Satire as a Form of Indirect Communication in Jordanian Digital Discourse During Covid-19: A Semiotic–pragmatic Analysis

This study investigates how satire functions as a form of indirect communication in Jordanian digital discourse during the COVID-19 pandemic. It explores how semiotic resources and pragmatic devices construct satirical meanings through culturally shared interpretation. The study combines Charles Peirce's theory of signs with Speech Act Theory, developed by J. L. Austin and John Searle. Its corpus comprises eight widely circulated Jordanian satirical posts purposively collected from Facebook and WhatsApp across different pandemic phases. These posts are analysed as multimodal semiotic–pragmatic events that reflect recurring communicative strategies rather than isolated humorous texts. The analysis identifies eight recurring strategies through which satire functions as indirect communication. These strategies generate meaning by combining iconic, indexical, and symbolic signs with pragmatic devices such as irony, hyperbole, personification, contextual reframing, intertextuality, indirect speech acts, and pragmatic inference. The findings show that Jordanian digital satire is not merely entertainment but a culturally rooted practice for expressing criticism, negotiating social norms, addressing collective anxiety, and preserving face without direct confrontation. Combining semiotic and pragmatic approaches therefore provides a comprehensive framework for understanding how indirect meanings emerge, are interpreted, and are negotiated in digital satirical discourse.