In the context of English as a global language, and Netspeak as a new electronic medium of communication, the present paper examines the linguistic properties and distinctive features of online communication in postponed time, bearing in mind that synchronicity is one of the dimensions upon which electronic communication can be categorised. This corpus-based study, for which data were collected from several Internet sites, places particular focus on the features of English used in asynchronous settings. The analysis, based on the model proposed by David Crystal (2001), portrays a number of highly distinctive features of Netspeak, proving an immense impact of thethis type of commucniation in terms of graphology (emoticons, punctuation) and the lexicon (blending, compounding), these being areas where it is relatively easy to introduce both innovation (nonce formation and other ludic Netspeak extensions) and deviation (abbreviations, acronyms).

The aim of the paper is to show that conceptual blending theory, proposed by Fauconnier and Turner, is equipped with the mechanisms that can explain the construction of the meaning of Yusuf Franko Kusa's political caricatures. These magnificent cartoons reveal the history of late nineteenth-century Pera. The construction of the meaning of political caricatures involves the construction of a blended space which results in an incongruity that is characteristic of humorous blends. Projections from the blend to input spaces highlight the scenarios within inputs, and as a result we view scenarios in the input spaces from a different perspective i.e. in the light of the comic effect created within the emergent structure.

The use of common people and objects as persuasive tools is an advertising strategy focuses on the assumption that common man can easily be identified with the masses i.e. target group for an advertiser. The ads feature people who appear to be average and typical ant thus lead the reader to believe that the product is for everyone (Howe and Edelstein 2000: 24). As Goddard (2005: 81-82) points out, 'symbolic representation can be a powerful source of meaning in texts of all kinds. Symbols are much more about associations of ideas than about any literal or straightforward equation, and much more about group convention than about individual personalized meaning'. Accordingly, the semiotic analysis in this paper contains what Barthes (1977: 33) explained as follows: '…if the image contains signs, we can be sure that in advertising these signs are full, formed with a view to the optimum reading: the advertising image is frank or at least emphatic'.