A SEMIOTIC REPRESENTATION OF SELECTED NAIRA-REDESIGN MEMES ON FACEBOOK

Abstract

Social media memes, known for their satirical nature, employ linguistic techniques to humorously comment on or criticise social actors and events. While previous studies on memes have focused on pragmatic nuances and discourse frames, little attention has been given to semiotic studies on the investigation of memes on social media. This study, therefore, investigated these naira-redesigned memes on social media, focusing on linguistic and non-linguistic resources as well as the use of iconic semiotic resources in the selected naira-designing memes, which are beyond the entertainment level but serve as a satirical tool. A total of five (5) memes on naira redesign were purposively selected from social media, specifically, the Facebook platform.  Gunther Kress and Theo van Leuween’s Grammar of Visual Design (GVD) was adopted as the theoretical framework. Findings reveal that the combination of linguistic and non-linguistic resources is employed in each meme to create meaning and convey meaning to the readers. The study concludes that visible images and linguistic tools are rich in meaning and can be easily interpreted and understood.