辽东学院外语学院2013 — 2014学年第一学期期末考试《语用学》学期论文论文题目 A Brief Analysis of the Memetics Theory of Pragmatics课程名称语用与翻译学号0311100217姓名杨文秀学院（系）外语学院专业英语指导教师赵丽丽呈交时间2013年12月29日CONTENTS Contents (I)Abstract (II)中文摘要 (II)1. Introduction (1)2. Features of meme (1)3. Reason for meme’s formation (2)4. T ypes of meme (2)5. Conclusion (2)Bibliography (3)AbstractAs a cultural gene, Memes are survived by copying and spreading. language is one of its carriers. Memes are related to languages closely, and further said that the language itself is a meme, it can even explore issues manifested in the chapter level. What’s more, memes are very interesting during language communication in daily life. In this paper, I want to discuss the features and the types of memes from pragmatic prospect based on the theory of memes and some articles about memes written by experts in pragmatic.中文摘要模因作为文化基因，靠复制、传播而生存，语言是它的载体之一。

模因与语言关系密切，更进一步说，语言本身就是模因，它可以在字词句乃至篇章层面上表现出来。

此外，模因在日常生活的语言交流中也非常有趣。

在这篇论文中，我想根据一下语用学专家写过的有关模因的相关文章来讨论模因的特点和分类。

1.IntroductionMeme, the term first appeared in the Selfish Gene written by famous Oxford University zoologist and a classic behavioral ecologist Dawkins.I have referred in some papers about this term; One is published in Journal of Tongren University 2rd, 2010, written by Ma Qingkai, named A Rethink on Meme and Language. The main idea of this essay challenges the meme approach towards language replication and imitation from four perspectives: vague in explaining what exactly meme is, absence of human’s role in its theory, difficult to explain difference in perceiving the same meme, neglect of human’s intention in language imitation. Compared with the parody studies, it does not show any advantage in explaining the language imitation phenomenon.The second is The Origin of Pragmatic Memetics written by GAO Xiao, published in Journal of Hebei Universityof Economics and Trade on June,2007. In this paper, the author writes that memetics is a new theory based on Darwin's evolutionism, seeking to explain cultural evolution. Currently, this theory has been applied in the study of pragmatics, offering a brand - new perspective to disclosing the rule of linguistic development. The third is Memes in Language, written by He Ziran. His paper holds that there are two ways for memes to be replicated and transmitted: the same cor e content being inherited in various forms, and the identical set pat tern being follow ed by different contents. The rest two are Analysis of memes in language, by Chen Lin Xia and He Ziran and On the Meaning Pursuit of Philosophy of Language in Light of Memetics written by Zhu Yihua.2.Features of memesMemes is a phenomenon similar to genes. Genes is a vertical transmission between generations and inherited from the previous generation to the next generation. On the one hand, memes are transmitted from one generation to the next generation in a longitudinal way between intergenerational pass. For example, as many of the parents teach their children their own social experience, such as teach them to be polite under some situation and tell the children under what circumstances to say ask and thanks etc. On the other hand, the gene also pass in a horizontal way, such as between the same generation, an idea or behavior can be passed from one person to another and then transferred to a third person, and so on. In addition, meme is ot only passed directly from person to person, but also spread through radio, television, newspapers, books, magazines and other means. Meme plays a replication factor role, because it has all of the three conditions as a replication have, namely retention, mutation and selection. Imitation is the main way of transmission of memes. By mimicking, the idea from one person to another person's brain, the brain constantly being copied and passed. What’s mor e, meme has the features of practicability, rationality, fashion and authority so that it can popular among people.3.Reason for meme’s formationDonald Campbell, the American psychologist believes that the reason for why organic evolution and cultural evolution is similar to each other is that they are the system of evolution. However, For all in terms of the systems of the evolution, there exist a replication of blind variation, a selective retention of some of these variations, and a selective elimination of some other variable. Memes are selective, because memes transmission ability is different. Some information is easier to arouse people's attention, easier to be remembered, and easier to be passed on to others. Those information become memes.4.The types of memesAccording to the pragmatic functions, researchers divide memes into two types. They are strong and weak meme. Strong memes reference to those memes which have strong life.This kind of memes can be copied and spread widely and continuously during a period. Strong meme plays an active role in the evolution of species and cultural. The power of copy and spread are strong. To the opposite, those memes which become no longer active, and even disappear gradually and be forgotten the change of time and the development environment are called weak memes. The two kinds don’t have very obvious difference. The strong memes, for example, reference those words which from the ancient customs, traditions, values, and popular legends, idioms and proverbs.Researchers also divided memes into pro meme and con memes. Pro memes include patriotism , environmental awareness, the spirit of cooperation and other such memes can make our knowledge and culture from generation to generation , and flourish. Con memes are disadvantage memes mainly refer vices, theft, greed and other bad behavior, such memes control of people 's desire to produce a bad attempt , which may give a negative impact on society, and even endanger the society. In addition, there are neutral memes , including certain habits , beliefs , etc. These memes do not care pros and cons , good or bad, but some people do not have the value of these things for some purpose to spread , such as the feudal superstitious thinking , personal worship and so on.5.ConclusionMemes can be connected with our lives. Memes’ replicate and spread can lead to positive or negative influence on social language communication. The power oflanguage memes once you get to know, just need to have the corresponding language policy and language planning to guide, from the outside to suppress malicious memes replicate, so as to create a good influence.The process of using language is a process of selecting and using of all kinds of memes. Memes’ survival depends on its function. When words are widely used as memes, they play a positive role in communication, these memes becomes strong. As far as I am concerned, memes are very important in prompting people’s communication as a linguistic art. Human’s developments are not only based on the evolution of genes, but also based on memes. I believe that using mems must make our communication among people become more interesting and easier.Bibliography1. 何自然．语言中的模因[J]．语言科学，2005．2. 朱义华. 模因论观照下的语言哲学意义. 外语学刊， 2011.3. 马庆凯. 模因与语言再思考. 铜仁学院报，2010.4. 陈林霞. 语言模因现象探析. 外语与教学研究，2006.5. 高宵. 语言模因现象溯源. 河北经贸大学学报，2007.。