Analysis of Oromo Language Use in Television Commercial Advertisements Broadcast Via Oromia Broadcasting Network (Obn)
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Date
2018-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The paucity of research in the verbal and visual metafunctional uses of Oromo television
commercials broadcast via Oromia Broadcasting Network was observed. The objectives of
the research were to explore and describe the metafunctional application of verbal and
visual modes in Oromo television commercial advertisement. To address the problems the
researcher described and analyzed the verbal and visual modes of the television commercials
broadcast via OBN. It also examined the interplay of visual and verbal modes to represent
the ideational, interpersonal and textual meanings to promote the products and services.
Hence, of the twenty-five commercial advertisements collected from OBN, only ten Oromo
television commercials were purposively selected for the analysis.Ten Oromo television
commercial advertisements were selected transcribed and translated into English for the
analysis qualitatively.The data in the study were analyzed using systemic functional
multimodal discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) theoretical framework to analyze the data. The
data were analyzed from the ideational, interpersonal and textual metafunctions of meaning
of verbal and visual modes and the inter-modal relations of the two modes to convey
persuasive meanings to the target audiences. The findings of the study disclosed that verbal,
visual and music as background were used in Oromo television commercial advertisement to
communicate the ideational, interpersonal and textual meanings. The study indicated that
Oromo television commercial advertisement copywriter employed lexical features such as
simple words and adjectives, nouns as brand names, personal pronouns, negations and
exclusive words to express the intended meanings of the products and /or services. It also
revealed that syntactic features such as simple sentences, imperatives, active voice and
simple present and present perfect tenses were utilized in the commercials to represent the
metafunctions of the language. Again, the rhetorical devices like repetition and alliteration
were used in the commercial advertisement to represent the ideational, interpersonal and
textual meanings to convey persuasive messages to the target audiences. The study also
indicated that the visual modes were used in display the representation interactive and
compositional meanings in visual grammar designs. The study also disclosed the intermodal
integration of the two modes in creating persuasive messages using the interplay of the
verbal narration and visual deployment as elaboration in the form of relay, anchorage,
illustration, specification, extension and complement of the verbal modes and the vice versa.
However, the visual modes used in these television commercials were found to be repetitive
and took more air-time in television commercial breaks. Thus, the advertisement text takes
longer air time than the modern television commercial advertisements and became boring to
view. The visual modes were used redundantly to elaborate the meanings of the commercial
advertisements meanings. Therefore, to tackle the multimodal Oromo television commercial
copywriting and designing observed in the Oromo television commercials, training should be
given to copywriters and designers in multimodal compression principles to help them create
a composite visuals well integrated with the multi-semiotics in Oromo television commercials
that convey persuasive messages to the target audiences.
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verbal and visual metafunctional uses of Oromo television