Article published In: Internet Pragmatics: Online-First Articles
Animal personas, ambivalent judgements, and affective effects in social media reels
Published online: 13 March 2026
https://doi.org/10.1075/ip.00139.pis
https://doi.org/10.1075/ip.00139.pis
Abstract
This paper discusses humorous internet reels featuring cute animals voicing critical opinions about human
behaviours and lifestyles. The reels are characterised by incongruity between the images of animals and the content of their
messages. An analysis of lexical items and pragmatic implications of these messages indicates that a distinct idiolect has been
created for the animal personas and that it is not possible to tease out the source of the views expressed in their utterances;
the views can be attributed either to groups of people or to the animals themselves, as they are anthropomorphised. This makes for
pragmatic indeterminacy which leaves the viewer with the impression of ambivalence at the level of propositional meaning while
also giving rise to non-propositional affective effects.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Internet communication and internet humour
- 3.Animal characters on social media
- 4.A canine and feline outlook on human lifestyles and values
- 5.Discussion
- 6.Conclusions
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
References
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