Linguistic manipulation in Kenyan political party names, symbols and slogans
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Date
2016
Authors
Malande, Moses Olenyo James
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
Language has been an important tool in mobilizing voters through deliberate choice of specific linguistic items that capture not only the feelings of a participating party but to also exclusively distinguish it from competing parties and coalitions. To this end, Kenyan political parties (KPP) have specific names, symbols and slogans that are created from local/regional vernacular languages, Kiswahili and English vocabulary. It is noteworthy to mention that a significant number of these party names and slogans are code switches and code mixes mostly comprising English and Kiswahili vocabularies, hence a study on code mix. These KPP names, symbols and slogans are not randomly crafted but have meanings steeped in communal (ethnic) idioms, metaphors and symbols. A majority of KPPs are interrelated and ‘surrogates’ or ‘break-ups’ from other parties or coalitions. Such interrelatedness will be studied as semantic sense relation feature. A study on slogans shall highlight their characteristics and how political operators strategically employ them for political gain. The study will employ eclecticism anchored on elaborate Theoretical frameworks of Critical Discourse Theory (Political Discourse Theory), Semiotics Theory, Symbolic Interaction Theory, Speech Act Theory and Social Theory. Finally, study design will entail both a qualitative and quantitative data availed from the Non probability samples. Interviews and Archival methods will be used as tools for data collection. Data analysis will use qualitative and quantitative data Analysis procedures, MLF, SPSS and Microsoft Excel data analysis programs
Description
On Going PhD-Department of Linguistics