Effectuating discourse functions through evaluation: an appraisal of the 2015 and 2019 Nigerian newspaper political campaign advertisements
Considering the place of language in contemporary political campaign discourse, this study examines how discourse functions were effectuated through evaluative language use with a focus on the 2015 and 2019 Nigerian newspaper political campaign advertisements. Though evaluation is integral to langua...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | eng eng |
| Published: |
2023
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://etd.uum.edu.my/11006/1/depositpermission-901326.pdf https://etd.uum.edu.my/11006/2/s901326_01.pdf |
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| Summary: | Considering the place of language in contemporary political campaign discourse, this study examines how discourse functions were effectuated through evaluative language use with a focus on the 2015 and 2019 Nigerian newspaper political campaign advertisements. Though evaluation is integral to language and crucial in persuasive discourse, very few studies have explored its deployment in effectuating persuasioninduced discourse functions in Nigerian newspaper campaign advertisements. This study relies on evaluation strategy and qualitative research technique. The data is purposively selected from newspaper campaign advertisements of the two main political parties in Nigeria. The analysis is based on postulations from Appraisal Theory and Functional Theory of political campaign discourse. The results show that two discourse functions found in the sampled texts were effectuated via attitudinal evaluative processes and engagement strategy. Specifically, it is revealed that acclaim is constructed via a positive evaluation of the candidate's capacity cum propriety and positive reaction to policy implementation and projection. Attack, on the other hand, entails negative judgment of the opposition's capacity cum propriety and a negative reaction to policy implementation and projection. Furthermore, the engagement strategy is used as an instrument for validating acclaim and attack assertions. In conclusion, this study provides discreet involvement of evaluation in the construction of persuasion-induced discourse functions by successfully linking assumptions from two theoretical frameworks not considered related hitherto. |
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