A Pragmatic Study of Some Selected Political Posters
Chapter One
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of this research work is to identify the influence of pragmatics elements on encoded texts or utterance; the meaning that is implied and the effect on the addressee. We do this with the use of deployed political posters (statements) in the field of politics. Besides exploiting the features of pragmatics, this study seeks to analyse the thought provoking influence of such political posters; the rules of pragmatics governing the use of language in this aspect.
This study, we hope, prioritize on the need to view utterance as instrumental in influencing necessary developmental changes. We also analyse the feature of context, among other things, as a necessary factor to understanding inherent objectives of most political posters. We intend to carry-out this work in relation to semantics since the synergy will help us in understanding of this research work.
CHATER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
INTRODUCTION
The preoccupation of this chapter is to a review of related literatures and postulations that are in tone with this research work i.e. the study of political posters, pragmatically.
PRAGMATICS
DEFINITIONS
The term pragmatics has being variously defined and such definitions are further emphasised on in different areas of interest by different scholars. To start with, the encyclopaedic Dictionary of Language and Languages sees pragmatics as:
The study of language from the point of view of the
Users-especially of the choice they encounter in using
Language in social interaction, and the effects their use
Of language has on the other participants… (p310)
We can observe from the above definition how utterance is studied from different point of view, even in the analysis of political posters.
Various in this particular field are not left out in christening of pragmatics. Stalnaker (1972, p383) sees pragmatics as “the study of linguistic acts and the context in which they are performed”. Morris’s (1938, p6) famous definition of pragmatics as “the study of the relation of signs to the interpreters…” is worth mentioning. Barton (1990, p6), attempts to provide a synthesis of several definitions of pragmatics. She, for example, cited Morris (1938) who described pragmatics as “the relation of signs to their users”. Barton went further to define pragmatics as “the meaning that consists of interpretation within context” (Barton, 1990, p6).
These definitions continue to shade more light on what we mean by pragmatics. It is, indeed, an interpretation of utterance within context.
On the other hand, Mey (2001) posited that:
Pragmatics is the study of the way human beings use
Their language in communication, bases itself on a study
Of those premises and determines how they affect and
Effectualizes human language use… (2001, p6)
Mey’s definition greatly aids our understanding of the meaning of pragmatics. He saw it as ways in which human beings utilizes language to achieve predefined ends. These postulations would be made more glaring when they are applied to our study of selected political posters.
We equally take note of what Crystal has got to say concerning pragmatics. He opined that:
Pragmatics studies the factors the govern the choice of
Language in the social interaction and the effect of our
Choice on others… there is no law that says we must not
Tell jokes during funeral, but it is generally not done
(1987, p120)
Truly, “pragmatics studies… language in social interaction and the effect of our choice on others”. In this case, we look at that ‘interaction’ and ‘effect’ from the political point of view.
THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF PRAGMATICS
The word pragmatics was first used by Morris (1938) in his publication titled Foundation of the Theory of Signs. He coined it from a Greek word, ‘pragma’ which means matter in the hand or action. He regarded it as a branch of semiotics.
According to Leech (1983), in his attempt to foreground the historical aspect of pragmatics, he says:
The subject of pragmatics is very familiar in linguistics today.
Fifteen years ago it was mentioned by linguists rarely, if at all.
In those far-off-seeming days, pragmatics tended to be treated
As a rag-bag into which recalcitrant data could be conveniently
Stuffed, and where it could be equally conveniently forgotten…
We cannot really understand the nature of language itself unless
We understand pragmatics: how language is used in communication
(pp 1)
Pragmatics, indeed, have been in existence even before its christening. It was just a matter of time before it assumed its name: pragmatics.
CHAPTER THREE
DATA ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
In the previous chapter, we were able to review the necessary literatures that are, in one way or the other, relevant to this research. We did look at pragmatics, its elements at various levels and equally made a clear distinction between posters, headlines, handbill and other related similar terms. This present chapter, therefore, deals with the analysis of data collected from some selected daily
newspapers (i.e. The Nations, The Vanguard, Thisday newspaper etc) which have imprinted political posters within their various pages. These posters are analysed within this chapter. We use certain elements of pragmatics such as: context, intention, world knowledge, presupposition, implicature and speech act i.e. illocutionary act, respectively.
CHAPTER FOUR
SUMMARY, FINDING AND CONCLUSION
SUMMARY
This essay has done an analysis of ten randomly selected political posters imprinted in the pages of three different newspapers. We did this using various pragmatic tools such as context, intention, mutual contextual beliefs, presupposition and implicature etc.
In the first chapter, we gave the general introduction to the essay, purpose of the study, justification, scope, methodology and the data description.
The second chapter presented a review of the necessary variables in the research topic. We defined pragmatics and its relevant tools. We looked at a selected view of scholars and we also defined poster in terms of meaning. We differentiated poster from hand-bill and placard.
The third chapter which is the main body of this essay contain data that was selected for analysis. It contain the ten data that was randomly selected from the pages of newspapers i.e. THE NATION newspaper, seven data; THE VANGUARD newspaper, two data and THE SUN newspaper, a datum.
The last chapter comprises the summary, findings and conclusion of the whole work as could be observed from the data analysed.
FINDINGS
From the data analysis, the findings are based on the outcome and results of the elements on the political posters. We were able to see the different context i.e. physical, social and psychological etc manifest. We can understand from the analysis that no communicative activity can occur without regard to its context. This assertion helps us to fore-ground the importance of contextuality. It contributes to the understanding of how language is used in particular situations. Therefore, the reader(s) or decoder needs some contextual factors to gain access to the meaning of political posters.
Secondly, the strong influence of most political posters on the decoder or reader(s) becomes more effective because of those afore-mentioned pragmatic elements. World knowledge and mutual contextual beliefs (MCB) are interwoven because both the writer and the reader(s) share the same general knowledge about the topic of the poster.
The intention of the writer is a way by which he/she encodes certain utterance and the reader(s) and the reader infer from what have been written and posted; by this way, meaning is given to posters.
Furthermore, implicature, both conventional and conversational, can not be over-looked. They help us to understand the usefulness of political posters and work on the principles that discuss participants.
We see how interlocutors take for granted what they feel they already know about on the issue being raised or discussed by the posters. We found out this assertion through pragmatic element of presupposition. Through speech acts, we were able to know what most political posters set out to do i.e. give information.
It is equally obvious (as we found out) that political poster made use of popular names, pictures of notable personalities to give credibility to posters in general, political ones in particular. The influence of poster(s) on its reader(s) is also seen in the use of catchy captions.
It is, therefore, obvious that the elements of pragmatics such as context, intention, world knowledge, presupposition, mutual contextual beliefs (MCB), implicature, speech acts etc are sine-quo-non if we must fish out the inherent meaning in any utterance. Their relevance is seen in the decoding of hidden meaning. All the elements work hand-in-hand.
CONCLUSION
This long essay has done a pragmatic analysis of selected political posters imprinted in the pages of three different newspapers i.e. THE NATION, THE VANGUARD and THE SUN newspapers. It has shown that political posters can be used to achieve brevity and clarity when pragmatic elements are applied on them. The pragmatic elements have played important roles in the decoding of conveyed messages on political posters. Attempts have been made to allow the elements work hand-in-hand to decode meanings. The posters were analysed pragmatically by stating the action they performed. The analysis of each of them (posters) brought to the limelight the deep meaning that can be deduced and the meanings that could not be discovered at the surface level.
The strength of pragmatic elements in bringing out the needed effects from political posters is now understandable. One true fact observed herein is that without the presence of these elements i.e. context, implicature, presupposition and the like, it would be daunting getting to understand or comprehend political posters of any sort.
With these realisation, we deemed it fit to correct Mey’s (2001:308) assertion in which he portrayed pragmatic use of language as ‘‘a particular clear case of manipulation, understood as: making people behave in a certain way without their knowing why , even against their wish and best interest…’’. We must realise that rather than manipulate people, pragmatics through its various tools, help the reader(s) (people) to understand, judge and come to term with what a speaker says.
Finally, we can say that semantics works to some extend with pragmatics in helping us (i.e. the readers) understand meaning in contextuality. Semantics gives meaning in sentence structure of posters while pragmatics capture the actual meaning of what a person says through his/her utterances in relation to the context of occurrence.
RECOMMENDATION
In order for political posters to perform their function effectively those who make used of them (posters) as tool for achieving what ever intention they deemed it fit must bear in mind that the reader(s) would always their background knowledge into consideration especially were presupposition is needed.
To sum it up, posters (political ones for that matter) should be used informatively, instructively, briefly and with clarity which will help the overall understanding of political posters by the readers.
BIBLOGRAPHY
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