…….…….…………….………………………………………………………25 Bibliography……………………………………….………….……………………………..27 Appendices…………………………………………………………………………………...28 Appendix A: Spanish Memes……….…………………………………………..29 Appendix B: English Memes………….………………………………………..42 1 1. Introduction A key component of the internet is humour. For many, it can be a coping mechanism, a means of enjoyment, or a form of expression. Sharing and producing this kind of material has never been simpler thanks to the internet, and memes have become one of the most popular and influential types of humour in modern times. Memes are texts, images, or videos that spread quickly across social media platforms, forums, and websites. They can be incredibly funny or ridiculous at times. It is thanks to memes that this humour has spread throughout the internet to all parts of the world. But what is the reason behind these memes making us laugh? Memes often rely on shared cultural references, “inside jokes”1, and current events among many other things. Their humour is often unexpected, absurd, or exaggerated, catching us off guard. The goal of this study is to analyse the linguistic mechanisms (specifically semantic and pragmatic) behind these jokes that are used nowadays on social media, specifically in two languages, the English-speaking world and the Spanish-speaking world. For this reason, we decided to call this study “Spoiling the memes” because, in a way, it is like when you do not understand a joke and someone explains it to you … spoiling it completely. We have decided to investigate this subject for two reasons: First, we have a great interest in finding a method to study memes’ humoristic strategies since they have become a key component of online communication, impacting how people relate to one another, communicate ideas, and express emotions. Second, we wanted to know how humour is triggered and interpreted in these two cultures. For the corpus, we have selected a variety of English and Spanish memes. The corpus guarantees a balanced representation of both languages by selecting two Instagram accounts, one with Spanish memes and the other one with English memes (Randoo Memes and MEMEZAR). Furthermore, Instagram is a relevant and reliable tool for determining current trends in online comedy because it is also one of the most widely used social media platforms for meme sharing. In addition, with a total of 100 memes, the corpus is large enough to provide a significant analysis while guaranteeing variety in terms of content and comedic styles. This variety can help us distinguish various meme layouts, comedy techniques, and the function of language in each culture. Finally, only memes that can be clearly categorised as using pragmatic or semantic strategies were included because this helped to focus the analysis on how language creates humour, which is the main goal of the study. To conduct this study, we will employ a qualitative and quantitative approach to analyse 1 They imply humour understood only by a specific group. 2 memes, concentrating on identifying the numerous types of humour and linguistic techniques employed in the chosen memes. The approach will include aspects of pragmatics and semantics to comprehend the nature of the memes. Specifically, we will utilise theories of pragmatics and semantics from Grice (1975), Lyons (1977), Yule (1996), Kearns (2011), and Sperber & Wilson (1995, 2004) to examine how humour in memes depends on common knowledge, and situational interpretations. Based on existing research, we expected more memes to use the violation of Grice’s maxims as Attardo (1994) stated: “a large number of jokes involve violations of one or more of Grice’s maxims” (p. 271). We also expected to find more memes employing lexical ambiguity as Raskin (1979) explained while studying Freud’s work: “there is a heavy emphasis on what amounts basically to lexical ambiguity as virtually the only source of humor” (p. 326) This paper is divided into several sections. In Section 2, we will explain the pragmatic and semantic framework behind our analysis. The methodology, including the meme corpus and the analytical framework, is presented in Section 3. In Section 4, we will discuss the pragmatic and semantic methods used in the examination of memes in both Spanish and English. Section 5 contrasts the results between the two languages. Finally, the denouement will be disclosed in the conclusions section, along with suggestions for possible further studies. 2. Pragmatic and Semantic framework This paper focuses on the analysis of the pragmatic and semantic phenomena most commonly associated with the generation of humour in memes. From a linguistic perspective, it will investigate how these mechanisms contribute to the construction of humorous meanings in different cultural and linguistic contexts. Specifically, it will explore all the pragmatic and semantic elements involved in the generation of humour. In this way, we could understand how they combine to produce comical effects. What is Pragmatics? As George Yule (1996) says, “Pragmatics is the study of speaker meaning (…) Pragmatics is the study of contextual meaning (…) Pragmatics is the study of how more gets communicated than is said (...) [and] Pragmatics is the study of the expression of relative distance” (p. 3) Therefore, with this, it can be understood that pragmatics studies how context influences the interpretation of language. It does not focus only on what is literally said, but on what is meant, what is understood, what is “hidden” behind a message. The following sections will discuss various pragmatic approaches that help explain the humour of memes. The approaches we are 3 going to use for this purpose are the following ones: Grice’s conversational maxims, the Cooperative Principle, Relevance Theory, and the concept of pragmatic enrichment. Grice’s Maxims and the Cooperative Principle The philosopher H.P. Grice was among the earliest scholars to consider the different intentions that could lie behind the same utterance. He explained how people manage to understand each other in a conversation. According to Grice, effective communication relies on what he called the Cooperative Principle, which he defines as “Make your contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged” (Grice, 1975, p. 45). That is, when we speak, we follow certain rules that help us communicate effectively. For a conversation to be fluid and fully functional, Grice identified four different maxims that speakers have to follow:  Maxim of Quantity, give just the right amount of information. Neither too much nor too little.  Maxim of Quality or Truthfulness, tell the truth and avoid false information.  Maxim of Relevance, talk about what is relevant to the conversation.  Maxim of Manner, be clear and avoid unnecessary confusion or ambiguity. In addition, Grice coined the term “implicature”, which refers to the meaning that is implied, but not directly stated. He also made a distinction between two types of implicatures; generalised implicatures, which arise independently of context; and conversational implicatures, which depend on context in order to arise. Grice also described a process called “flouting”, which occurs when a speaker intentionally violates one of the maxims often to convey meaning indirectly, such as when irony or humour is employed. An example of this is when two people are looking out of a window at a raging storm outside, and one says “What a lovely day for a walk!” thus violating the maxim of quality. The irony of his statement would be understandable given the context in which they happen. Relevance Theory Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson (2004) explained that the Relevance Theory builds upon and expands one of the core principles introduced by Grice as explained above. One of Grice’s 4 maxims is the maxim of relevance, and it is on this maxim that there is an entire theory. According to this theory, “an input (...) is relevant to an individual when it connects with background information he has available to yield conclusions that matter to him” and “The most important type of cognitive effect achieved by processing an input in a context is a contextual implication” (Sperber & Wilson, 2004, p. 607). Relevance Theory explains that people have certain “mental schemas” and when we receive a message, that message automatically activates a series of possible assumptions. These assumptions do not arise randomly but are activated based on the context and in order of relevance. It is then that the listener selects, almost automatically and unconsciously, the most relevant interpretation, or, in other words, the one that best fits at that moment. People tend to stop at the first interpretation that is relevant enough and also quicker to access, without going deeper into more effortful alternatives unless it is necessary. This is because there must be a balance between optimal relevance and minimum cognitive effort. Although the “law of least effort” is not directly mentioned by Sperber and Wilson, this term is useful for explaining the idea. In summary, people stick with the first assumption, which is the most relevant one, and thus do not have to consider other assumptions that would require more processing effort. Therefore, according to Relevance Theory, there must be a perfect balance between optimal relevance and the “law of least effort” to achieve the most significant cognitive effect (Sperber & Wilson, 1996) Pragmatic Enrichment The development of the concept of “pragmatic enrichment” has been mainly attributed to Robyn Carston, within the framework of the Relevance Theory proposed by Sperber and Wilson in the book Relevance: Communication and Cognition, where it is not explicitly mentioned, but processes related to pragmatic enrichment are addressed. They discuss how the linguistic meaning of an utterance, obtained through decoding processes, serves as input for inferential processes that allow the speaker’s intentions to be recognised. Pragmatic enrichment involves not only linguistic meaning but also our encyclopaedic knowledge, which is the knowledge people have about different subjects that are acquired through life experience and cultural knowledge. For example, expressions like “the bag is heavy” and “the elephant is heavy” trigger different ranges for the word “heavy” since in the first example, the weight is smaller than in the second. This is known because the encyclopaedic knowledge we have helps us understand this distinction. As a definition, it can be said that pragmatic enrichment is a process by which the listener or reader adds implicit information to the literal meaning of an utterance, based on the context and shared knowledge, in order to correctly interpret what is meant. (Sperber & 5 Wilson, 1996) What is Semantics? Kate Kearns (2011) explained that “Semantics deals with the literal meaning of words and the meaning of the way they are combined, which taken together form the core of meaning, or the starting point from which the whole meaning of a particular utterance is constructed” (p. 1). In other words, semantics deals with understanding the literal meaning of words and how they combine to form the overall meaning of a message. That is, semantics looks at what each word means on its own and how words combine to give a complete sense of what we are saying. Comprehending this interaction between words helps us understand sentences correctly, especially when subtle shifts in word choices or order can affect to a greater or lesser extent the overall meaning. An example to show the importance of words could be these three sentences: (1) Only Mercedes kissed Francisco. (2) Mercedes only kissed Francisco. (3) Mercedes kissed only Francisco. In (1) the relevant idea is that no one else kissed Francisco, only Mercedes did it. In (2) the point is that Mercedes just kissed Francisco, she did not hug him, she did not talk to him, she just kissed him. In (3) the emphasis is that Mercedes kissed Francisco and no one else. Semantics helps us determine the most suitable meaning of a sentence by looking at how it is structured and the situation in which it is used. This creates the base for understanding deeper or hidden meanings. In this section we are going to focus on aspects such as ambiguity, word relations, reference and denotation. Ambiguity Ambiguity occurs when a word or phrase has more than one possible meaning and can be interpreted in different ways. There are two types of ambiguity: syntactic and semantic ambiguity. Syntactic ambiguity occurs when a sentence or phrase can be interpreted in more than one way due to its grammatical structure. An example of this would be “I saw the man with the binoculars”. This sentence can be understood in two different ways: first, I am using the binoculars to see the man. Second, I see the man, and he has the binoculars. On the other hand, semantic ambiguity occurs when the same word or phrase has several possible meanings. A simple example of this type of ambiguity is the word “duck” It can mean different things depending on the context in which it is used. It can refers to both the animal and the action of lowering your head or body quickly, usually to avoid something. 6 Word relations There are a wide variety of types of word relationships. Among these types, the best known are:  Synonymy and antonymy: two words are synonyms when they have the same meaning, like “small” and “tiny”. Antonyms, on the other hand, are two words that have opposite meanings, like “tall” and “short”.  Hyponymy and Hyperonyms: a hyponym is a word that represents a specific concept under a broader category, and that broader category is the hyperonym. To exemplify this, we could use the hyperonym “animal” which includes hyponyms such as “dog”, “cat” or “hamster”.  Meronyms and Holonyms: a word is a meronym when it refers to a part of something, while a holonym refers to the whole. To understand this, it is easier to use an example such as “finger” and “hand”, where “finger” is the meronym and “hand” is the holonym.  Polysemy: polysemy occurs when a word has several related meanings. Polysemous words, despite meaning different things, have the same origin. An example of this would be “mouth of a cave” and “mouth of a person”, where “mouth” has two different meanings but are related to each other.  Homonymy: homonymy occurs when two or more words have the same form (homographs) or same pronunciation (homophones) but their meanings are not related. Homonyms, in addition to meaning different things, have different origins. An example of homograph is “ball”, which can be a dance or a round object. An example of homophone is, “sea” and “see”, which sound the same but have different spellings. Reference and denotation “The term ‘reference’ (...) has to do with the relationship which holds between an expression and what that expression stands for on particular occasions of its utterances” (Lyons, 1977, p. 174). That is, “reference” is a relationship that depends on context and therefore varies from moment to moment, depending on the speaker’s intention and the situation in which the utterance occurs. “Denotation”, on the other hand, is a stable relationship in language that does not depend on how a word is used; that is, it is the opposite of “reference”. There are different types of reference that are important to know for this paper, and these are constant and variable referents. Some expressions will always maintain the same referent, such as “Eiffel Tower”, while other expressions can vary completely depending on who and 7 when they are used, such as “I”, “you”, “she”, “he”, etc. 3. Methodology The corpus selected for this study consists of a total of 100 memes, collected from two Instagram accounts: MEMEZAR, an account with English memes, and Randoo Memes, an account with Spanish memes. Each account contributed 50 memes to the final corpus, with a balanced division between the two languages analysed. The collection process took place between September 2024 and February 2025. Only memes that included a written text were selected, excluding purely visual memes or images unrelated to humour. In addition, only memes that could be clearly categorised as jokes based on semantic or pragmatic strategies were included in the study. An exhaustive empirical analysis of the corpus was conducted to identify and categorise the type of humour each meme employed. First, we created a specific folder to store all the memes. The memes were collected manually from the two Instagram profiles previously mentioned. The memes were first collected and classified by language: the Spanish memes were analysed first, followed by the English ones. The memes were manually organised and classified into two main categories: semantic or pragmatic. The initial classification process involved reading the text of each meme carefully and then analysing it in relation to its semantic and pragmatic elements. After analysing the entire corpus, a set of specific pragmatic and semantic techniques emerged. These included semantic aspects such as disambiguation, polysemy, homonymy, hyperonyms, and referent assignment, as well as pragmatic categories like conversational maxims, relevance, and pragmatic enrichment. Initially, we expected more possibilities regarding both semantics (i.e. word relations, such as meronymy, synonymy, antonymy, etc.) and pragmatics (i.e. politeness, indirect speech acts, etc.), but only the ones previously pointed out were found. After an initial classification, some memes were found to be unsuitable and, therefore, were eliminated from the sample and replaced by new ones to maintain a balanced and accurate sample of 50 memes per language. Memes were discarded for several reasons: some were actually short videos or GIFs rather than static images (they did not meet the criteria for analysis); others consisted of only one word (making it difficult to analyse their meaning from a discursive perspective); others did not use any relevant technique; and some were mainly funny because of the image, not the words. Once the entire corpus was finalised, the memes were consequently numbered to help readers identify them. They were organised into two 14 the context that she is romantically interested in the person she is speaking to. Even though it loses its humorous meaning in English, the third phrase “me puedes dar la mano?” [can you give me your hand?] maintains a double interpretation in Spanish that creates the comic effect. It can be understood in two different ways. First, the most logical one: as a request to hold hands. Second, the most literal one: for him to give her his actual physical hand, as if he had to detach it from himself and give it to her. Evidently, since the humour in this meme is based on disambiguation, the decision made in the meme is the wrong one, as we can see in his answer “no, es mía” [no, it is mine], choosing the second interpretation out of the two possible ones, and in doing so, generating laugh in the readers. The next type of meme to interpret is the hyperonymy, which, as already mentioned earlier, for several reasons, has only one instance: Figure 6: Use of Hyperonymy in Spanish (Appendix A; Meme 40) In the case of this meme, the reason for its humour is clearly visible: it simply lists a mix of fruits, thus creating an absurd kind of joke, since each word does not seem to have any real connection to the others beyond the fact that they are all types of fruit (mango, melon, strawberry, apple, and the image of a banana with the texture of an orange with the caption “apple”). As we mentioned earlier, making memes with this kind of semantic tactic is very uncommon because it’s quite difficult to come up with ideas where the use of hyperonymy turns out to be funny. This is because this semantic strategy is not like most humouristic strategies that rely on obvious connections or wordplay. Finally, we are going to deal with polysemy and homonymy altogether because they are highly related from a semantic point of view, and they also create humour in very similar ways. An example of this type is the following one: 15 Figure 7: Use of Polysemy/Homonymy in Spanish (Appendix A; Meme 48) In the case of this meme, the joke arises from the word “Metal”. The translation of the meme would be: “The girl who says she likes metal, when they put her to weld 20 window bars”. The word “metal” in Spanish, just like in English, can have two meanings. The first meaning is in music, where metal is a genre of rock with powerful and aggressive sounds. The second meaning is as a material, in which case metal refers to a hard and resistant material employed to create different objects. The reason this meme is hilarious is that it applies the incorrect meaning of the word “metal”, as the girl was referring to the musical genre, but from the context it is understood that the people she was talking to thought of the meaning of resistant material. 4.2 English memes The next table shows the distribution of the 50 English memes that have been analysed according to their source of humour: pragmatic or semantic. ENGLISH MEMES Pragmatic 36 36/50 = 72% Semantic 14 14/50 = 28% TOTAL 50 Table 5: Frequency of Pragmatic vs Semantic Memes in English Out of a total of 50 memes, 36 (72%) show the presence of jokes generated by means of pragmatic mechanisms, while the other 14 (28%) jokes are generated by means of semantic strategies. That is, instead of using different features of semantics, English memes tend to employ implicatures, cultural references, and other pragmatic traits. Compared to Table 2, in 16 Table 5, the division in the use of jokes produced using semantic or pragmatic processes is much more remarkable. Each sort of humour and its subtypes will be presented and explained in detail in the sections that follow. As a result, it will be easier to see which pragmatic and semantic subtypes are more prevalent in the English memes. 4.2.1 Pragmatic strategies The table below illustrates the frequency with which each type of pragmatic phenomenon occurs in the dataset of the analysed memes. PRAGMATIC Conversational maxims 5 5/36 = 13.89% Relevance 5 5/36 = 13.89% Pragmatic Enrichment 26 26/36 = 72.22% TOTAL 36 Table 6: Frequency of English Pragmatic memes Since this is a comparative study, this table makes use of the same parameters as in Table 3. As we can see in Table 6, the distribution of pragmatic phenomena in English memes reveals a similar pattern to that of Spanish ones. In English memes there is a clear preference for using pragmatic enrichment (72.22%) compared to using relevance and violation of conversational maxims (13.89% each). This is exactly as it happened in Table 3, but the percentage does vary, since in English they seem to be more inclined than the Spanish to apply jokes based on pragmatic enrichment. It is also interesting that in both English and Spanish the utilisation of both, the flouting of conversational maxims and the theory of relevance has exactly the same number of appearances (5 each). As we did in point 4.1.1, in order to demonstrate how each type of meme has been identified and categorised, we will proceed to illustrate an example of each one. Just as we did with the Spanish memes, in this section about English memes there are different ways of flouting the maxims. Therefore, it is simpler, instead of explaining all of them, to use a clear example of each type so that it is better understood: 17 Figure 8: Flouting of the maxim of manner in English (Appendix B; Meme 2) In this post, the context of the conversation makes it clear that these are messages between a landlord and their tenant. Just as the lessor begins by saying, “Don’t worry about the rent this month”, it makes them seem like a good person who understands that the lessee might be going through some kind of financial difficulty, and therefore wants to help by removing the expense of paying the rent. This is exactly what the tenant thinks, as reflected in their reply. The humour of this meme emerges in the third message, where the landlord clarifies that the lessee still has to pay, but should relax because they are “always acting so stressed”. Obviously, we see that the problem lies in the lack of clear communication from the landlord. Therefore, the maxim of manner is being violated, as the lessor is not being clear but rather ambiguous, which goes against the most important principle of this maxim. The humour in the following meme is based on Relevance Theory. From the range of potential examples, this specific one was selected because it most effectively captures the key features of the category: Figure 9: Relevance Theory in English (Appendix B; Meme 6) 18 Considering the possible assumptions we can generate when reading the first two messages (the photo that says “Me and bro cause we’re just chill guys fr”, and the first message where it says “this is so us”), the main inferences we generate would be in relation to a friendship. Specifically, it suggests a long friendship where the two people appearing in the chat have known each other for a long time and are very good friends. However, when we read the third message, the assumption that is activated in this sentence is a remote one, possibly the last one on the list of potential assumptions related to that sentence (that the person they are speaking to is an Uber driver). None of the initial assumptions are activated. Therefore, through relevance, humour is evoked, and our cognitive expectations are disrupted. As previously explained in point 4.1.1, in which pragmatic enrichment was illustrated, we will analyse one meme to exemplify this strategy in English: Figure 10: Use of pragmatic enrichment in English (Appendix B; Meme 11) In this meme, the pragmatic enrichment required is related to video games, specifically a game called Among Us, which became popular in 2020 during the lockdown. For the image to be humorous to the viewer, they must be able to pragmatically enrich its meaning. In this particular situation, it is essential to know that Among Us is a hidden-role game set in space. In the game, the impostors (the “bad guys”) must eliminate all the crewmates (the “good guys”), who have to complete various tasks around their spaceship. One of these tasks takes place in the room shown in the image, specifically in the upper part next to the vent (the grey square visible at the top left). What makes this task particularly dangerous is that enemies can use these vents to hide and move quickly between rooms. Therefore, performing the task in this room often meant a high risk of being eliminated. For this reason, people were afraid to perform this task, and that is why this room is the “scariest place to be in 2020”. 19 4.2.2 Semantic strategies In the following table we can see a summary of the rate of each category of semantic phenomena found in the analysed memes. SEMANTIC Disambiguation 1 1/14 = 7.14% Hyperonym 1 1/14 = 7.14% Polysemy/homonymy 10 10/14 = 71.43% Referent assignment 2 2/14 = 14.29% TOTAL 14 Table 7: Frequency of English Semantic memes Unlike Table 4, Table 7 has an additional semantic subtype, the referent assignment, which is employed to make jokes in English but is absent from the Spanish memes analysed. Therefore, as in Table 4, the semantic strategies we are going to focus on are: (1) disambiguation, (2) hyperonyms, (3) polysemy and homonymy, and the new (4) referent assignment. The most frequently used strategy, by far, is polysemy/homonymy (71.43%), which highlights the popularity of this element in English culture. On the other hand, both disambiguation and hyperonymy are the least frequent, with only one instance each (7.14%). The utilisation of referent assignment, although more common than disambiguation and hyperonyms, remains underused, with only two instances (14.29%). These figures clearly indicate that English memes, as far as jokes generated by means of semantic mechanisms are concerned, have a strong preference for polysemy/homonymy over all other available methods. We will now provide an example of each subtype of meme to show how they have been recognised and categorised. To explain the disambiguation, we must rely on the single example in the dataset: 20 Figure 11: Use of Disambiguation in English (Appendix B; Meme 37) The post initially highlights the sculptures carved into stone by Michelangelo and Bernini, two extremely famous Italian artists, demonstrating their early artistic skills. What happens in this meme is that, due to the way the caption is phrased, it can be understood in two different ways. First, that these two renowned artists created these incredible masterpieces at the ages of 26 and 23. Second, that the statues shown in the images are literally Michelangelo and Bernini themselves. Obviously, this type of disambiguation is quite forced, as no one would seriously believe that the sculptures are the artists. However, the response to the post, which appears in the image, shows that someone did disambiguate the message incorrectly, commenting: “Unfortunate that they turned into stone at such a young age”, thus generating humour. As with disambiguation, there is only one example of hyperonymy in the entire dataset. Therefore, we will proceed to explain it: Figure 12: Use of Hyperonymy in English (Appendix B; Meme 38) In this meme, the use of hyperonymy refers to mathematical symbols and equations. The image shows various Ed Sheeran album covers (+, -, ×, ÷, and =). The funny effect arises 21 from the invented album covers that follow, which could be imagined as his “next” release, and which incorporate mathematical equations. These fake covers employ the hyperonymic relationship between simple symbols (displayed in Sheeran’s real albums) and more intricate formulas, placing them under the larger hyperonym of “mathematical equations”. The next type of meme to interpret is polysemy/homonymy, which, as we have already said, is the one with more examples, one of them being the following one: Figure 13: Use of Polysemy/Homonymy in English (Appendix B; Meme 41) This type of meme is much easier to explain, as it is more common. In this case, the humour arises from the word “hot”, which has two meanings. The first refers to having a high temperature, and the second to being physically attractive. In this particular meme, the correct interpretation is the first one, but the second meaning is intentionally applied in order to make the reader laugh. The interesting thing about the employment of polysemy/homonymy in English is that, in many cases, they also use the variant of homophones, which does not occur in our Spanish data. An example of jokes generated by using homophones is the following one: 22 Figure 14: Use of homophones in English (Appendix B; Meme 42) This meme uses homophones, a variant of polysemy/homonymy. As we can see from the context, there is a person who has a doctor’s appointment. When he arrives, the woman asks “Which doctor?” to find out who is the patient’s doctor. However, the patient hears “which” as the homophone “witch”, and thus misunderstands the question, replying that he wants “the regular doctor”. This kind of meme is much less common in Spanish, possibly because English has a far greater number of homophones, as pronunciation often does not correspond directly to spelling. Finally, we have the jokes that employ referent assignment, which does not occur in any of our Spanish memes, but does in English, as in the following example: Figure 15: Use of Referent assignment in English. (Appendix B; Meme 49) As we can see, in this meme the referent assignment is about Anne Hathaway. According to the first post, it is understood that Anne Hathaway refers to William Shakespeare’s wife, who 23 lived between the 16th and 17th centuries. However, the person responding to this post incorrectly assigns the referent to Anne Hathaway, the currently living American actress. This misinterpretation leads to the humorous comment, where the user says they did not know she was “that old”, implying that the Anne Hathaway who is alive today is the one who married William Shakespeare and therefore, since she is still alive, she must be nearly 500 years old. 4.3 Spanish vs English memes in contrast 4.3.1 Pragmatic strategies When analysing the memes in this section, several differences emerged between the English and the Spanish datasets. Although pragmatic strategies were more common in both languages than semantic ones, the percentage is worth highlighting, since 72% of English memes are originated by means of pragmatic strategies, meaning almost three-quarters of all memes are of this type. On the other hand, in Spanish, just over half of memes use this strategy, at 58%. There are linguistic and cultural reasons for this disparity. Contextual humour is highly valued in English-speaking online culture, which falls under pragmatic strategies. Spanish memes lean on pragmatic and on semantic play in almost equal percentages, which suggests a more balanced approach to humour. Therefore, Spanish memes have a more even distribution, whereas English memes mostly rely on pragmatic tactics. Additionally, in both cases, the most frequent semantic memes are related to pragmatic enrichment. This could be because nowadays everyone has access to the internet and spends a lot of time online. Everything evolves at a fast pace, and all people on the internet are exposed to these constant changes and the shared knowledge that exists online, which, as we have mentioned, is continually evolving and changing. This explains why there are so many memes about this specific pragmatic technique, as well as the wide variety of ways in which it is applied, since, as we can see in the dataset, there are many different contexts, formats, or styles in which pragmatic enrichment appears in memes. Furthermore, constant connectivity and the fear of missing out (also known as FOMO) drive users to keep up with trends, jokes, and online content. People feel the need to stay connected to avoid being left out of social interactions. This can also be linked to the continuous changes happening on the internet and the need for individuals to create memes related to current shared knowledge online in order to feel like they are “part of the group”. This could also explain why there are more English memes in this category than in Spanish, since the English-speaking community on the internet is much larger than the Spanish-speaking one, with 49.4% of users using English and only 6% using Spanish (Statista, 2025) . It is probable that, 30 5 Maxim of quality. The person is not telling the truth. His food came out bad, but he tries to justify it in an unbelievable way. Relevance 6 You would expect “bathing a cat” to mean using soap and water. But the answer suggests he is bathing another cat, by licking it. 7 Reading this, one would expect that we are referring to when we were children and wanted our parents to carry us in their arms. Reading the second part, our schemes break, producing humour. 8 The normal thing in this case would be to think that the person in question is using a very expensive and exclusive cologne. By replacing that expectation with a humorous and low-quality product, the meme plays on cultural knowledge of how advertisements often exaggerate reality. 31 9 Reading this, one would expect that we are referring to when we are with the person we like. Reading the second part, our schemes break, producing humour. 10 The reply is irrelevant to the emotional tone set by the initial conversation. Pragmatic Enrichment 11 The audience must infer the connection between the common experience of dogs barking at doorbells and the aggressive imagery in the meme. 12 The humour plays with the historical reference to the 1914 Christmas Truce, when German and British soldiers briefly stopped fighting during WWI and famously played soccer. 32 13 The phrase “Usted sabe mucho” is interpreted differently when applied to a university student versus a journalist. The reader infers that “universitario” suggests true knowledge, while “periodista” implies that he knows something that he should not know. 14 The humour stems from the overlapping association of the sound “Brrr”, which refers both to Perry the Platypus’s characteristic trill and reggaeton artist Anuel AA’s iconic catchphrase. 15 The smiling face associated with completing complex video game tasks suggests that these ingame challenges are enjoyable. Meanwhile, the serious expression for buying bread in real life implies a sense of not wanting to do it. 16 The reader must know who that person called “the rock” is and also understand how Minecraft works, because when you mix those two objects, you get rock. 17 The humour comes from knowing who this character (Steve) is and that there is another character who is exactly the same but with white eyes, a creepy pasta called Herobrine. 33 18 The humour plays with the reference to the serie ATLA. The scene depicts a character (Aang) facing past figures (his past lives) who guide him during his travel. 19 The meme relies on shared cultural knowledge; viewers understand that university is often seen as difficult and time-consuming. The humour stems from recognizing the visual representation of that time-consuming experience. 20 To understand this meme you have to know that in the game Minecraft you can sell items like emeralds, and that NPCs can buy them, but they usually buy them for a very low price, like in this case, three wheats. 21 The viewer must infer the situation where a highly specific tutorial is unexpectedly found, not from a professional source, but from a small YouTube creator. 34 22 The audience should understand how in 2006 the Wii was a very popular console, and to play it you had to move the controller a lot, so it was common for children to drop the controller and hit the TV. 23 To understand this meme, you have to know that a well-known story on the internet is that Edison stole ideas, and one of these ideas were Tesla’s ideas. 24 The joke requires the reader to recognize Rayo McQueen on the spoon and connect his character traits (speed) to the context of eating quickly. 25 The joke requires the reader to recognize Rayo McQueen on the from of the TV and connect his character traits (speed) to the context of watching series quickly. 35 26 The reader should know that dolphins are usually represented in a positive light when they are usually problematic animals and sharks the other way around. 27 The joke relies on the friends disappearing because they are not real, due to schizophrenia, a meaning not directly stated but inferred from the context. 28 The audience infers that this is a humorous idea of the song’s lyrics, the carol “Mi burrito sabanero”. 29 To understand why it is funny, you have to know that in the vast majority of films from all those animation studios where humans appear, their anatomy usually follows that very marked pattern. 36 SEMANTICS Dissambiguation 30 Choosing the literal interpretation over the idiomatic, expected meaning. 31 Intentionally choosing the literal interpretation over the idiomatic, expected meaning. 32 Instead of disambiguating “protección” as a contraceptive method, he does so as something to defend against physical danger. 37 33 The socially conventional interpretation (phone number) is ignored in favour of a literal interpretation. 34 The socially conventional interpretation (phone number) is ignored in favour of a literal interpretation. 35 The humour arises from the ambiguity in the segmentation of the poster’s text. 36 Intentionally choosing the literal interpretation over the idiomatic, expected meaning. It is important to emphasize that the use of “we” is not relevant in this context, it is just a Latin way of showing closeness. 38 37 “Caracol” in two parts: “cara” y “col”, as if it were a real anatomical division. 38 Double meaning of “Leo Piedras”, a proper name or an action. As Leo can be a given name/first name or literally “I read”. 39 Incorrect dissambiguation of “nombre”. Itcould be “Name” in a taxonomy (science, biology) or as first name in a person/given name/Christian name. 39 Hyperonym 40 Different fruits are related within the same general category (fruits). “Fruit” the hyperonym because it includes “mango”, “melón”, “fresa”, “manzana”, and the image of a banana with the texture of an orange as hyponyms. It is important to emphasize that, although hyperonym is the main joke, this meme also uses surreal humour. Polysemy/homonymy 41 The humour arises from the dual interpretation of “desarmadillo”. 42 The humour here is in the two possible meanings of “cagar”: to spoil something/to defecate. 43 Homophones. ‘Noche’ sounds just like ‘no xe’ a cute way that young girls use to say ‘no sé’. The 2 participants in this conversation are probably boys. 46 13 You must know who Courage is, as he is a very coward dog. 14 We must infer what game it is, a famous mini game from Super Mario 64 DS. 15 The audience must infer the situational context (poor vision) to fully understand the joke. 47 16 We must infer: who she is, what song it is, and also we must know that it happens every year. 17 The humour relies on the reader understanding the implied meaning: the comparison between the real fight and the Wii Sports game. 18 We must know who was Justin Bieber’s early career, when he was heavily associated with the colour purple. 48 19 Related to the fact that in Temu you can receive objects of a very different size than what you expected. In this case, bigger than what we expected. 20 Related to the fact that in Temu you can receive objects of a very different size than what you expected. In this case, smaller than what we expected. 21 This meme is related to what Leonardo DiCaprio does when his girlfriends turn 25 years old. Every time his girlfriends are 25 or close to 25, he breaks up with them. 49 22 The humour lies in the implied connection between raccoons and rubbish. Raccoons are stereotypically known for rummaging through garbage. 23 To understand this meme, you must know the relation of Taylor Swift and private jets. 24 The humour depends on recognizing the reference to the controversial design of Sonic the Hedgehog in the first live-action trailer. 50 25 To understand this meme, you must know about the films Night at the Museum. 26 To understand this meme, we must know how today’s youth send hints, through 5-10 second songs in Instagram stories. 27 To understand this we must know what is a kryptonite, and how this affects Superman. 51 28 To understand this, we must know what Black Friday is and how many companies tend to inflate prices days before, so people think it is a bargain. 29 The message “another childhood star lost to drugs” suggests a typical story of celebrities who deteriorate over time due to addiction, and it is inferred that the trash can is the “decayed version” of R2-D2. 30 To understand this meme we must know about Spotify, how every year it shows us what we have listen to, and that some things that people listen to are weird/unexpected. 52 31 The reader must infer the cause of the error: the person is probably not considering that 1TB (1000GB) and 2TB (2000GB) are larger than 512GB. 32 The phrase “sunset in Chernobyl” works humorously because the audience enriches the meaning using world knowledge: Chernobyl is associated with nuclear disaster and radioactivity. 33 You must know what the photo is about (a video that got fame in the 2000s and that was a screamer). 53 34 You have to know that at the beginning of every year everyone signs up at the gym to be healthier, and in the end no one goes. 35 The comment “This is my Barbenheimer” relies on the audience understanding the cultural event of Barbenheimer (the simultaneous release of the films Barbie and Oppenheimer in 2023). 36 IT professionals are often perceived as casual, introverted, and practical (represented by Steve Carell) and Salespeople are seen as stylish, confident, and extroverted (represented by Ryan Gosling). 54 SEMANTICS Dissambiguation 37 The post originally highlights the sculptures by Michelangelo and Bernini, showing their artistic talent at a young age. The joke misinterprets it as if Michelangelo and Bernini turned into stone, rather than them creating stone sculptures. Hyperonym 38 The joke builds on mathematical symbols (addition, subtraction, etc.) associated with Ed Sheeran’s albums. Polysemy/homonymy 39 Literal: The person has a ring-shaped watch and, therefore, “has a little time”. Figurative: The expression “I got a little time” is used to say that someone has a little free time to do something. 55 40 You can refer to both food and website permissions. 41 It could be that it burns, or that it is physically attractive. 42 Homophones (which and witch).