Article published In: English Text Construction
Vol. 10:1 (2017) ► pp.106–131
article
Multimodal simile
The “when” meme in social media discourse
Published online: 15 June 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/etc.10.1.06lou
https://doi.org/10.1075/etc.10.1.06lou
This paper analyzes the “when” meme, a popular internet meme, which prototypically juxtaposes a
when clause with an ostensibly unrelated image. Despite the initial incongruity, I contend this image prompts selective
mapping between verbal and visual elements to produce a multimodal simile. First, I attempt to define and more clearly distinguish simile
from metaphor. Second, I show how this multimodal simile exhibits unique viewpoint mapping by prompting audiences to subsume viewpoints that
are both unfamiliar and bizarre. Third, I connect the like construction in simile with the like reported
speech marker to show how both concepts are intimately related. Ultimately, the paper seeks to contribute to studies of simile by bolstering
its ties with multimodality, blending, metonymy, viewpoint, and embodiment.
Keywords: cognitive linguistics, internet memes, multimodality, simile, viewpoint
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.A short history of the “when” meme
- 3.The “when” meme as a multimodal simile
- 4.Multimodal broad-scope simile: Frame metonymy and reversibility
- 5.Multimodal narrow-scope simile: A constellation of viewpoints
- 6.Mimetic speech and performance
- 7.The source-focused “when” meme
- 8.Conclusion
- Notes
- Acknowledge
References
References (28)
Aristotle. 1960. The Rhetoric of Aristotle. Trans. Lane Cooper. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Buchstaller, Isabelle. 2014. Quotatives: New Trends and Sociolinguistic Implications. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons.
Coulson, Seana. 2001. Semantics Leaps: Frame-shifting and Conceptual Blending in Meaning Construction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dancygier, Barbara & Eve Sweetser. 2014. Figurative Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dancygier, Barbara & Lieven Vandelanotte. 2016. Discourse viewpoint as network. In Viewpoint and the Fabric Meaning: Form and Use of Viewpoint Tools Across Languages and Modalities, Barbara Dancygier, Wei-lun Lu & Arie Verhagen (eds). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 13–40.
. Submitted. Internet memes as inter-modal constructions.
Fauconnier, Gilles. 1994. Mental Spaces: Aspects of Meaning Construction in Natural Language. (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fauconnier, Gilles & Mark Turner. 2002. The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind’s Hidden Complexities. New York: Basic Books.
Fillmore, Charles J. 1982. Frame semantics. In Linguistics in the Morning Calm, The Linguistic Society of Korea (ed.). Seoul: Hanshin Publishing Co., 111–137.
Forceville, Charles & Eduardo Urios-Aparisi (eds). 2009. Multimodal Metaphor. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Gentner, Dedre & Brian Bowdle. 2001. Convention, form and figurative language processing. Metaphor and Symbol 16 (3/4): 222–247.
Israel, Michael, Jennifer Riddle Harding & Vera Tobin. 2004. On simile. In Language, Culture and Mind, Michel Achard & Suzanne Kemmer (eds). Stanford CA: CSLI Publications, 123–135.
Moder, Carol. 2008. It’s like making a soup: Metaphors and similes in spoken news discourse. In Language in the Context of Use: Discourse and Cognitive Approaches to Language, Andrew Tyler, Yiyoung Kim & Maria Takada (eds). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 301–320.
. 2010. Two puzzle pieces: Fitting discourse context and constructions into cognitive metaphor theory. English Text Construction 3 (2): 294–320.
Pascual, Esther. 2014. Fictive Interaction: The Conversation Frame in Thought, Language, and Discourse. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Perelman, Chaim & Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca. 1969. The New Rhetoric. Trans. John Wilkinson and Purcell Weaver. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
Romaine, Suzanne & Deborah Lange. 1991. The use of like as a marker of reported speech and thought: A case of grammaticalization in progress. American Speech 66 (3): 227–279.
Siegel, Muffy E.A. 2002.
Like: The discourse particle and semantics. Journal of Semantics 19 (1): 35–71.
Sullivan, Karen. 2013. Frames and Constructions in Metaphoric Language. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Tagliamonte, Sali & Alex D’Arcy. 2005. When people say, “I was like...”: The quotative system in Canadian youth. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 10 (2): 257–272.
Tannen, Deborah & Anna Marie Trester (eds). 2013. Discourse 2.0: Language and New Media. Georgetown: Georgetown University Press.
Vandelanotte, Lieven. 2012. Quotative go and be like: Grammar and grammaticalization. In Quotatives: Cross-Linguistic and Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives, Isabelle Buchstaller & Ingrid Van Alphen (eds). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 173–202.
Cited by (34)
Cited by 34 other publications
Colston, Herbert L.
2025. The big figurative picture. In What makes a Figure [Figurative Thought and Language, 19], ► pp. 14 ff.
Georgakopoulou, Alexandra
Kamath, Charunayan & Sivakumar Alur
Kwon, Iksoo
Meier-Vieracker, Simon
Meleshchenko, Olga & Olena Radchenko
Negrea-Busuioc, Elena, Oana Ștefăniță & Diana-Maria Buf
2025. Romania’s first female prime minister’s meme-ification. Journal of Language and Politics 24:5 ► pp. 802 ff.
Ntouvlis, Vinicio & Jarret Geenen
Rödel, Michael
Schaefer, Sarah Josefine
Lindholm, Loukia
2024. Temporality in reaction GIFs as multimodal virtual performatives. In Structures in Discourse [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 345], ► pp. 103 ff.
Bülow, Lars
Bülow, Lars & Marie-Luis Merten
Diedrichsen, Elke
Jackson, Brad
Kang, Ji-in, Hanbeom Jung, A Young Kwon & Iksoo Kwon
Maslo, Adi & Sofia Kefalidou
Tommasini, Riccardo, Filip Ilievski & Thilini Wijesiriwardene
Yus, Francisco
Khustenko, A. A.
Younes, Afakh Said & Abdel Rahman Mitib Altakhaineh
Abdel-Raheem, Ahmed
Steciąg, Magdalena
Chagas, Vicktor
Piata, Anna
Piata, Anna
2022. Stylistic humor across modalities. In The Pragmatics of Internet Memes [Benjamins Current Topics, 120], ► pp. 36 ff.
Vandelanotte, Lieven
2019. Changing perspectives. Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) ► pp. 170 ff.
Vandelanotte, Lieven
2021. Creative constructs, constructions, and frames in Internet discourse. Constructions and Frames 13:1 ► pp. 160 ff.
Bülow, Lars, Marie-Luis Merten & Michael Johann
Lugea, Jane
Dancygier, Barbara & Lieven Vandelanotte
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 9 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.