Linguistic and Visual Strategies in Placards from the Algerian Hirak Movement against the 5th Presidential Term: A Social Semiotic Analysis

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Date

2021

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Mouloud Mammeri University OF Tizi-Ouzou

Abstract

The present study investigates the interplay of visual and linguistic strategies in the placards of the Algerian Hirak movement targeting the rejection of the 5th presidential term. It seeks to explore the way linguistic and visual modal resources are arranged in the selected placards to display protesters’ demands and the way they use metaphorical associations and intertextuality to create meaning. In order to meet the objectives of the study, the Social Semiotic Multimodal Theory called ‘Visual Grammar’ set by Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006) and the ‘Critical Theory of Intertextuality’ by Fairclough (2003) are adopted. Thirteen Algerian Hirak placards are selected from nine websites and one YouTube channel and analysed using the two analytical frameworks. The results of this study reveal that visual modal resources make associations from different social and cultural domains such as religion, medicine and cars. In addition, the intertextuality of the linguistic mode shows that protesters convey meaning through transporting different social and cultural external texts such as the registers from advertising, technology and movies. The combination of the visual and the linguistic modes fulfill the representational, interactive and compositional metafunctions through their complementary relationship.

Description

69p. ; Ill.en coul. ; 30cm.+(cd)

Keywords

Algerian Hirak Movement, Critical Theory of Intertextuality, Metaphorical Associations, Social Semiotic Multimodal Theory, Algerian Hirak Movement, Critical Theory of Intertextuality, Metaphorical Associations, Social Semiotic Multimodal Theory

Citation

Didactics of Foreign Languages