Papers by Dr Ibrahim Omolabi
International Journal of Literature, Language and Linguistics
A news report is a form of writer-reader negotiated meaning and contextual consideration of langu... more A news report is a form of writer-reader negotiated meaning and contextual consideration of language, structure, and verbal codes. Thus, the study explored the various pragmatic acts performed in news reports on the abducted Chibok girls in Nigeria, especially the construction of acts or meaning through verbal codes. Using Mey’s (2001) aspects of pragmatic acts as the theoretical framework undergirded the study, a total of thirteen (13) verbal reports were purposively selected from three Nigerian newspapers (The Nation, Daily Trust & The Punch) and analysed from the points of pragmatic acts, Searle’s (1969) classification of Speech acts, implicature and presupposition. The study revealed that instantiated acts (practs) are pragmatically patterned to perform some acts of informing, reporting to the audience, stating the fact in the news reports on the abducted Chibok girls and playing some roles in social change. The study also revealed that The Nation, Dail Trust and The Punch deplo...
Journal of African History, Culture and Arts
Hip-hop music has become a popular trend in Nigeria, as it enjoys a high level of acceptance amon... more Hip-hop music has become a popular trend in Nigeria, as it enjoys a high level of acceptance among the Nigerian youths. Thus, this study examines the representation of female gender in hip hop music and the messages the music conveyed about female gender; it also unravels the hidden pragmatic meanings behind the content of the music. Nine (9) data from the lyrics of selected hip hop music were randomly selected and analysed using Mey's (2001) pragmatic act theory. This paper adopted a qualitative approach which is due of the nature of the data that was analysed and the approach that was used in analysing it. Findings revealed a dominant portrayal of slangy expressions suggesting sexual overtimes, female as mere edibles, women as sexual stimulant, seductive dance steps, and indecent dressing in the lyrical contents sampled. The paper also revealed that the implicit practs of exposing, seducing, luring and proposing were used in the data to show the role females play as characters...
A critical discourse analysis of selected print media reports on insurgency in Nigerian newspapers
Journal of Languages, Linguistics and Literary Studies, Apr 21, 2023
International Journal of Education Humanities and Social Science
The social media has witnessed a frenzy and influx of discourses from the broad street and world ... more The social media has witnessed a frenzy and influx of discourses from the broad street and world street because of the novel Coronavirus which has infected and killed many people world over. In Nigeria, the ways in which news of the virus is framed communicate ideological meanings which have a range of effects on the readers particularly on social media. Nigerians have taken the issue of Covid-19 pandemics as a form of humour so as to release their stress and tension of the agony which is relatively new. This paper therefore investigates humour that reflect the social, economic and health challenges in Nigeria shared through the social media in order to identify CMH as a form of humour through which real-life experiences of other people can be understood. Insights are drawn from Kress’ Critical Semiotic theory to analyse a total of ten (10) purposively selected humour on Coronavirus from social media, specifically Whatsapp and Facebook. The study found that the pictures are framed u...
Communication has become inextricable part of human lives and the visual modes of communication h... more Communication has become inextricable part of human lives and the visual modes of communication has been employed in the print media as a veritable means of communicating very serious issues metaphorically. Thus, Semiotic study constitutes a form of discourse which requires visual display of knowledge to understand and interpret any given text. Thus, several attempts have been made on the study of political cartoons using the canonical classifications of Austin’s (1962) and Searle’s (1969) speech acts, implicature, contextual variables as well as Pragmatic Acts theory. However, little attention has been given to van Leeuwen & Gunther kress’ Semiotic Theory in analysing political cartoons in Nigerian newspapers. Hence, this study explores social semiotic theory perceived with the use of language in political cartoons in order to bring to the fore the covert meanings concealed in it, and to correct the societal ills in witty and humorous ways. The study is anchored on van Leeuween and...
No methodological polemic has taken shape among the advocates of history in Iran until now, for t... more No methodological polemic has taken shape among the advocates of history in Iran until now, for they have not had enough command of different methods, paradigms, and theories. After having command of different methods, it is necessary to engage gradually in methodological dialogues so that we will be able to move forward to test them in case studies to ascertain the weak and strong points of each methodological paradigm through the criteria of experience. Hence, this paper is an attempt to deal with the following methodological problem: What is the most crucial disciplinary task of the historians? The hypothesis of this research is as follows: The most crucial disciplinary task of historians is to provide a proper description of the past human events, for history's power of knowledge lies in this very issue. Moreover, proper description follows answers to the questions on whatness (quiddity) and howness; questions in which the historians are keenly interested.
The Pragmatics of Coronavirus Motivated Humour on the Social Media
All Nations University Journal of Applied Thought, 2020
Humour, an established means of reducing stress and tension, has attracted scholarly attention ov... more Humour, an established means of reducing stress and tension, has attracted scholarly attention over the years. In the Nigerian discourse context, studies on Coronavirus-Motivated Humour (CMH) are relatively new. This paper investigates humour that reflect the social, economic and health challenges in Nigeria shared through the social media in order to identify CMH as a form of humour through which real-life experiences of other people can be understood. Insights are drawn from Mey’s (2001) Pragmatic Acts Theory to analyse a total of seven purposively selected humour on Coronavirus from social media, specifically Whatsapp and Facebook. The study found out that the pragmatic relevance of CMH is embedded in its social functions as it serves as an indicator of the sense of citizens’ freedom and a pract of warning to the corrupt and inefficient leaders in Nigeria, particularly on health facilities in the country. Also, the context of CMH construction presents it as a satire of the social...
A Pragmatic Study of Photo News Reports on the Abducted Chibok Girls in Nigeria
The use of news photos is becoming very prominent because it is capable of presenting the news st... more The use of news photos is becoming very prominent because it is capable of presenting the news story or situation live and able to generate diverse interpretations. The study explores the various pragmatic acts performed in visual news reports on the abducted Chibok girls in Nigeria, especially the construction of acts or meaning through visual codes. The study drew insight from Mey (2001) aspects of Pragmatic acts and Hoye and Kaiser’s (2007) visual acts as the theoretical framework underpinning the study. A total of eight (8) visual news reports relating to the stories of the abducted Chibok girls were purposively selected from two Nigerian newspapers (Guardian & Dailytrust) and analysed from the points of pragmatic acts and visual acts theories. The study revealed that pictures are capable of performing many of the same complex pragmatic acts of urging, indicating, condemning, accusing, protesting, challenging, wearing, shaming which are often suggested in the picture captions. T...
A Semiotic Study of Selected Political Cartoons in Nigerian Newspapers
All Nations University Journal of Applied Thought, Nov 20, 2020
Communication has become inextricable part of human lives and the visual modes of communication h... more Communication has become inextricable part of human lives and the visual modes of communication has been employed in the print media as a veritable means of communicating very serious issues metaphorically. Thus, Semiotic study constitutes a form of discourse which requires visual display of knowledge to understand and interpret any given text. Thus, several attempts have been made on the study of political cartoons using the canonical classifications of Austin’s (1962) and Searle’s (1969) speech acts, implicature, contextual variables as well as Pragmatic Acts theory. However, little attention has been given to van Leeuwen & Gunther kress’ Semiotic Theory in analysing political cartoons in Nigerian newspapers. Hence, this study explores social semiotic theory perceived with the use of language in political cartoons in order to bring to the fore the covert meanings concealed in it, and to correct the societal ills in witty and humorous ways. The study is anchored on van Leeuween and Gunther Kress’ Social Semiotic theory as the theoretical appurtenance. A total of ten (8) political cartoons were selected and analysed from three Nigerian daily newspapers (The Nation, The Sun & Daily Trust). The study revealed that more meaning would have been lost, if not for the advancement of scholars on the exponent of multimodality. This was because people tend to be more concentrated on the monomodal; linguistic approach to meaning, whereas study of data as newspapers’ cartoons and other visual designs transported more than one mode of meaning to communicate a more complete, coherent and complementary meaning. It was also discovered that cartoons enable the readers to understand the difference between the linguistic and non-linguistic resources and how they are used together to create meaning. The study concludes that cartoon has become a haven for journalists in unveiling and satirising delicate political issues. Keywords: Social Semiotic Theory, Political, Nigerian Newspapers, Cartoons and Datum.
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Papers by Dr Ibrahim Omolabi