Critical discourse analysis and the semiotic construction of gender identities

Abstract

This study examines textual and semiotic aspects of adverts according to critical discourse analysis. The focus of the study is the concept of gender identity. In adverts, different texts are appropriated in new ways explicitly as well as implicitly. Here texts work in a process of discourse technologisation. Both the feminine and the masculine are represented discursively in their heterogeneity: the feminine is represented as a commodified body; it is also frail and pathological. The masculine is linked with power, but with fashion too. Adverts position readers ideologically, so that they can define their gender identities as consumers.

Negotiating Social Identity Through Questions in Casual Conversations: A Critical Discourse Analysis

“…The former is a descriptive analysis of the questions by utilising syntactical and functional perspective as a starting point for critical analysis; whereas the latter is the critical interpretation of the distribution of questions on four conversations by emphasising the asking process and its relation to the negotiation of social identity. Syntactical and functional perspectives are useful to embark a critical discussion as it has also been adopted to analyse classroom discourse (Barlett & Erling, 2006;Lee, 2006), advertising texts (Magalhaes, 2005), group discussion (Tracy & Naughton, 1994), casual conversation as compared to institutional dialogue (Wang, 2006), and social identity (Hoon, 2004;Stamou 2004). They are in line with Wodak's argument that the systemic functional view of language is valuable when carrying out a critical discourse analysis (Wodak, 2001).…”

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Ethnic Bias in "Homegoing"

“…The mood analysis determines if a sentence is a statement, a question, or a command, i.e., so one can realise how mood is enacted, whether in "indicative, imperative, subjunctive, or interrogative." And the level of assertiveness in the conversation is referred to as modality (Magalhães, 2005). Therefore, the participant's interpersonal relationships can be seen through the modality analysis.…”

Analyzing Advertising Specimen within the Scope of Circumstantial Choices: A Case Study of Airtel® Advertisements

“…Semiotics, having its operations felt in most advertising communications (Williamson, 1978), has attracted numerous theoretical and experimental analyses with considerable global impacts (Opeibi, 2009, p. 142-145). Magalhães (2005) critically studies the notion of hybridity in gender identity as positioned in several ads in Brazil. The individual links how ads positioned the public ideologically in the manner of interchangeability where self is constructed.…”

“…In the findings, there is commonality of utilization of cultural resources in the construction of the billboards. Despite the significant nature of these studies - Magalhães (2005) in Brazil, Stone (2009) in the United Kingdom, and Adedun and Hammond (2013) in Nigeria and Ghanait is striking to notice that none of these studies examined semiotic texts and images from the point of view of the Paradigmatic Order. However, this study prides itself, as stated earlier, on the investigation of semiotic alternating choices in the Airtel's Always On ads in Nigeria.…”