Anatomizing Ideology Below the Clause: The Transitivity Analysis of Iqbal’s Mukalma Jibra.īl-o-Iblīs (Gabriel and Lucifer)

This paper aims at exploring how ideology is construed in a text and how the text bears significant meaning potentials. Drawing on Systemic-functional Linguistics (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2014), particularly on the Transitivity analysis, it examines how language serves in terms of two folds of structural social semiotics and ideology representation. The study probes out how the constituent analysis (Transitivity analysis) could be significant in unfolding the meaning potential of a text. The data was taken from the text of the poem ‘Jibra.īl -o-Iblīs'. The data was comprised of the twenty-two sentences taken from the text of the poem which was later on transliterated and translated for the purpose of analysis. The purposive sampling tool has been significantly helpful in the excerption of data, and a mixed-method approach has been employed in terms of analysis. Findings suggested that the poem reflects five process types which were Material, Mental, Verbal, Relational, and Existential and the participants been detected were Actor, Goal, Scope, Range, Beneficiary, Target, Senser, Phenomenon, Verbiage, Sayer, Token, Value, Attribute, Carrier and Existent. Also, the types of circumstance detected in the analysis were Circumstance of Manner, Location, Role, Contingency, Angle, Cause, Accompaniment, and Extent. To configure the dominant process type, Bungin’s statistical approach (2001) was employed. And, it is acknowledged that the dominant process type in the poem was the verbal process (47%) and the subsequent was the material process (27%). Findings also foreshadow that poem's meaning potential is blueprinted on a spiritual aura which is being communicated mainly through the verbal process and material process subsequently. This paper focuses only on the transitivity analysis the future researches could be done about interpersonal or textual metafunction analysis of the poem.

Comparing the Meaning Potential in Shakespeare and Manto through Speech Acts: A Discourse Pragmatic Study

This paper attempts to explain the application of speech act theory (John Searle, 1976) on the soliloquies expressed by Hamlet and Keshulal Singh. The descriptive focus of this study is to draw attention to the felicity conditions whether they are being fulfilled by the speakers while making an utterance or not. Content analysis based on speech act theory is used for this paper. It has been pointed out that declaratives are less while directives are more applicable on these soliloquies, with the help of analysis. Hamlet and Keshulal’s inner self is being depicted through their speeches and it is analyzed that they are so much upset and are in the situation of to be or not to be that they do not know what should be their strategies, in taking their revenge. In actuality, they are trying to extinguish the storm which is bursting inside them through their soliloquies but by comparing the inner devastation of both characters. It is highlighted that Hamlet’s soliloquies are more self-explanatory than that of Keshulal because Hamlet makes vows, questions, deplores, and challenges the circumstances more than the Keshulal.

The Prototypical Meaning of the Verb Κηρυσσειν (to proclaim) in the Gospel of Mark and its Relation to Κηρυσσειν in Homer, Septuagint, and Josephus

Most scholars seem to purport a very “general” meaning of the verb κηρύσσειν. Often, the meanings are coined as hypernyms: “to herald,” “to proclaim,” “to broadcast,” “to announce” or “to preach.” Ipso facto, they fail to capture the specific meanings within their contexts— a word that is used within its clausal/ discourse construction activates a meaning potential that may or may not reflect the full “general” idea of the word. As such, modern linguists purport the difficulty to arrive at specific definitions for words. Given this dilemma, the concept of prototype emerges unto the linguistic stage with the potentials to resolve the problem. Using prototype as an approach to find meanings, the objective is to find the best representation of a word, object, or concept (under consideration) within a given category, context, or pericope. On this basis, the research has employed this approach to the verb κηρύσσειν in the Gospel of Mark which resulted in the prototypical meaning: Followers or beneficiaries of Jesus’s deeds, publicly transmitting information about good deeds that have been performed by Jesus for the benefit of humans. In relation to the meanings in Homer, Septuagint, and Josephus, the results showed considerable differences, along with few similarities. Therefore, the approach and results of this research contribute in a more comprehensive and in a significant manner to our understanding of the verb Κηρύσσειν in Mark’s Gospel.

The Battle for “NoFap”: Myths, Masculinity, and the Meaning of Masturbation Abstention

Critical masculinities scholarship has identified a number of ways in which abstention from sex, pornography, and masturbation works to repair and reproduce hybrid and hegemonic masculinities. Though the mercurial and plural nature of contemporary online masculinities is investigated on a number of fronts, analysis to date has often pinned down abstention to a particular subject position, often understood predominantly in its gendered dimensions. In this article, I argue that the anti-pornography, anti-masturbation movement NoFap should be understood as a site of political contestation for the meaning potential of abstention and that these subject positions should be read intersectionally. Through analysis of a large corpus of tweets (6,569) scraped from the micro-blogging site Twitter, I present evidence for seven distinct subject positions linked to discrete myths, which include extreme anti-feminist and anti-Semitic articulations. I argue that this bird’s-eye view of NoFap uniquely lays out competing myths in their specificity, facilitating a nuanced understanding of “morbid” identities.

Visual affect in films: a semiotic approach

This study investigates affective meanings expressed in facial expressions and bodily gestures from a semiotic perspective. Particularly, the study focuses on disentangling relations of affective meanings and exploring the meaning potential of facial expressions and bodily gestures. Based on the analysis of over three hundred screenshots from two films (one animation and one live-action film), this study proposes a system of visual affect, as well as a system of visual resources involved in the expression of visual affect. The system of visual affect makes a further step in the investigation of affective meanings afforded by facial expressions and bodily gestures, and can provide methodological insights into the examination of affective meanings expressed visually. The system of visual resources provides a more meaning-motivated framework for systematic tracking of the visual resources, which may be applied to the analysis of other visual media apart from films.

A multimodal cognitive analysis of visual metonymies in picture books featuring same-sex-parent families

Verbal metaphor and also metonymy have been theorized from a conceptual perspective since Lakoff and Johnson published Metaphors we live by in the 1980s. However, the final years of the twentieth century saw a new approach into non-verbal monomodal or multimodal tropes (Forceville & Urios-Aparisi, 2009). In an attempt to expand upon the theorization and communicative functions of visual metonymies, this study aims to explore the meaning potential of metonymic representations of characters in a sample of six picture books which portray same-sex-parent families. A multimodal cognitive approach has been adopted to find out whether, and if so how, metonymic representations of characters contribute to the positive portrayal and acceptance of same-sex-parent families in children’s picture books. The results reveal that monomodal visual metonymies are essentially used to introduce new characters in the story and highlight important aspects of the plot which boost the acceptance of non-traditional families.

Revitalizing Cultural Characteristics in Advertising in Nigeria Within a Sketch of Systemic Paradigm

This study investigated cultural pieces of advertising to indicate the ways that publicists deploy socio-cultural resources as normative channels of persuading readers to consumption. To achieve that goal, ten advertisements of financial, food, and telecommunications industries, harvested from The Punch newspaper, the Internet and erected advertising frameworks, functioned as data of analysis. After stratifying the advertisements into appropriate organizations, the terminology of ‘Below the clause’, functioned as the processing instrument. This allowed the application of graphic illustrations to account for the frequency of communicative components. The analysis revealed the employment of nominal groups (the lessons; this Eid) as playing dominant roles in the constructs, verbal groups (taste; celebrate) and prepositional phrases (from all of us at Fidelity Bank®; of commerce), also operated as stimulating structures. Although negligible, minor clause (Happy Workers’ Day; Eid Mubarak) are relevant grammatical elements of inducement. Besides anchorage and relaying functions interlocking the texts, one observed ambiguity (your work; Bae) in the Union Bank® and Wema Bank® advertisements. Connotations facilitated the communication of Mama don land and the big bottle of Coca-Cola®; the spirit of our nation and green-white-green dresses; your work and Maman Aisha; and the sacrifice of Christ with the crown of thorns. Contexts such as Yorùbá traditions, family ffairs, religious nuances, savings, and historical notions are propagated cultural endowments that influenced the advertisements’ meaning potential. As a result, the analysts might suggest that advertisers ought to consistently decorate their campaigns with cultural fortunes. Such behavior has the capacity to educate and influence readers to consumption in their various regional domains.

A Three-dimensional, Systemic Functional Analysis of Tense Usage in Gregory of Tours’ Decem libri Historiarum

Summary:The current paper investigates the three-dimensional meaning potential of the Late Latin narrative tenses. The grammatical categories ‘tense’ and ‘aspect’ are hypothesized to express meaning on the three metafunctional levels posited by Systemic Functional Linguistics. Combinations of their ideational and textual dimensions can be used to classify the various ‘traditional labels’ proposed in the literature on the Latin tenses. Interpersonal meaning, however, gives rise to an extra possibility to account for tense usage by referring to a number of perspectives from which the author invites his audience to experience the narrated events. An author like Gregory of Tours may avail himself of these perspectives to influence his audience in taking a stance on the events. The ultimate tense selection depends on a hierarchy of metafunctional considerations the author may have. The current paper also briefly discusses some of the morphological developments reported in the literature on the Latin tense system.

Explicating Choice of MTN® Advertising Frameworks in Nigerian Print Media

The meaning that a communicator intends to make determines the choice of the lexemes that the individual employs. Thus, this study explored the textual choices of MTN advertisements; as such entities were utilised to generate meaning potential. Seven advertisements of MTN functioned as the objects of analysis. The application of Halliday’s Theme-Rheme theoretical lens permitted the processing of the MTN advertisements into various semiotic slots. Such conceptual procedure informed the calibration of the textual components into different frequencies, using the table and graph to demonstrate clearer pictures of the outcomes. Observations showed the kinds of MTN advertising textual choices in two distinct sequences. The first was the thematic choices in the form of marked (As Nigerians, we can weave…), unmarked (Friends are the reason…) and conjunctive logical (so, and, that) constructs. The second aspect was the clause choices available in the texts. These clause choices emanated as declarative (Love is a feeling…), imperative (So reach out) with predicated themes (Share the priceless gift of love), and interrogative (Are you in love?) elements. One could also acknowledge disjunctive grammar (A year of new challenges…) and minor clauses (Happy Valentine’s Day), operating in the communications. Contextually, the study might influence the MTN telecommunications operator to review the nature of textual choices of persuasion, having understood the structures available in the current analysis.