Typology of internet memes as iconic linguacultural symbols

The article discusses Internet memes as a novel folklore genre of the digital environment, which is becoming more relevant due to the emergence of new types of visual communication. The units of digital folklore - memes - represent a valuable source of cultural information due to their tendency to reflect, keep, store and convey the essential concepts and elements of a specific ethnoculture. The given typology is based on the analysis of Russian and American Internet memes issued between January 2020 and April 2022. The typology includes various aspects of memes: form and genre, variety, type, distribution, topics, novelty of information, images, comic techniques. This information helps to identify the linguacultural specificity of memes. The language used in memes is usually original and also reflects some cultural information which is presented by word order, diminutive units, elliptical forms, precedent names, various forms of direct address, etc. Comic devices differ from culture to culture, demonstrating certain attitudes and specificities. The visual images used in memes also carry cultural information. The topics covered by memes are often relevant to some specific nation and may not be perceived or interpreted correctly by other nations. Thus, the suggested typology, the analysis and comparing ethnically-oriented memes can contribute to revealing up-to-date similarities and differences of the compared cultures, which can be used for further development of cultural linguistics.