On the syntax and usage of glossonyms in memes and reels

Abstract

The paper looks at three major contexts of occurrence for non-standard glossonyms, i.e. in internet reels and memes, which are identified as: Verb + glossonym proper (of the type ‘waits in Spanish’), Manner-of-speaking Verb + covert glossonym (of the type ‘screams in teenager’), and Verb + like X glossonym (of the type ‘stares in wife’). Building on the syntactic analysis in Tănase-Dogaru (2024), the paper shows that all three types of constructions involve the presence of a covert classifier LANGUAGE or WAY. Moreover, all three types of constructions involve the presence of the preposition ‘in’, which, unlike standard glossonym constructions, where it disambiguates between an individual-level and a stage-level reading, introduces an ambiguity between a ‘like X’ and a ‘language X’ reading, which in turn triggers humorous effects.