Principles of Sense Generation and the Peculiarities of Interaction of Precedence Forms in Polymodal Units

The article describes sense generation principles in polymodal texts with account of semiotically complicated nature. It analyzes the forms of precedence actualized in code interaction and meaning encoding. Semiotic, noematic, structural-semantic and discursive analysis methods served the methodology for the study. The description of references to precedent phenomena is based on a complex situational and linguocultural reflection of a communicative act.

The polyparadigm analysis of the subject required clarification of the conceptual apparatus and terminological elements employed in specification of the models of code interaction within the framework of a polymodal unit. Based on the content analysis of polymodal texts (Internet memes), it is specified that precedence in the media space is encoded in verbal, visual and auditory semiotic codes. A number of semiotic elements (typeface, compositional geometry, etc.) convey the precedence of the form. The types of phenomena are characterized along with the levels of cognitive space (society-, national-, universal-precedent and fad-phenomena), as well as discursive forms of precedence actualization in polymodal texts.

The criteria for the analysis of meaning generation, models and types of code integration in Internet memes are identified and described. Text examples demonstrate monocode and polycode models of semiotic code interaction, as well as the types of meaning generation in each of them: the consequential and the integral ones. The contexts illustrating allusive references in different semiotic codes and the variability of the content of the meaning of a polymodal unit depending on the level of sociocultural competence of the recipient are analyzed.

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