A Corpus Based Study of Rhetorical Devices Employed in Pakistani Print Media

Abstract

Advertisements in all the forms whether print, Electronic or Social media is an important part of our contemporary modern life. We encounter many advertisements frequently in a single day. The fact is that the general public is too much influenced by the verbal and visual part of Advertisements. The employment of Rhetoric is a significant study which can assist the advertiser in drawing appealing features called Rhetoric. The study of Rhetoric is important as it brings forth the implicit techniques which make the form and content of Print advertisements appealing. To address the Rhetoric aspect of print advertisements a Corpus based approach has been employed to analyze the rhetorical devices used by the Advertisers in Pakistani print media including Newspapers, Magazines, journals and bill boards .The advertisements have been selected with timeline of Jan, 2019 to April, 2020.The advertisements have been selected randomly to highlight the rhetoric strategies employed in Pakistani context at both levels: Visual and Rhetoric level .The Text-interpretive analysis is used to analyze the Pakistani advertisements at both Visual and verbal level .The mixed method approach has been employed as this study is based on both qualitative and qualitative methods. Qualitative approach is applied when the advertisements are analyzed according to the McQuire and Mick framework. Qualitative approach is employed when the parsons’ chi square is calculated by taking opinion of the people regarding rhetoric devices merely. The purpose of the study is to find out those rhetoric devices which are employed at both the visual and verbal level by employing the theory of visual rhetoric as a theory to point out the persuasive techniques of Ethos, Pathos, logos and on the verbal level by studying the schemes and tropes at three different levels. The results of the research show that people exhibited a positive attitude which provoked the people to be inclined towards advertisements which employed schematic devices rather than those which employed Tropic devices .The findings suggest the use of schematic and tropic device in advertisements at both visual and verbal level to convey the message effectively and in a persuasive manner.