Features of semiotic encoding of a precedent name or “an ordinary Soviet man” in a polycode text

Introduction. The article studies features of encoding precedent names (PNs) and precedent images in modern polycode texts with account of their semiotically complicated nature and the characteristics of visual / verbal / auditory forms of precedence involved in the process. Several research tasks were set: 1) description of a set of Soviet-era PNs referred to in polycode texts; 2) analysis of semiotic forms of encoding PN in polycode texts; 3) identification of forms and combinations of interaction between PN representatives and other precedent phenomena (PP) within the text; 4) defining a set of values that are appealed to via PN in a polycode text. Materials and Methods. The research material consisted of 450 Russian-language Internet memes selected through a target sample from the Russian-language segment of the Internet, containing a verbal and / or non-verbal representative of a PN or image of a person related to the USSR. The research methodology rests on basic principles of the theory of precedence and multimodal analysis, semiotic, structural-semantic and discursive methods of analysis. Analysis. The main semiotic representative of Soviet-era PN in polycode texts is a visual element, which can be accompanied by additional verbalized references (full, transformed or pseudo-quote, typical rhyme, etc.) or form some prototype model of a polycode text. Polycode PN representatives come in the following combinations: a) verbalization of the PN of the Soviet era – a visual representative of the PP of the modern image; b) a visual representative of the PN of the Soviet era – verbalization of the collective characteristic of the PN; c) a visual representative of the PN of the Soviet era – verbalization of role archetypes, patterns of behavior that conditionally correlate with the PN; d) visual representative of the PN – a verbal component, the semantics of which correlates and contrasts with the PN; e) visual representative of the PN – a text with a quote / reminiscent reference / rhyme / etc. Results. The analysis allows us to draw a conclusion about the polycode variability of PN representatives. A potential basis for the reference to a PN at one time or another can be values, a behavioral stereotype, a personality type, the most representative traits, skills or achievements of a person / character that meet the cultural context.

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