A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of some Wema Bank Poster Advertisements in Nigeria

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Date

2018-06

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Publisher

Papers in English and Linguistics (PEL)

Abstract

Advertisement has been used as a marketing strategy by corporate brands and individual bodies over the years. It has been deployed through various categories of mass media where the print advert cannot be divorced. This paper examines how language and visual modes interact in Wema bank poster advertisements and how they communicate and interact with the target audience. Four randomly selected posters from Wema bank 2017 diary are analysed qualitatively using inherent semiotic features. This was made feasible by employing integrated frameworks of Systemic Functional Visual Social Semiotic Approach to Multimodal Discourse Analysis by Kress and van Leeuwen (1996, 2006) and Yuen (2004) Generic Structure Potential. Furthermore, this paper also analyses the intersemiosis of the linguistic and the visual resources using Royce (2009) intersemiosis complementarity framework. It is observed that the verbal mode complements the visual mode and the two invariably, reinforces one another as units of meaning in projecting the demands of the advertisers. Similarly, it was found out that multiple modes appeal to the audience reasoning than the use of text in isolation. The study concluded that effective utilization of these modes in encoding the intention by advertisers and decoding meaning by the potential consumers will go a long way in enhancing effective communication.

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Keywords

Generic Structure, intersemiosis, linguistic resources, visual resources

Citation

Nurudeen, M. A. (2018). Multimodal Discourse Analysis of selected Wema Bank Poster Advertisements in Nigeria. Papers in English and Linguistics (PEL). 19(1&2)170-194. Published by Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.

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