Chen, Tiancheng;
(2024)
Understanding Trans-semioticising Expressions on Chinese Social Media.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
Previous research has investigated Trans-semioticising expressions (TSEs) on social media from different perspectives. However, there is still a lot of work to be done on the topic, such as the categorisation of translanguaging expressions, the understanding processes of different types of TSEs, and the cognitive effects achieved during the understanding processes. This study aims to demonstrate the structural and composite diversity of TSEs that are encountered on Chinese social media and, more importantly, explore the cognitive processes of their comprehension. The first part of data is a TSEs database constructed with posts from 8 Weibo Super-topics. Through Grounded Theory, the TSEs are categorised into different types. The second part of data is recordings of think-aloud tasks, coupled with follow-up interviews to gather the thoughts of participants when they understand different TSEs. The strategies and patterns used by the participants are analysed and summarised. Relevance Theory was adopted as a theoretical tool to help analyse and explain the participants’ understanding paths and strategies used during the think-aloud tasks. The study finds that the formation of TSEs falls into four macro-mechanisms of innovative lexical formation, resulting in four types and eight sub-types. In terms of the combinations of semiotic elements involved, five different semiotic systems are involved. TSEs are differentiated into explicit and implicit ones according to whether the formation mechanism and the semiotic elements were visible on the surface. Three different understanding paths and eight different understanding strategies are found. The participants’ level of familiarity with the TSEs and the types of the TEs are found to be influential. The participants’ understanding of TSEs is constrained by the presumption of optimal relevance when participants decode and integrate the meaning of the TSEs. In addition, the extra effort expended on TSEs can generate some non-propositional effects, namely social associations and aesthetic associations.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Understanding Trans-semioticising Expressions on Chinese Social Media |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2023. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Culture, Communication and Media |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10186241 |
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