Cognitive Creativity in English-Language Social Media Memes in Morocco: A Multimodal Conceptual Blending Study

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18097084

Abstract

This study investigates cognitive creativity in English-language social media memes within Moroccan digital culture, focusing on how meaning is constructed through the interaction of visual, verbal, and cultural resources. Memes have emerged as influential forms of online communication, functioning not only as entertainment but also as sites of identity negotiation, social commentary, and cultural expression. The primary objective of this article is to examine how Moroccan meme creators employ multimodal conceptual blending to represent national identity, linguistic hybridity, historical memory, gender roles, migration experiences, and global positioning. Adopting a qualitative, descriptive-analytical research design, the study analyses a purposively selected corpus of twenty English-language memes collected from major social media platforms. The analysis is grounded in Conceptual Blending Theory and multimodal discourse analysis, allowing for systematic examination of how images, text, emotions, and shared cultural knowledge combine to produce humorous and meaningful interpretations. The findings reveal that cognitive creativity in Moroccan memes is achieved through patterned blending processes rather than random humour, with Morocco consistently conceptualised as a symbolic cognitive space associated with pride, resistance, hospitality, emotional belonging, and cultural negotiation. English serves as a global framing language, while Moroccan sociocultural knowledge anchors interpretation and accessibility. The study concludes that Moroccan English-language memes function as culturally embedded digital narratives that enable users to critique power, express collective identity, and engage with global audiences while remaining locally grounded, highlighting the importance of memes as sites of cognitive, cultural, and social meaning-making in contemporary digital discourse.