A Pragma-semantic Survey of Newspapers and Academic Publication’s Portrayal of People with Mental Disorder
Keywords:
Media, Mental Disorder, Pragma-semantics, Systemic Functional LinguisticsAbstract
Previous studies have shown that the language use has had adverse effects on levels of tolerance for people with mental illness. New research suggests even subtle differences in how the society refers to people with mental illness can affect levels of tolerance. Granello submits that everyone, including the media, policymakers and the general public, need to change how they refer to people with mental illness (18). It is based on this premise that the present study surveys ways in which the media/academic practitioners portray people with mental illness and its perception from a pragma-semantic point of view. The main objective of the study is to ascertain the intention that underlie the language choices in referring to people with mental
illness. The research is qualitative as it collects data from selected newspapers and academic publications including completed research works of post-graduate students of the University of Jos that discuss the subject matter. The data are analysed using pragmatic/semantic tools such as implicatures, presupposition, politeness principle, ambiguity and vagueness. The work adopts the tenets of systemic functional linguistics as its theoretical framework for analysis. The study concludes that language should not only be viewed in terms of political correctness but be humane and accommodating in order to achieve our communicative intentions
Downloads
References
Adebare, E. G. (2019). Psychological disorder in African Literature: A Case Study of Bessie Head’s A Question of Power, Ayi Kweh Armah’s Fragments and Chigozie Obioma’s The Fishermen
Afolabi, A. (2017). ‘The Relationship between Stigmatization and Psychological WellBeing of Relatives of the Mentally Ill In Ogun State, Nigeria’ Ph.D Thesis, University of Jos.
American Psychiatric Association. (1994) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders 4th edition, (DSM-iv).
Bloor, T. and Bloor M. (1995). The Functional Analysis of English: A Hallidayan Approach. London: Edward Arnold.
Dalyop, B. V. (2019). A Cognitive Pragmtic Study of the Language of the Mentally Challenged at the Jos University Teaching Hospital. An Unpublished thesis in the Department of English University of Jos.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1985). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold.
Martin J. B., Perkins M. R., Müller N., and Howard S. (2008). A Handbook of Clinical Linguistics: Australia; Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
McCombs, M., & Shaw, D. (1972). The Agenga-Setting Function of Mass Media. Public Opinion Quarterly.
Nagendra, D. J. (2015). Media and Gender. Indian Journal of Applied Research, 19-22.
Santrock, J. W. (2002). Psychology. McGraw Hill Higher education. 7th edition.
Weishar, M. (2014, May 19). The Myth of the Fair and Balanced Media. Quiet Mike. Retrieved from https://quietmike.org/2014/05/19/myth-fair-and-balanced-media
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Maryam Nanman Julde-Adura, Blessing Vou Dakat
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This open-access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.
You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
Under the following terms: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
No additional restrictions You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
