Internet memes have become ubiquitous tools of digital communication and a fundamental component of everyday communicative practices (Johann & Bülow, 2018, 1). Far from being merely humorous images, memes function as multimodal artifacts, so called Language-Image-Texts (Osterroth 2015, 2019, 2020), through which users can perform speech acts in the sense of Austin (1962) and Searle (1979), serving a range of communicative purposes.
This study employs linguistic pragmatics and multimodal discourse analysis to investigate the forms and functions of Warhammer 40K memes. Drawing on a corpus of 100 image macros sourced from social media platforms, the analysis is structured along two dimensions:
- In-Universe Memes
- Analysis of form and function within the fictional Warhammer 40K setting
- Communicative purposes from an intradiegetic perspective
- Real-World Memes
- Analysis of form and function as related to contemporary discourse
- Examination of broader communicative intentions and sociopolitical implications
Preliminary findings suggest that the Warhammer 40K universe, with its exaggerated, hyper-bureaucratic, and authoritarian themes, lends itself particularly well to memeing. This memeability intersects with discourses such as the claim that “the left can’t meme” (Schöb, 2022, 19), highlighting how the meme format can be easily exploited for reductive or hateful messaging. Memes lend themselves more readily to the dissemination of far-right, misogynistic, racist, conspiratorial, and antisemitic content than to the promotion of democratic messages. Although the communicative practice of Memeing by itself is inherently participatory and open, its simplicity and emotional appeal make it particularly susceptible to anti-democratic instrumentation.
This aligns with the Warhammer 40K universe, which offers a hyperbolic reflection of real-world politics. The corpus highlights the entertaining and the problematic communicative potentials of memes within and beyond the fictional context of Warhammer 40k.
References
- Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do things with words: The William James Lectures delivered at Harvard University in 1955. Clarendon Press.
- Johann, M., & Bülow, L. (2018). Die Verbreitung von Internet-Memes: empirische Befunde zur Diffusion von Bild-Sprache-Texten in den sozialen Medien. Kommunikation@gesellschaft(19), 1–24.
- Osterroth, A. (2015). Das Internet-Meme als Sprache-Bild-Text. IMAGE. Zeitschrift Für Interdisziplinäre Bild-wissenschaft., 11(22), 26–46.
- Osterroth, A. (2019). How to do things with memes? – Internet Memes als multimodale Sprechakte. In L. Bülow & M. Johann (Eds.), Politische Internet-Memes – Theoretische Herausforderungen und empiri-sche Befunde (pp. 41–60). Frank & Timme.
- Osterroth, A. (2020). Internet-Memes als multimodale Sprechakte in öffentlichen Diskursen anhand von Bei-spielen aus Antwortthreads von @realDonaldTrump. Linguistik Online, 101(1/20), 115–137.
- Schöb, M. (2022). The Left Can Meme: What We Can Learn from the Alt-Right’s Meme War and How We Can Counteract [Master’s Thesis, Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam].
- Searle, J. R. (1979). Expression and Meaning: Studies in the Theory of Speech Acts. Cambridge University Press.
Author bio
Dr Andreas Osterroth is a former schoolteacher and now a linguist at RPTU, specializing in language didac-tics, pragmatics, and internet memes. He has engaged with Warhammer Fantasy and 40K for over 25 years and currently commands Imperial Knights and Tau Empire armies.
