Abstract
Communication has become inextricable part of human lives and the visual modes of communication has been employed in the print media as a veritable means of communicating very serious issues metaphorically. Thus, Semiotic study constitutes a form of discourse which requires visual display of knowledge to understand and interpret any given text. Thus, several attempts have been made on the study of political cartoons using the canonical classifications of Austin’s (1962) and Searle’s (1969) speech acts, implicature, contextual variables as well as Pragmatic Acts theory. However, little attention has been given to van Leeuwen & Gunther kress’ Semiotic Theory in analysing political cartoons in Nigerian newspapers. Hence, this study explores social semiotic theory perceived with the use of language in political cartoons in order to bring to the fore the covert meanings concealed in it, and to correct the societal ills in witty and humorous ways. The study is anchored on van Leeuween and Gunther Kress’ Social Semiotic theory as the theoretical appurtenance. A total of ten (8) political cartoons were selected and analysed from three Nigerian daily newspapers (The Nation, The Sun & Daily Trust). The study revealed that more meaning would have been lost, if not for the advancement of scholars on the exponent of multimodality. This was because people tend to be more concentrated on the monomodal; linguistic approach to meaning, whereas study of data as newspapers’ cartoons and other visual designs transported more than one mode of meaning to communicate a more complete, coherent and complementary meaning. It was also discovered that cartoons enable the readers to understand the difference between the linguistic and non-linguistic resources and how they are used together to create meaning. The study concludes that cartoon has become a haven for journalists in unveiling and satirising delicate political issues. Keywords: Social Semiotic Theory, Political, Nigerian Newspapers, Cartoons and Datum.
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