The variation of catchphrases in digital media

Abstract

The rapid pace of digital reality development requires a reconsideration and clarification of generally accepted provisions of the theory of intertextuality. These provisions include the possibility of precedent phenomena transformation and modification and the limits and patterns of forms and meanings. The article employs corpus data to examine the boundaries and parameters of culturally significant phenomena: their relative stability, on the one hand, and their variability, ability to transform, on the other. A means of realizing the transformational potential of a culturally significant phenomenon is quasi-citation. The ratio of direct citation to quasi-citation depends on the length of the culturally significant phenomenon and the compatibility features of its elements. Culturally significant phenomena that have "survived" to the stage of modification demonstrate a different degree of variability. Phrases with a higher degree of cultural significance are more likely to be quasi-cited. The analysis of possible forms of quasi-citation made it possible to identify the basic principles of modifications of these phrases, which include adding a new element, a contextually determined replacement of one or several elements of the precedent phrase, mainly onyms (anthroponyms and toponyms) with other onyms or simply members of the same paradigm. Variability of culturally significant phrases is also manifested in mixing with other culturally significant phenomena, as well as in the reduction of the number of precedent phrase elements. Apparently, the use of the entire precedent statement in an attributive position with a noun should be considered as “top performance” of intertextuality with the highest possible degree of stability.