Summary This paper examines the pragmatic strategies of protest slogans used during the Serbian student protests that erupted in November 2024 after the deadly collapse of the train station canopy in Novi Sad. Drawing from a manually compiled corpus of 150 protest posters and banners, the study applies a discourse-pragmatic approach, focusing on presuppositions, implicatures, and rhetorical devices. The analysis combines the DIMEAN framework with elements from protest discourse research in Belarus and Ukraine. It identifies a high density of pragmatic presuppositions and implicatures as central features of protest communication, which relies heavily on intertextual and intradiscursive references. The slogans are marked by a strategic violation of Gricean maxims, particularly the maxim of manner, to provoke cognitive engagement. Furthermore, the protest discourse is characterized by a notable degree of intellectualization and academization, evidenced by the frequent use of complex rhetorical structures and culturally coded allusions. The paper concludes that the Serbian student protest movement is shaped not by aggressive confrontation or carnivalistic subversion, but by a form of communication marked by juvenile self-irony, peaceful academization, and intellectual playfulness. Its language is witty and culturally sophisticated, drawing on a broad semiotic and historical reference space that both legitimizes the protest and consolidates a shared, educated identity.
Anna Jouravel (Wed,) studied this question.