From memes to text: the AMC expression (Rom. acel moment când..., Engl. that moment when...) in Romanian Reddit interactions

This paper presents a case study of an abbreviation used in the Romanian online environment. We present the formal and functional properties of AMC, an initialism of the Rom. acel moment când... (Engl. that moment when...), in Reddit posts and comments created between 2021-2024. A diachronic perspective is used to highlight the transition of AMC from a verbal resource of multimodal memes to a textual resource of verbal Reddit interaction. We suggest that well-formed AMC expressions employ the use of the singular addressative form as a communicative trope (Kerbrat-Orecchioni, 1986). A secondary use of AMC involves creating an anaphoric reference to a previously disclosed information, via textual or visual modality within the Reddit forum thread. When used without a discernible referent, we believe the expression is used to indicate the critical or negative stance of the user.