Cultural and Linguistic Aspects of Memes in Russia and Spain

The research is devoted to the study of Internet memes in the Russian and Spanish digital spaces, examining them through the prism of intercultural and lingua-cultural analysis. The aim of the study is to identify the peculiarities of memes in each language, to compare and contrast them, to identify similarities and differences in the themes, structure and, most importantly, in the linguistic structure of memes. The work also reveals how memes reflect the national character, mentality and historical realities. To achieve this goal, a corpus of memes collected from the most popular social networks - Telegram, Instagram, Facebook, VK, Memedroid for the last five years. The data were analysed using a number of research methods, including descriptive analysis, which allows to systematise the obtained information, comparative analysis to identify differences and similarities between Russian and Spanish memes, content analysis to assess the frequency of occurrence of certain themes and images, and semantic analysis which reveals the underlying meanings embedded in memes. The study paid particular attention to the historical and cultural context that plays a crucial role in the the formation of memes. Particular attention is paid to the linguistic features of memes: the use of slang typical to each culture, borrowings from other languages, including English, and, most importantly, the decoding of cultural codes, encoded in the visual and textual elements of memes. Analysing these codes allows us to uncover underlying meanings and understand how memes convey cultural values and stereotypes. The results obtained can be useful in the field of intercultural communication, media linguistics, sociolinguistics and translation, as well as contribute to a better understanding of linguistic and cultural specificity of digital discourse.