The pragmatics of promotional features and discourse strategies in postgraduate school prospectus in Nigeria
Felix Bayode Oke
Anchor University, Lagos State, NigeriaFelix Bayode Oke is a doctoral student in the University of Ibadan and a lecturer in the Department of Languages, Anchor University, Ayobo, Lagos State, Nigeria. He has published a number of peer-reviewed articles in his area of scholarship in reputable journals.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8577-224X
Ezekiel Opeyemi Olajimbiti
Federal University Lokoja, NigeriaEzekiel Opeyemi Olajimbiti (PhD) teaches in the Department of English and Literary Studies, Federal University Lokoja, Kogi State, Nigeria. He is a member of professional bodies such as Pragmatics Association of Nigeria (PrAN), English Scholars’ Association of Nigeria (ESAN) and others. He specialises in children’s representation in the media, media studies and political discourse. He has published in reputable journals. His research interest covers pragmatics, discourse analysis, semantics and sociolinguistics.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5263-0149
Abstract
This paper extends the frontier of research in the marketisation of higher education institution by investigating the pragmatics of promotional features and discourse strategies in the postgraduate school prospectus. The data for the study is the University of Ibadan postgraduate school prospectus (2015 edition) downloaded from the university website (http://www.postgraduateschool.ui.edu.ng). Insights were drawn from Bhatia’s genre analysis, an aspect of Hallidayian’s Systemic Functional Linguistics, for the analysis. The theory accounts for promotional features, linguistic features and discourse strategies in the discourse. Four promotional features: offer, commodification, incentives and clients were marked off by modality, epistemic and deontic linguistic features while strategies of self-promotion, implication, promotional tact and evocation to considerateness are tactfully employed to project the superiority ideology to the prospective students. The study concludes that the academia is no longer solely informative but promotionally oriented.
Keywords:
commodification, marketisation, genre analysis, promotional features, evocation to consideratenessReferences
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Anchor University, Lagos State, Nigeria
Felix Bayode Oke is a doctoral student in the University of Ibadan and a lecturer in the Department of Languages, Anchor University, Ayobo, Lagos State, Nigeria. He has published a number of peer-reviewed articles in his area of scholarship in reputable journals.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8577-224XFederal University Lokoja, Nigeria
Ezekiel Opeyemi Olajimbiti (PhD) teaches in the Department of English and Literary Studies, Federal University Lokoja, Kogi State, Nigeria. He is a member of professional bodies such as Pragmatics Association of Nigeria (PrAN), English Scholars’ Association of Nigeria (ESAN) and others. He specialises in children’s representation in the media, media studies and political discourse. He has published in reputable journals. His research interest covers pragmatics, discourse analysis, semantics and sociolinguistics.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5263-0149
