A PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF SELECTED CARTOONS IN VANGUARD

A PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF SELECTED CARTOONS IN VANGUARD NEWSPAPER

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

General introduction

1.1 Purpose of the study

1.2 Justification

1.3 Scope and limitation

1.4 Research methodology

1.5.0 Nigerian Newspapers

1.5.1 Vanguard-A Nigerian Newspaper

1.6 Summary

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction

2.1. An Overview of Pragmatics

2.2.0 Goals of Pragmatics

2.3.0 Theories of Pragmatics

2.3.1 Speech Acts Theory

2.3.2 Implicature Theory

2.3.3 Intention and Inference Theory

2.3.4 Contextual Theory

2.4.0 Pragmatic Elements

2.4.1 Presupposition

2.4.2 World Knowledge

2.4.3 Deixis

2.4.4 Non-verbal Language

2.5.0 Cartoons – Meaning and Brief History

2.5.1 Forms of Cartoons

2.5.2 Functions of Cartoons

2.5.3 Summary

CHAPTER THREE: DATA ANALYSIS

Introduction

Datum one

Datum two

Datum three

Datum four

Datum five

Datum six

Datum seven

Datum eight

Datum nine

Datum ten

Datum eleven

Datum twelve

Datum thirteen

Datum fourteen

Datum fifteen

Datum sixteen

Data Discussion

CHAPTER FOUR: SUMMARY, SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION.

4.0 Summary

4.1 Summary of findings

4.2 Conclusion

Bibliography

ABSTRACT

Artists, especially, cartoonists have made vigorous effort to portray the society by familiarizing people with the on-going events in such society. This work aimed at investigating how pragmatic elements could be deployed to properly interpret the ways in which cartoons and their utterances depict and satirize socio-political realities in Nigeria. In this regard, sixteen “pocket cartoons” were selected from Vanguard editions between June and Sep., 2010 and they were analysed using pragmatic elements such as speech acts, contexts, presupposition world knowledge, implicature, inference and deixis. It was discovered that utterances used in these cartoons were mainly “assertives” and ‘directives’ meaning that they (those utterances) signified the state of socio-political affairs in the country. We also found out that an utterance can have more than one ‘illocution’ and ‘perlocution’ and the perlocutions may vary with regard to the addresses. Indeed, it was noted that context and world knowledge were essential indices of understanding and interpreting cartoons.

CHAPTER ONE GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Pragmatics is a shift from strict grammatical rules to a situational language use.It is a linguistic theory that studies meaning from the perspectives of language users, communication code and socio-cultural conventions. Hence, Mey (2007:6) asserts that “Pragmatics Studies the use of language in human communication as determined by the conditions of society”. Cartoons are “Comic strips”. They create humour by portraying “observable characters in a society” (Bitner, 2003:306). Cartoons serve as a medium through which people are informed, educated and entertained by presenting societal happenings in hillarious manner. They are found in newspapers, magazines and newsletters.

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