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Taofeek Dalamu

University Of Lagos Akoka, English, Faculty Member

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Dr. Taofeek O. Dalamu studied English, language specific, at a PhD level, from the University of Lagos, Nigeria. My research area focuses on Advertising Communication, Discourse Analysis, and Digital Humanities, deploying Systemic Functional Linguistics as an instrument of analyzing various data. The Hallidayan systemic scholar currently functions as a lecturer at the Anchor University Lagos, Nigeria, powered by Deeper Life Bible Church. The church-cum-the-University is under the auspices of the renowned HOLINESS preacher, Pastor W. F. Kumuyi.
Supervisors: Prof. Adeyemi Daramola (Halliday's Student in the 80s)

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University of Birmingham

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Bel Abbes Neddar

Kyoto University

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BABATUNJI H . ADEPOJU

University of Lagos

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Universitas Sumatera Utara

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Papers by Taofeek Dalamu

Ethical Lingua Journal of Language Teaching and Literature-BY-NC-SA 4.0 License A Preliminary Exposé of Systemic Functional Theory Fundamentals

The study attempted to explain fundamentals of Systemic Functional Theory as textual analytical i... more The study attempted to explain fundamentals of Systemic Functional Theory as textual analytical instruments. The basis was to demonstrate the applications of Ideational, Interpersonal and Textual Metafunctions as alternative semiotic resources that provide composite meaning potential to the structure of the clause. For illustration, six clauses in the advert of Premium Pension Limited were used as textual elements which the three metafunctions were applied. The study revealed conditionality, sensitizationality, judgmentality as well as integrity as the nuggets of the message. In addition, the ad tends to propound solutions to the financial security of the future of the people. The solution is for the recipients to negotiate and begin savings with Premium Pension Limited whose concern is how to care for the people in their old age. Above all, the study concluded that Halliday's theory is a very practicable tool of textual analysis for researchers.

Black: A Persuasive Metaphor in Guinness Stout’s Advertisements in Nigeria

Revista de Humanidades, 2020

This study investigated the terminology of Black as a metaphor that promoted the image of Guinnes... more This study investigated the terminology of Black as a metaphor that promoted the image of Guinness ®. Thus, six advertisements of Guinness, deploying Black as the hub, were selected for illustrations. The author adopted the concept of career metaphor supported with the Halliday's mood system for the analysis. As Guinness embraced qualities of Black as its stronghold-cum-primary source domain, the study revealed the model, as a paradox, evoking African-American identities upon Africans. Black attributes, as being fashionable, beautiful, sophisticated, independent and unique, facilitated readers to consumption by seducing the audience to perceive Guinness as admirable personified Black. People can no more consider Black as a derogatory color concept, being a coinage of colonial mastery. It is exalted as an important object of identification that sponsors the globally-renowned Guinness. The study suggested that researchers should not perceive Black as only synonymous to Guinness, but should serve as an approach to communicate self-worth lifestyle of distinctions.

Maternal Ideology in an MTN® Advertisement: Analysing Socio-Semiotic Reality as a Campaign for Peace

Journal of Language and Education, 2017

It seemed that the issue of maternal ideology as a device to curb social menaces has not attracte... more It seemed that the issue of maternal ideology as a device to curb social menaces has not attracted scholars. Thus, the study examined the use of maternal ideology in mobile telephone network (MTN®) as a means of influencing recipients against vices instead of the primary assignment of the product advertising. The author utilised an advert of MTN, Sharing is good, as an object of analysis. The theoretical underpinning of the investigation was the concept of Theme as a functional approach to social semiotics. Theme interconnects the text with visual images to elucidate the meaning-making potential of the framework. The study revealed that the mother and the daughter operate in the same functional environment without any objections from either. The relationship demonstrates humility, complementarity, shareability and generosity. The message of the advert could influence corrupt elements of society such as terrorists, kidnappers, and violence campaigners to abandon nefarious acts and to...

Decoding Encoded Yorùbá Nomenclature: An Exercise of Linguistic Competence and Performance

Journal of Language and Education

The study investigated word formation experience in Yorùbá names. At the deployment of ellipsis, ... more The study investigated word formation experience in Yorùbá names. At the deployment of ellipsis, as the instrument of analysis, one observed the effectiveness of terminologies of competence and performance, being operational in the clipping of statements to nominal lexemes, illustrated with names of ten towns in South West Nigeria. The study exhibited flexibility in the development of Yorùbá, which depended largely on users’ needs. Historical facts of business, religion, hunting, war and conquest supported the formations, without seemingly consistent linguistic principles. Eliminations of linguistic components occurred to the statements and sometimes with twists in pronunciations, displaying new lexemes and meanings. Although, individuals might attempt to regulate ways that people employ language to formulate words, the study suggested that language communicators should be allowed to deploy language as pleased. As language analyses seem descriptive, utilizing language as delighted m...

Evaluating ‘Registerial’ Norms in Advertising Texts: A Systemic Perspective

The Buckingham Journal of Language and Linguistics

Language and social concerns facilitate every communicative text. Based on that, the study consid... more Language and social concerns facilitate every communicative text. Based on that, the study considered the advertising text, as a test ground to explore the relationships between language and socio-cultural norms as revealers of the Register of advertising. Considered for the investigation are ten advertisements of Guinness®, Peak Milk®, Gulder®, Coca cola®, Pepsi®, Stanbic IBTC®, etc., upon which Ideational, Interpersonal and Textual Metafunctions served as tools of analysis. Besides the report that Material Processes such as come to, reshaped, make, is wasting, etc. dominate the contents, a Behavioral Process of rests on also performs a role in the Register analysis. The study further reveals digitization (*945#), local language intrusion (Oga), personification (bourn = born), clipping (diff) as context devices in the business environment. There are also Register(s) of neologism (Pecadomo), poetic and sermonized texts to persuade recipients. As the investigation has revealed SFL as...

Explicating Choice of MTN® Advertising Frameworks in Nigerian Print Media

Ethical Lingua: Journal of Language Teaching and Literature

The meaning that a communicator intends to make determines the choice of the lexemes that the ind... more 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 d...

Narrative in Advertising: Persuading the Nigerian Audience Within the Schemata of Storyline

The study, as an attempt, considered narrative as a good resource of advertising in the Nigerian ... more The study, as an attempt, considered narrative as a good resource of advertising in the Nigerian environment. In other words, advertisers perceive narrative as a strategy that can stimulate consumers to patronize advertised goods and services. Four adverts of FBN®, MTN®, Orijin® and FIRS® have been chosen to propagate the course appeared on the frameworks. Beside the application of the Labovian schema on narrative, the Halliday's transitivity system plays an analytical role by assigning semiotic slots to the textual devices. The study reveals that advertising copies a similar pattern of narrative in the society. Apart from the texts serving as relays to the images, the construction of the message is in the resolution sequential string. This provides an opportunity for advertisers to present to the public the gains and benefits of taking decision parallel to the messages of the adverts. Advertisers capitalize on the efforts of past leaders, the challenges of the present and the f...

English Language Development in the Nigerian Society: A Derivative of Advertising Communications

Complutense Journal of English Studies

Language, a central device in social domains, began from somewhere; and it has witnessed unstoppa... more Language, a central device in social domains, began from somewhere; and it has witnessed unstoppable development. The growing behaviour influenced this study with a goal to appraise the contributions of advertising in Nigeria to the development of English. Thus, thirty-two creative-cum-new lexicons of MTN® and Etisalat® served as analytical data. Morphological tools of derivation, compounding and blending assisted in processing the formation of novel words. The study revealed that the competitive market had informed copywriters to chart a new credible course. That spirit has motivated advertising experts to create exciting lexicons, which are convenient to sensitise readers. Given that factor, word formation processes become arbitrary where phonemic units [k], [z], [j] and [a] were employed to realise morphemic elements of Kulturefest, callertunez and Nigeria. Some formations follow compounding procedures (F@stLink, biztime; 9javaganza and easyflex) as well as deviations (Thank Yous...

Advertising communication: Constructing meaning potential through disjunctive grammar

Anagramas Rumbos y Sentidos de la Comunicación, 2018

Communication through language, irrespective of the model of its structure and deployment, entail... more Communication through language, irrespective of the model of its structure and deployment, entails the making of meanings. Publicity professionals seem to understand that meaning making in communicating the target audience does not need to be either clausal or sentential-dependent. Meaning productions can be pungent with fragmented structures. Thus, the ways that advertising experts produce meaning through disjunctive grammar was the concern of this study. The analysis considered twelve advertisements of beverages and telecommunications for examination to explicate meanings. The Hallidayan 'below the clause' was the conceptual facilitator of meanings in texts. The application of technological tools of the table and graph assisted in computing the frequencies of the disjunctive facilities of the texts. The study drew a conclusion that nominal group is the most employed device to fascinate readers to consumption. Having observed that advertisers utilized health matters, belief...

Exploring Advertising Texts in Nigeria within the Framework of Cohesive Influence

Styles of Communication, 2018

The thrust of the study explicates the utilization of grammatical and lexical devices in the text... more The thrust of the study explicates the utilization of grammatical and lexical devices in the texts of advertisements in Nigeria. This exploration aimed at demonstrating the way that advertising professionals wisely move from disjunctive organic elements to clause complexes as a convincing strategy. The advertisements of UBA®, Toyota®, Wema®, etisalat®, Standard Chartered® and Stanbic IBTC® were chosen as analyzable data to explain the behavior of the clause and its complexes in advertising. The conceptual framework is cohesion. Cohesive facilities have been applied as sub-concepts to interpret the constituents of the texts. The study demonstrates that reference, repetition, synonym, fragmented structure are deployed as inciting devices in the discursive strategy. In that sense, the study has the capacity to assist scholars to understand the nature of linguistic elements in clause complexes of advertisements. The analysis also reveals to advertising experts the cohesive resources tha...

Language choice as discourse: A transitivity approach to MTN ® and ETISALAT ® advertising communicative webs in Nigeria

CROSSROADS: A Journal of English Studies, 2019

Advertising texts are significant to manufacturers to promote and skyrocket products' consump... more Advertising texts are significant to manufacturers to promote and skyrocket products' consumption. This study examined kinds of textual choices in advertising, accounting for their frequencies. Two advertisements each from MTN ® and Etisalat ®-of the Nigerian advertising universe-were chosen for sample analysis, employing Transitivity and word-formation procedures, as the conceptual frameworks. Transitivity allowed tables and graphs to compute the recurrence of textual components. The research revealed Material Processes of has offered, go rock (MTN); and get, pick up (Etisalat) as pronounced choices. Circumstances of Location such as This week… (MTN); and on weeknights… (Etisalat) are choices of communicative augmentations. The investigation further recapitulated creative over-generalization (yous), word play fragmentation (Y'ello), and alphanumeric code (9javaganza) as communicative facilities of MTN and Etisalat constructs. Hence, the researcher suggested that an extensiv...

Yuletide Ideology as Advertising Ideology: An Historical Illumination from Saint Nicholas to the Present Day

The study traces the historical phenomenon of Saint Nicholas, the renowned icon known as Santa Cl... more The study traces the historical phenomenon of Saint Nicholas, the renowned icon known as Santa Claus. The objective is to demonstrate how advertisers have seized the virtues of Santa Claus as an article of persuading consumers. Owing to the interdisciplinary nature of this enquiry exemplified in the domains of history, linguistics and advertising, the concept of ideology enraptured in interpellation is adopted as both the analytical tool and discursive assistant to unravel the data meaning-making potentiality. The author utilizes twelve adverts associated with Santa Claus as illustrations in which six of them are from the Coca-cola Company ® as a reference of honour as well as a signal to the role the institution plays in promoting the heroic persona. The study reveals the universality and acceptability of Santa Claus in global affairs during the Yuletide season. That hegemonic influence is perceived as motivation for advertisers to project Santa Claus in a civilized way as a cook, ...

Illuminating Systemic Functional Grammatics (Theory) as a Viable Tool of Digital Humanities

Digital Studies/Le champ numérique, 2019

The focus of the study is the application of Systemic Functional Grammatics (SFG) to text as a fa... more The focus of the study is the application of Systemic Functional Grammatics (SFG) to text as a facility of meaning-making. Having provided a wide room for technological devices to read and account for elements of a text, it portrays the exercise within the scope of Digital Humanities (DH). The theory, championed by Halliday, describes a text from its systemic configurations to chain structures and social relationship frameworks. To explain the weight of SFG as an interface between text and technology, the author chose a poem, ‘Area Boy’, in which three perspectives of the mood system, thematic system, and transitivity system are instrumental to expose its nuances. The approach was followed by correlating the three systems together as a comparative analysis. The study reveals that ‘Area Boy’ operates in declarative clauses with heavy utilization of Subject and Finite. These are organized in marked themes. The contents of the text are represented in material processes (e.g. spent) wit...

Maternal Ideology in an MTN® Advertisement: Analysing Socio- Semiotic Reality as a Campaign for Peace

Journal of Language and Education, 2017

It seemed that the issue of maternal ideology as a device to curb social menaces has not attracte... more It seemed that the issue of maternal ideology as a device to curb social menaces has not attracted scholars. Thus, the study examined the use of maternal ideology in mobile telephone network (MTN ®) as a means of influencing recipients against vices instead of the primary assignment of the product advertising. The author utilised an advert of MTN, Sharing is good, as an object of analysis. The theoretical underpinning of the investigation was the concept of Theme as a functional approach to social semiotics. Theme interconnects the text with visual images to elucidate the meaning-making potential of the framework. The study revealed that the mother and the daughter operate in the same functional environment without any objections from either. The relationship demonstrates humility, complementarity, shareability and generosity. The message of the advert could influence corrupt elements of society such as terrorists, kidnappers, and violence campaigners to abandon nefarious acts and t...

Donald Trump's 2016 American Presidential Election Victory Remarks: An Ideational Perspective

The study analyzed the 2016 Trump’s acceptance speech, as a peace negotiating mechanism. The brea... more The study analyzed the 2016 Trump’s acceptance speech, as a peace negotiating mechanism. The breaking down of text into clauses illustrated and reflected their grammatical eminence, domain of concentrations, and systemic comprehensions. Transitivity, as Halliday & Matthiessen (2004) espouse, processed the text, allowing technological devices to account for variegated componential nuances. The study revealed declaratives and gratitude as Trump’s persuasive inputs. Relational and Material processes; Location, Cause, and Manner circumstantials were realized as systemic sub-domains of function. The demonstration of humility, acknowledgement of Hillary, reenergizing of the American Dream, and a call for collective responsibilities projected Trump as a promoter of peace. The investigation also exhibited Trump’s willingness to partner with nations, anchored on mutual agreements. Significantly, this kind of discourse analysis could assist the teaching of speech styles to EFL/ESL learners. B...

Akèrègbè, Resourcing the Past, Communicating the Present in Shared Cultural Knowledge: A Case Study of GTB Advertising

Cultural Dimensions & Organizational Behavior eJournal, 2018

A communication strategy in advertising can take any shape, provided it meets both intentions of ... more A communication strategy in advertising can take any shape, provided it meets both intentions of manufacturers and demands of recipients. That is why the study focused the bottle gourd (Akèrègbè) as a communicating device, utilized in a Guaranteed Trust Bank® (GTB) advertisement. The study considered a GTB advertisement that propagates *737# and the image of a palm wine tapper as a device of influencing consumers. The advertisement, collected from the GTB branch of the University of Lagos, Nigeria was processed through the application of denotative and connotative terminologies from the Barthesian perspective. The advertisement constructed a relationship between the past culture (bottle gourd) and present culture (computerization) as a means of persuasion. The investigation demonstrated the application of the alphanumeric code, Bank*737# as the motif of the advertisement with the bottle gourd playing a supportive role of communicating a consistent service and protection to customers...

Systemic Functional Theory: A Pickax of Textual Investigation

International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 2017

The study examines Systemic Functional Theory (SFT) as a tool of examining text, and perhaps, tex... more The study examines Systemic Functional Theory (SFT) as a tool of examining text, and perhaps, text of any dimension as long as it falls within the grammatical organs of the clause. The author provides explanations for the theory from its relevant source(s). The chronological appreciation involves the efforts of Saussure, Firth, Malinowski, Hjelmslev, etc. However, Halliday’s insight seems prominent and upon which Systemic Functional Theory receives a global status that it has assumed today. Halliday constructs numerous concepts e.g. lexicogrammar, processes, cohesion, coherence, system, system network with background from traditional grammar and sociological tokens. In addition to that, the three metafunctions are characterized as its core operational concepts. Out of these, the mood system serves as the instrument of analysis of Psalm one utilized in this endeavor as a case study. Although the clauses fall within the profile of the indicative and imperative, the study reveals that ...

Nigerian Children Specimens As Resonance of Print Media Advertising: What For?

PSN: Political Communication (Topic), 2017

Children are not only precious in society; they are the future of any nation. These are assertion... more Children are not only precious in society; they are the future of any nation. These are assertions that sensitize this study as an examination of the ways that advertising professionals utilize children to achieve persuasive goals. Eight advertisements oriented in the features of children were considered for analysis. The Barthesian idea of semiotic analysis alongside with Halliday’s clause as representation assisted in processing the advertising contents functioning in the domains of images and texts. The Halliday’s experiential concept helped in breaking the wording systems into interpretative organs that allow tables and graph to take a course. The study reveals that educational materials, memes, and a reference to the future of children, expatiated through texts, are devices of convincing parents and guardians to consumption. Also observed are the terminologies of commitment, foresight, partnership, etc. as behavioral values to augment product patronization. The study suggests t...

Product, Image, and Text Communicative Connections: Answering a Question of Coherence in Nigerian Print Advertisements

Images-cum-texts are remarkable instruments of persuasion; that seems the reason for their romant... more Images-cum-texts are remarkable instruments of persuasion; that seems the reason for their romantic intimacy in many advertising communications. Thus, this paper examined some connections that exist among the product, image, and text as devices communicating a single message to readers. Ten advertisements focusing on food items and telecommunications were utilized for analysis. The concepts of coherence as well as cohesion, expressed through interpersonal interactions were prerogatives of expounding the textual interconnectivity of the clauses. This study revealed an association of meaning potential within the generic domains of poetry and prose as fascinating devices to attract consumers. Texts played a distinct role of relaying images and a collaborative function to anchor images to achieve persuasion. Contextually, socio-cultural settings of enjoyment, happiness, self-exaltation and vigor in the form of personification characterized consumers’ sensitizations. Besides, the adverti...

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

Advertising & Marketing Law eJournal, 2020

This study investigated cultural pieces of advertising to indicate the ways that publicists deplo... more 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...

Ethical Lingua Journal of Language Teaching and Literature-BY-NC-SA 4.0 License A Preliminary Exposé of Systemic Functional Theory Fundamentals

The study attempted to explain fundamentals of Systemic Functional Theory as textual analytical i... more The study attempted to explain fundamentals of Systemic Functional Theory as textual analytical instruments. The basis was to demonstrate the applications of Ideational, Interpersonal and Textual Metafunctions as alternative semiotic resources that provide composite meaning potential to the structure of the clause. For illustration, six clauses in the advert of Premium Pension Limited were used as textual elements which the three metafunctions were applied. The study revealed conditionality, sensitizationality, judgmentality as well as integrity as the nuggets of the message. In addition, the ad tends to propound solutions to the financial security of the future of the people. The solution is for the recipients to negotiate and begin savings with Premium Pension Limited whose concern is how to care for the people in their old age. Above all, the study concluded that Halliday's theory is a very practicable tool of textual analysis for researchers.

Black: A Persuasive Metaphor in Guinness Stout’s Advertisements in Nigeria

Revista de Humanidades, 2020

This study investigated the terminology of Black as a metaphor that promoted the image of Guinnes... more This study investigated the terminology of Black as a metaphor that promoted the image of Guinness ®. Thus, six advertisements of Guinness, deploying Black as the hub, were selected for illustrations. The author adopted the concept of career metaphor supported with the Halliday's mood system for the analysis. As Guinness embraced qualities of Black as its stronghold-cum-primary source domain, the study revealed the model, as a paradox, evoking African-American identities upon Africans. Black attributes, as being fashionable, beautiful, sophisticated, independent and unique, facilitated readers to consumption by seducing the audience to perceive Guinness as admirable personified Black. People can no more consider Black as a derogatory color concept, being a coinage of colonial mastery. It is exalted as an important object of identification that sponsors the globally-renowned Guinness. The study suggested that researchers should not perceive Black as only synonymous to Guinness, but should serve as an approach to communicate self-worth lifestyle of distinctions.

Maternal Ideology in an MTN® Advertisement: Analysing Socio-Semiotic Reality as a Campaign for Peace

Journal of Language and Education, 2017

It seemed that the issue of maternal ideology as a device to curb social menaces has not attracte... more It seemed that the issue of maternal ideology as a device to curb social menaces has not attracted scholars. Thus, the study examined the use of maternal ideology in mobile telephone network (MTN®) as a means of influencing recipients against vices instead of the primary assignment of the product advertising. The author utilised an advert of MTN, Sharing is good, as an object of analysis. The theoretical underpinning of the investigation was the concept of Theme as a functional approach to social semiotics. Theme interconnects the text with visual images to elucidate the meaning-making potential of the framework. The study revealed that the mother and the daughter operate in the same functional environment without any objections from either. The relationship demonstrates humility, complementarity, shareability and generosity. The message of the advert could influence corrupt elements of society such as terrorists, kidnappers, and violence campaigners to abandon nefarious acts and to...

Decoding Encoded Yorùbá Nomenclature: An Exercise of Linguistic Competence and Performance

Journal of Language and Education

The study investigated word formation experience in Yorùbá names. At the deployment of ellipsis, ... more The study investigated word formation experience in Yorùbá names. At the deployment of ellipsis, as the instrument of analysis, one observed the effectiveness of terminologies of competence and performance, being operational in the clipping of statements to nominal lexemes, illustrated with names of ten towns in South West Nigeria. The study exhibited flexibility in the development of Yorùbá, which depended largely on users’ needs. Historical facts of business, religion, hunting, war and conquest supported the formations, without seemingly consistent linguistic principles. Eliminations of linguistic components occurred to the statements and sometimes with twists in pronunciations, displaying new lexemes and meanings. Although, individuals might attempt to regulate ways that people employ language to formulate words, the study suggested that language communicators should be allowed to deploy language as pleased. As language analyses seem descriptive, utilizing language as delighted m...

Evaluating ‘Registerial’ Norms in Advertising Texts: A Systemic Perspective

The Buckingham Journal of Language and Linguistics

Language and social concerns facilitate every communicative text. Based on that, the study consid... more Language and social concerns facilitate every communicative text. Based on that, the study considered the advertising text, as a test ground to explore the relationships between language and socio-cultural norms as revealers of the Register of advertising. Considered for the investigation are ten advertisements of Guinness®, Peak Milk®, Gulder®, Coca cola®, Pepsi®, Stanbic IBTC®, etc., upon which Ideational, Interpersonal and Textual Metafunctions served as tools of analysis. Besides the report that Material Processes such as come to, reshaped, make, is wasting, etc. dominate the contents, a Behavioral Process of rests on also performs a role in the Register analysis. The study further reveals digitization (*945#), local language intrusion (Oga), personification (bourn = born), clipping (diff) as context devices in the business environment. There are also Register(s) of neologism (Pecadomo), poetic and sermonized texts to persuade recipients. As the investigation has revealed SFL as...

Explicating Choice of MTN® Advertising Frameworks in Nigerian Print Media

Ethical Lingua: Journal of Language Teaching and Literature

The meaning that a communicator intends to make determines the choice of the lexemes that the ind... more 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 d...

Narrative in Advertising: Persuading the Nigerian Audience Within the Schemata of Storyline

The study, as an attempt, considered narrative as a good resource of advertising in the Nigerian ... more The study, as an attempt, considered narrative as a good resource of advertising in the Nigerian environment. In other words, advertisers perceive narrative as a strategy that can stimulate consumers to patronize advertised goods and services. Four adverts of FBN®, MTN®, Orijin® and FIRS® have been chosen to propagate the course appeared on the frameworks. Beside the application of the Labovian schema on narrative, the Halliday's transitivity system plays an analytical role by assigning semiotic slots to the textual devices. The study reveals that advertising copies a similar pattern of narrative in the society. Apart from the texts serving as relays to the images, the construction of the message is in the resolution sequential string. This provides an opportunity for advertisers to present to the public the gains and benefits of taking decision parallel to the messages of the adverts. Advertisers capitalize on the efforts of past leaders, the challenges of the present and the f...

English Language Development in the Nigerian Society: A Derivative of Advertising Communications

Complutense Journal of English Studies

Language, a central device in social domains, began from somewhere; and it has witnessed unstoppa... more Language, a central device in social domains, began from somewhere; and it has witnessed unstoppable development. The growing behaviour influenced this study with a goal to appraise the contributions of advertising in Nigeria to the development of English. Thus, thirty-two creative-cum-new lexicons of MTN® and Etisalat® served as analytical data. Morphological tools of derivation, compounding and blending assisted in processing the formation of novel words. The study revealed that the competitive market had informed copywriters to chart a new credible course. That spirit has motivated advertising experts to create exciting lexicons, which are convenient to sensitise readers. Given that factor, word formation processes become arbitrary where phonemic units [k], [z], [j] and [a] were employed to realise morphemic elements of Kulturefest, callertunez and Nigeria. Some formations follow compounding procedures (F@stLink, biztime; 9javaganza and easyflex) as well as deviations (Thank Yous...

Advertising communication: Constructing meaning potential through disjunctive grammar

Anagramas Rumbos y Sentidos de la Comunicación, 2018

Communication through language, irrespective of the model of its structure and deployment, entail... more Communication through language, irrespective of the model of its structure and deployment, entails the making of meanings. Publicity professionals seem to understand that meaning making in communicating the target audience does not need to be either clausal or sentential-dependent. Meaning productions can be pungent with fragmented structures. Thus, the ways that advertising experts produce meaning through disjunctive grammar was the concern of this study. The analysis considered twelve advertisements of beverages and telecommunications for examination to explicate meanings. The Hallidayan 'below the clause' was the conceptual facilitator of meanings in texts. The application of technological tools of the table and graph assisted in computing the frequencies of the disjunctive facilities of the texts. The study drew a conclusion that nominal group is the most employed device to fascinate readers to consumption. Having observed that advertisers utilized health matters, belief...

Exploring Advertising Texts in Nigeria within the Framework of Cohesive Influence

Styles of Communication, 2018

The thrust of the study explicates the utilization of grammatical and lexical devices in the text... more The thrust of the study explicates the utilization of grammatical and lexical devices in the texts of advertisements in Nigeria. This exploration aimed at demonstrating the way that advertising professionals wisely move from disjunctive organic elements to clause complexes as a convincing strategy. The advertisements of UBA®, Toyota®, Wema®, etisalat®, Standard Chartered® and Stanbic IBTC® were chosen as analyzable data to explain the behavior of the clause and its complexes in advertising. The conceptual framework is cohesion. Cohesive facilities have been applied as sub-concepts to interpret the constituents of the texts. The study demonstrates that reference, repetition, synonym, fragmented structure are deployed as inciting devices in the discursive strategy. In that sense, the study has the capacity to assist scholars to understand the nature of linguistic elements in clause complexes of advertisements. The analysis also reveals to advertising experts the cohesive resources tha...

Language choice as discourse: A transitivity approach to MTN ® and ETISALAT ® advertising communicative webs in Nigeria

CROSSROADS: A Journal of English Studies, 2019

Advertising texts are significant to manufacturers to promote and skyrocket products' consump... more Advertising texts are significant to manufacturers to promote and skyrocket products' consumption. This study examined kinds of textual choices in advertising, accounting for their frequencies. Two advertisements each from MTN ® and Etisalat ®-of the Nigerian advertising universe-were chosen for sample analysis, employing Transitivity and word-formation procedures, as the conceptual frameworks. Transitivity allowed tables and graphs to compute the recurrence of textual components. The research revealed Material Processes of has offered, go rock (MTN); and get, pick up (Etisalat) as pronounced choices. Circumstances of Location such as This week… (MTN); and on weeknights… (Etisalat) are choices of communicative augmentations. The investigation further recapitulated creative over-generalization (yous), word play fragmentation (Y'ello), and alphanumeric code (9javaganza) as communicative facilities of MTN and Etisalat constructs. Hence, the researcher suggested that an extensiv...

Yuletide Ideology as Advertising Ideology: An Historical Illumination from Saint Nicholas to the Present Day

The study traces the historical phenomenon of Saint Nicholas, the renowned icon known as Santa Cl... more The study traces the historical phenomenon of Saint Nicholas, the renowned icon known as Santa Claus. The objective is to demonstrate how advertisers have seized the virtues of Santa Claus as an article of persuading consumers. Owing to the interdisciplinary nature of this enquiry exemplified in the domains of history, linguistics and advertising, the concept of ideology enraptured in interpellation is adopted as both the analytical tool and discursive assistant to unravel the data meaning-making potentiality. The author utilizes twelve adverts associated with Santa Claus as illustrations in which six of them are from the Coca-cola Company ® as a reference of honour as well as a signal to the role the institution plays in promoting the heroic persona. The study reveals the universality and acceptability of Santa Claus in global affairs during the Yuletide season. That hegemonic influence is perceived as motivation for advertisers to project Santa Claus in a civilized way as a cook, ...

Illuminating Systemic Functional Grammatics (Theory) as a Viable Tool of Digital Humanities

Digital Studies/Le champ numérique, 2019

The focus of the study is the application of Systemic Functional Grammatics (SFG) to text as a fa... more The focus of the study is the application of Systemic Functional Grammatics (SFG) to text as a facility of meaning-making. Having provided a wide room for technological devices to read and account for elements of a text, it portrays the exercise within the scope of Digital Humanities (DH). The theory, championed by Halliday, describes a text from its systemic configurations to chain structures and social relationship frameworks. To explain the weight of SFG as an interface between text and technology, the author chose a poem, ‘Area Boy’, in which three perspectives of the mood system, thematic system, and transitivity system are instrumental to expose its nuances. The approach was followed by correlating the three systems together as a comparative analysis. The study reveals that ‘Area Boy’ operates in declarative clauses with heavy utilization of Subject and Finite. These are organized in marked themes. The contents of the text are represented in material processes (e.g. spent) wit...

Maternal Ideology in an MTN® Advertisement: Analysing Socio- Semiotic Reality as a Campaign for Peace

Journal of Language and Education, 2017

It seemed that the issue of maternal ideology as a device to curb social menaces has not attracte... more It seemed that the issue of maternal ideology as a device to curb social menaces has not attracted scholars. Thus, the study examined the use of maternal ideology in mobile telephone network (MTN ®) as a means of influencing recipients against vices instead of the primary assignment of the product advertising. The author utilised an advert of MTN, Sharing is good, as an object of analysis. The theoretical underpinning of the investigation was the concept of Theme as a functional approach to social semiotics. Theme interconnects the text with visual images to elucidate the meaning-making potential of the framework. The study revealed that the mother and the daughter operate in the same functional environment without any objections from either. The relationship demonstrates humility, complementarity, shareability and generosity. The message of the advert could influence corrupt elements of society such as terrorists, kidnappers, and violence campaigners to abandon nefarious acts and t...

Donald Trump's 2016 American Presidential Election Victory Remarks: An Ideational Perspective

The study analyzed the 2016 Trump’s acceptance speech, as a peace negotiating mechanism. The brea... more The study analyzed the 2016 Trump’s acceptance speech, as a peace negotiating mechanism. The breaking down of text into clauses illustrated and reflected their grammatical eminence, domain of concentrations, and systemic comprehensions. Transitivity, as Halliday & Matthiessen (2004) espouse, processed the text, allowing technological devices to account for variegated componential nuances. The study revealed declaratives and gratitude as Trump’s persuasive inputs. Relational and Material processes; Location, Cause, and Manner circumstantials were realized as systemic sub-domains of function. The demonstration of humility, acknowledgement of Hillary, reenergizing of the American Dream, and a call for collective responsibilities projected Trump as a promoter of peace. The investigation also exhibited Trump’s willingness to partner with nations, anchored on mutual agreements. Significantly, this kind of discourse analysis could assist the teaching of speech styles to EFL/ESL learners. B...

Akèrègbè, Resourcing the Past, Communicating the Present in Shared Cultural Knowledge: A Case Study of GTB Advertising

Cultural Dimensions & Organizational Behavior eJournal, 2018

A communication strategy in advertising can take any shape, provided it meets both intentions of ... more A communication strategy in advertising can take any shape, provided it meets both intentions of manufacturers and demands of recipients. That is why the study focused the bottle gourd (Akèrègbè) as a communicating device, utilized in a Guaranteed Trust Bank® (GTB) advertisement. The study considered a GTB advertisement that propagates *737# and the image of a palm wine tapper as a device of influencing consumers. The advertisement, collected from the GTB branch of the University of Lagos, Nigeria was processed through the application of denotative and connotative terminologies from the Barthesian perspective. The advertisement constructed a relationship between the past culture (bottle gourd) and present culture (computerization) as a means of persuasion. The investigation demonstrated the application of the alphanumeric code, Bank*737# as the motif of the advertisement with the bottle gourd playing a supportive role of communicating a consistent service and protection to customers...

Systemic Functional Theory: A Pickax of Textual Investigation

International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 2017

The study examines Systemic Functional Theory (SFT) as a tool of examining text, and perhaps, tex... more The study examines Systemic Functional Theory (SFT) as a tool of examining text, and perhaps, text of any dimension as long as it falls within the grammatical organs of the clause. The author provides explanations for the theory from its relevant source(s). The chronological appreciation involves the efforts of Saussure, Firth, Malinowski, Hjelmslev, etc. However, Halliday’s insight seems prominent and upon which Systemic Functional Theory receives a global status that it has assumed today. Halliday constructs numerous concepts e.g. lexicogrammar, processes, cohesion, coherence, system, system network with background from traditional grammar and sociological tokens. In addition to that, the three metafunctions are characterized as its core operational concepts. Out of these, the mood system serves as the instrument of analysis of Psalm one utilized in this endeavor as a case study. Although the clauses fall within the profile of the indicative and imperative, the study reveals that ...

Nigerian Children Specimens As Resonance of Print Media Advertising: What For?

PSN: Political Communication (Topic), 2017

Children are not only precious in society; they are the future of any nation. These are assertion... more Children are not only precious in society; they are the future of any nation. These are assertions that sensitize this study as an examination of the ways that advertising professionals utilize children to achieve persuasive goals. Eight advertisements oriented in the features of children were considered for analysis. The Barthesian idea of semiotic analysis alongside with Halliday’s clause as representation assisted in processing the advertising contents functioning in the domains of images and texts. The Halliday’s experiential concept helped in breaking the wording systems into interpretative organs that allow tables and graph to take a course. The study reveals that educational materials, memes, and a reference to the future of children, expatiated through texts, are devices of convincing parents and guardians to consumption. Also observed are the terminologies of commitment, foresight, partnership, etc. as behavioral values to augment product patronization. The study suggests t...

Product, Image, and Text Communicative Connections: Answering a Question of Coherence in Nigerian Print Advertisements

Images-cum-texts are remarkable instruments of persuasion; that seems the reason for their romant... more Images-cum-texts are remarkable instruments of persuasion; that seems the reason for their romantic intimacy in many advertising communications. Thus, this paper examined some connections that exist among the product, image, and text as devices communicating a single message to readers. Ten advertisements focusing on food items and telecommunications were utilized for analysis. The concepts of coherence as well as cohesion, expressed through interpersonal interactions were prerogatives of expounding the textual interconnectivity of the clauses. This study revealed an association of meaning potential within the generic domains of poetry and prose as fascinating devices to attract consumers. Texts played a distinct role of relaying images and a collaborative function to anchor images to achieve persuasion. Contextually, socio-cultural settings of enjoyment, happiness, self-exaltation and vigor in the form of personification characterized consumers’ sensitizations. Besides, the adverti...

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

Advertising & Marketing Law eJournal, 2020

This study investigated cultural pieces of advertising to indicate the ways that publicists deplo... more 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...