Crafting Astrological Advertisements In Pakistan; A Systemic Functional

Analysis

Muhammad AzamResearch Scholar

COMSATS Institute of Information Technology Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

• This is the study of three newspaper advertisements in Pakistan.

• This study focuses on the discourse strategies of astrologic advertisements to persuade the readers in Pakistani context.

• It analyses how the advertisers invoke superstitious beliefs of the target audience by persuading them that they know the art of troubleshooting.

• Halliday‘s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) is used as a method of analysis and all the three modes (metafunctions) of meaning – textual, interpersonal and ideational or experiential- are explored.

Introduction

• Islam as a religion in Pakistan

• Advertisements

• Astrologic advertisements

Introduction

• Objectives and research question– How the astrologic advertisers manipulate

language to persuade readers?– What sort of ideas and values they use in order to

make their advertisements effective?– How they evoke reader’s religious briefs and

emotions through language?

Literature Review

• Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL)– SFL deals with how language organized, works and what

social functions are represented.– It’s all about choice of words

• Three meta-functions– Ideational Metafunction– Interpersonal Metafunction– Textual Metafunction

Literature Review

• Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL)– SFL deals with how language organized, works and what

social functions are represented.– It’s all about choice of words

• Three meta-functions– Ideational Metafunction– Interpersonal Metafunction– Textual Metafunction

Ideational Metafunction

• This metafunction concerns with things, events or happenings and also the circumstances which include to the element of happenings.

• In order to represent things, events and circumstance, people need these terms:– The processes which is going on– The participant which involved– The attributes of participant– The circumstances of events

Ideational Metafunction

• The processes are divided into six types, there are:• Material Process– Two process, process of doing and process of happening

• Relational Process• Processes of being something, links other object to another.

• Mental Process– It deals with feeling, thinking and perceiving process.

– Existential, Behavioural, verbal,

Interpersonal Metafunction

• Interpersonal deals with the way language express the writer’s or speaker’s reaction towards others and writer’s or speaker’s attitude towards a subject.

• This metafunction needs communication between the speaker and the hearer also their responses to each other.

Interpersonal Metafunction• When analyzing a text using interpersonal metafunction, these

questions might become a help:– How does the text make the readers evaluate action or events in the text?

– In what ways the readers can take role as the participants in the text?

– How does perspective contribute making a relationship between the participants in the text and the readers?

– From what angle the participants viewed?

– How are the readers led to adopt a particular interpretative stance in the text?

– How is the attention of the reader/viewer captured? For instance, are key-words used?

Textual Metafunction

• In textual metafunction, how a text is organized is expressed. Language is used to organize experiential and interpersonal meanings into a linear and coherent whole.

• This metafunction mostly influenced by the mode of discourse.

Methodology

• In this paper three astrological advertisements are analyzed which are selected from local Urdu newspapers.

• The researcher has translated all the advertisements into English language to analyse the language with the help of Systemic Functional Linguistics.

Methodology

• Text 1

Methodology

• Text 2

Methodology

• Text 3

Data Analysis

• Textual Analysis• Theme

• Theme is the element which serves as the point of departure of the message; it is that which locates and orients the clause within its context.

• The part in which the Theme is developed, is called in the Rheme.

• Theme-Rheme structure provides the speaker/writer with strategies for guiding the listener/reader in interpreting of the text in terms of how text is organized, what is the text’s method of development.

Textual Theme

• It gives thematic prominence to textual elements with a linking function. Theme resources include; – Conjunction

– Relative pronoun

– Clause binder; this type of clauses not found in any of the selected advertisement.

Textual Theme

• Conjunctions• Text 1

– ہے رہی کر پریشان اگر بات ہی توکوئ پوچھو بلکہآاج چاہو جو ابھی

• ……anything is worrying you then don't wait for today rather ask us anything you want to, right now.

• Text3:– ہیں پریشان سے وجہ کی اولاد لوگ ہوتے اورجو نہیں رشتے کے بچیوں بچے محمد یاجن لیے کے ان میلتا نہیں رشتہ اچھا کوئ

ادارہ واحد کا جوڑنے ملاپ و بندھن کرشمہ کا کاثور حسین

• The people who are worried due to offsprings and face obstacles in the marriages of males and females or don’t find a good marriage proposal for those Muhammad Hussain Kasour’s marriage charms that work miraculously is only available center.

Textual Theme

• Relative pronouns• Text1

– کواہشات اپنی یا ہیں مبتلا میں پریشانی بھی کسی ہوسکیں اگر نہیں پوری باوجود کے کرنے کوششیں ہزاروں جو

• If you are suffering from any king of worries or want of fulfill your desires which you could not fulfill by trying your best.

• Text2– دینا جو کر وہ دینا کہہ

• We do as we say

Textual Theme

• Relative pronouns• Text3

نہیں، مسئلہ کوئ ایسا میں ہو جسُددنیا نہ حل کوئ کا

• There is not such a problem in the world which has no solution.

– میلتا نہیں رشتہ اچھا کوئ یا ہوتے نہیں رشتے کے بچیوں بچے جن اور ہیں پریشان سے وجہ کی اولاد لوگ لیے جو کے انادارہ واحد کا جوڑنے ملاپ و بندھن کرشمہ کا کاثور حسین محمد

• The people who are worried due to offsprings and face obstacles in the marriages of males and females or don’t find a good marriage proposal for those Muhammad Hussain Kasour’s marriage charms that work miraculously is only available center.

Interpersonal Theme

• An interpersonal Theme foregrounds the speaker’s judgment or comments. It might include one or more of the following components:

• Vocative

• Wh-element

• Modal Adjunct.

Interpersonal Theme

• Vocative• A Vocative is used to directly address the listener, particularly

in a dialogic passage.

• Text1– ہیں مبتلا میں پریشانی بھی کسی آاپ اگر

• If you are suffering from any kind of worries• Text 3

– ہے کافی ہی رابطہ ایک آاپکا کیلیے چھٹکارا سے بلیات و آافات تمام

• Your one contact is enough to get rid of all the calamities and catastrophes.

Interpersonal Theme

• Modal Adjunct– A Modal Adjunct represents the speaker’s / writer’s judgment on,

attitude toward, and assessment of, the content of the message.

• Text 1– گرو مہان کے شکتیوں مہا کی جادو کالے

• “The greatest master of the great black magic powers”

– بھی موت اور بھی زندگی کی انسان سے علوم ان ہیں حقیقت علوم سفلی و کالے• “Voodooisitic studies and black magic are facts and so the life

and death of a man (is related to these knowledges.)”

Interpersonal Theme

• Text 2– دیکھیں نکلتے سے آانکھوں اپنی تعویز ہوئے چلے اوپر اپنے

• See for yourself the charms (amulets) working against you

• Text 3– کروائیں حل بیٹھے میں کونے بھی کسی کے ُددنیا حل کا مسائل تمام ُددیناوی و دینی

• Get solved all the worldly and spiritual problems from any place in the world

Interpersonal Theme

• Experiential Theme• The topical (experiential) Theme includes elements serving a

role in the transitivity structure of the clause. It is the starting point from which experiences are unfolded through time.

• These thematic elements include:

– Participants (not found in the advertisements)– Circumstances (not found in the advertisements)– Processes

Interpersonal Theme

• Processes• Process Theme is restricted to imperative clauses. That is, the

imperative is the only type of clause in which the Process (the verb) is regularly found as Theme.

• Text 1– کریں ضرور رابطہ کر سمجھ ُدامید آاخری لیے کے حل یقینی اور فوری تو

• Then contact us, considering it last hope, for surety solution in no time.

• Text 2– دیکھیں نکلتے سے آانکھوں اپنی تعویز ہوئے چلے اوپر اپنے

• “See for yourself the charms (amulets) working against you”

Interpersonal Theme

• Text 3– قبضہ پر ماغ و دل کے محبوب سے طاقت کی موکلات

• Control the heart and soul of your beloved through the power of guardian angels

– کروائیں سے گارنٹی اور رازداری کام ہر• Get done your work with guarantee and confidentiality

Interpersonal Theme

• The interpersonal metafunction is a resource for enacting social roles and relationships between speaker / writer and listener / reader (Matthiessen, 1995: 17).

– MOOD is the basic resource for exchanging meaning in both dialogue and monologic passages. It is the grammar of negotiation (Matthiessen, 2001: 3).

– According to Butt, et al (1995:13) “The interpersonal metafunction uses language to encode interaction and to show how defensible or binding we find our proposition or proposal.”

Interpersonal Theme

• Structural Analysis• Text 1

– ہیں مبتلا میں پریشانی بھی کسی آاپ اگر

• Text 2– دیکھیں نکلتے سے آانکھوں اپنی تویز ہوئے چلے اوپر اپنے

If You are suffering from any worries

Subject Finite predicate Adjunct

Mood residue

See For yourself yourself the charms working against you

Finite Adjunct predicate complement

Mood. Imperative residue

Interpersonal Theme

• Text 3

• ہے کافی ہی رابطہ ایک آاپکا

Your one contact is enough

Subject Finite/predicate complement

Mood residue

Experiential Analysis

• This section is concerned with the system of TRANSITIVITY of the astrological advertisement.

• It studies the structure of sentences, which is represented by;

– Processes (realized by types of verbs)

– The participants involved in these processes (which are part of the nominal group), and

– The circumstances in which they (participants and processes) are involved (realized by the adverbial and propositional phrase).

Experiential Analysis

• Process

• The Process constituent, the central verb of the clause, can also be broken down into three separate elements and described as Material, Relational and Projecting.

Experiential Analysis

Experiential Analysis

• Material processes are use more frequently than any other in all the advertisements. – It means that the focus of the advertiser was on the

‘happenings and changing of situations’.

• Mental process:• which indicate that they approach to the mental

flexibility of the audience.

• Relational process:• advertisers have ability to solve the problems of the

people and they described certain facts as well.

Conclusion

• The purpose of the advertisers is to solve the problems of the people by using certain charms related to Islamic religion or black magic as well.

• There are certain things which are common in all the advertisements like:– Expert in the filed– Solution of the problems related to: love marriage, problems related

to husband and wife, obstacles in marriage proposals and others– 100% Guarantee to solve the problem– Confidentiality– Removing of any charm

Conclusion

• Textual analysis of the study shows that the advertisers used all the three themes of the textual metafunction: Conjunctions, relative pronoun, vocative and processes are used to make their text attractive.

Conclusion

• Interpersonal analysis of the advertisements indicates that advertisers use declarative and imperative sentences as well because they are providing information to the audience and their focus is on the audience that is the reason they interact to the readers and address them.

Conclusion

• Experiential analysis reveals that the amulet advertisement is construed by different text types. The text involves its various participants in different participant roles associated with different process types. The clear frequency of material processes suggests that these advertisement are largely concerned with actions and events.