Memes versus signs
On the use of meaning concepts about nature and culture
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4472425 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Erkki Kilpinen (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 2008 |
| Issue | 171 |
| Publication date | 2008-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Semiotica (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0037-1998 • E-ISSN: 1613-3692 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1515/semi.2008.075 |
| OpenAlex | W2076759817 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 19 |
| References cited | 10 |
In recent years, the so-called ‘meme’ concept, originally introduced by Richard Dawkins and modelled analogously after the phenomenon of gene, has aroused much discussion. There have also been attempts to develop a systematic discipline of ‘memetics’ upon this notion, and suggestions that this opens up unforeseen possibilities for studying human culture in a new way, as compatible with biological evolution. This article argues that these attempts are misguided. The meme is a new word but not a new concept, it is only a new version of the traditional semiotic concept of sign. More pointedly, the meme is not merely an old idea in new clothing, it is in all important respects an inferior alternative to the semiotic sign. The consequence of this is that the suggested memetics would leave open the cleavage between the study of nature and culture that semiotics traditionally has attempted to close
Clothing · Epistemology · Linguistics · Meaning (existential) · Memetics · Phenomenon · Semiotics · Semiotics of culture · Sign (mathematics) · Sign system · Sociology · Communication · History · Language and cultural evolution · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Media, Communication, and Education · Philosophy
Semiotics of spreadability
Semiótica da propagabilidade
Comunicação, consumo e memes do carnaval
The Ukrainian meme machine
Toward A Model of Meme Diffusion (M 3 D)
The habitual conception of action and social theory
Referring to the Qualitative Dimension of Consciousness
Bill Gates Covid19 Conspiracy in Reddit Memes
Memeplexes in the Ukrainian information landscape
Memeing war
Inside Facebook’s semiosphere. How social media influence digital hate and fuel cyber-polarization
The Production of Consumer Society
Humorismo como creación y fortalecimiento de los vínculos en la sociedad red
Memes in a Digital World
Presenting grammar through Internet memes in teaching English for specific purposes
El meme como ágora digital del lenguaje político contemporáneo. El caso del movimiento 21N y 11S en Colombia
Logonomic signs as three-phase constraints of multimodal social semiosis
Memes, genes, and signs
Analysis of Facebook Meme Groups Used During the 2016 US Presidential Election
| Unique citing works | 19 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,12 |
| Citation span | 2009 - 2025 (17) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 12 |