Convergence of Codes in Metaphorization and Precedent Reflection in Categorizing Urban Locus

Abstract

This article presents a comprehensive analysis of the process of metaphorization and polycode precedent reflection of sociocultural urban space in media discourse. The purpose of the study is to identify the specifics of the metaphorical conceptualization of locus through reference to semiotically variable precedent phenomena in polycode media texts. The material for the analysis is small polycode units in the comic genre (Internet memes), manifesting in visual and/or verbal precedent form a metaphorical rethinking of Moscow’s urban space and thematically related toponymic elements. The methodological basis of the study is a systemic–functional approach to multimodal discourse analysis and a set of methods of structural–semantic and intertextual analysis. The conceptualization of metaphors of exclusivity and superiority, attractiveness and success, progress, illusions, inaccessibility, ergonomics, and idleness is revealed. For each of the established metaphors, the dominant semiotic codes used in the manifestation of the corresponding images are determined. A representative sample is used to illustrate the primacy of the visual semiotic code, ensured by means of primary and secondary (precedent) reference. The most frequent primary sources of precedent phenomena are identified: contemporary cinema, elements of artistic expression, cartographic materials, computer games, trollfaces, imageboards, precedent images of heroes and antiheroes, statements by famous personalities, and song lyrics. Using Internet memes as an example, the semiotic organization of polycode texts conceptualizing the metaphors of urban space is characterized; techniques of asymmetry and antithesis are identified, ensuring the contrasting encoding of evaluative meanings and the actualization of irony and sarcasm.