Rhetorical Analysis and Classification of Poem Text

Poetry is one of the richest forms of literature, which in itself includes all components of language a human learns; by components here, the context is towards the rhetorical devices. The rhetorical devices constitute the witty use of words used in the reference to things. The work intends to identify the forms of creative references used by the poets to contrast their style of writing and categorize the text on the basis of the same. On the basis of each such prominent device such as rhymes or alliteration, one can derive the boundary or similarity percentage amongst the poems, which can be further extended to compare the writing style of the poets. The method of analysis holds a good value to study different poets of the modern and renaissance era and could be helpful in contrasting their way of putting things into words. Keywords NLP Analysis of Poem, Poem Analysis, Poem Classification, Poem Comparison, Poem Qualifiers, Poet Classification, Poetry Analysis, Poetry Recommendation System

Intersemiotic Translation of Subliminal Messages in Brand Logos

Subliminal messages play a vital role in attracting the consumer's attention in the world of brands. Visual subliminal messages are designed to be unnoticeable at a conscious level, bypassing the conscious mind and submitting messages directly to the subconscious mind. Although consumers may not actually attempt to decode the semiotic elements of a logo, its interpretation is an intersemiotic act. In this interplay between a logo's visual and verbal aspects, intersemiotic translation provides a useful theoretical framework to investigate subliminal advertising messages. The ability to persuade consumers is a powerful tool in marketing, and subliminal persuasion can affect markets and control consumer behavior. The authors explore consumers' awareness of subliminal messages by focusing on semiotics, symbolism, and persuasion as key issues in the translation of advertisements. Participants were exposed to logos of international brands, and through a structured questionnaire and a semi-structured interview, they were asked to identify their form, color, logo, brand name, or slogan.

A Linguistic and Literary Analyses of Selected Cartoons on the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria

The world is currently facing a global pandemic, named COVID-19, which is seriously wreaking a devastating blow on the world healthcare system. Since the first index case was reported in Lagos, Nigeria, in February, the federal and state governments have put measures in place to curtail the spread of the virus in the country. Some of the measures include the constitution of the presidential task force (PTF), provision of isolation and treatment centres for confirmed cases, and pronouncement of lockdown order by the president and some state governors. Amidst these measures, cartoonists (artists, or authors in literary context) have taken to the media to creatively present humorous and satirical depictions of the pandemic and social realities in the fight against it. This study thus analyses the humorous and satirical depiction of the pandemic in the Nigerian context using selected cartoons. These cartoons can be classified as graphic literary texts that can be subjected to different interpretations. The cartoons/texts are selected from the Facebook pages of popular Nigerian cartoonists/authors. A total of 10 cartoons/texts were randomly selected between March and April 2020. The study adopts two models/theories in interpreting the cartoons: Suls's incongruity resolution (IR) model operationalizes linguistic tool of lexicalization, re-lexicalisation, and shared sociocultural knowledge to explicate humour and satire in the cartoons, and Structuralism, which requires human behaviour (as represented in texts or cartoons) to be understood in the context of a broad social system (otherwise called structures) in which they exist. The study observed that the cartoons are not just independent texts or images but that they are products of the Nigerian social condition. It equally revealed that the cartoonists have deployed verbal and non-verbal incongruity to present comical images that show beliefs of Nigerians about the pandemic and the level of the country's preparedness in flattening the curve of the contraction of the virus.

Cognitive Theories of Concepts and Wittgenstein's Rule-Following

In this article, the authors try to answer the following questions: How can an object/instance seen for the first time extend a category or update a concept? How is it possible to determine the reference of a concept that represents a behaviour? In the first case, the authors discuss the learning of inferential linguistic competence used to update a concept through an approach based on prototype theory. In the second case, the authors discuss the learning of referential linguistic competence used to determine the reference of a concept (i.e., determination of an actual behaviour) through an approach based on embodied cognition. The authors show how combining prototype-based and embodied categorization in Wittgenstein's rule-following praxis (the individual and community dimension), linguistic learning of a concept (inferential competence), and determination of its reference (referential competence) can be traced back to the same model.

An Efficient Approach for Ranking of Semantic Web Documents by Computing Semantic Similarity and Using HCS Clustering

In today's era, with the availability of a huge amount of dynamic information available in world wide web (WWW), it is complex for the user to retrieve or search the relevant information. One of the techniques used in information retrieval is clustering, and then the ranking of the web documents is done to provide user the information as per their query. In this paper, semantic similarity score of Semantic Web documents is computed by using the semantic-based similarity feature combining the latent semantic analysis (LSA) and latent relational analysis (LRA). The LSA and LRA help to determine the relevant concepts and relationships between the concepts which further correspond to the words and relationships between these words. The extracted interrelated concepts are represented by the graph further representing the semantic content of the web document. From this graph representation for each document, the HCS algorithm of clustering is used to extract the most connected subgraph for constructing the different number of clusters which is according to the information-theoretic approach. The web documents present in clusters in graphical form are ranked by using the text-rank method in combination with the proposed method. The experimental analysis is done by using the benchmark datasets OpinRank. The performance of the approach on ranking of web documents using semantic-based clustering has shown promising results.

Trauma and the Indexicality of the Missing Sign

While the term “trauma” is often in current usage, the author points out that one does not even have a good measure of what the word itself means. In a technical sense, is “trauma” the result of an action or the action itself, and in what manner may one differentiate between the two? Further, having defined trauma and using a Freudian depth psychological model of trauma, the author reads a seminal Hebrew religious text. Using the Kleinian and Freudian analytic structure, the author understands the manner in which this text may plausibly have been redacted in an answer to cultural trauma. Structurally, this paper will examine Freudian depth psychological theory, the historical textuality of the Mishnah, and specifically the polysemous nature of the word "trauma" all in an attempt to understand a specific line of Mishnaic text in its historical context.

A Semiotic Approach Through Panofsky's Image Text

While visual emerges as a concept based on seeing in a narrow sense, it defines everything that can be seen with a broader meaning. The idea of seeing is not limited to taking images only by the eye, but also includes the interpretation of images by the brain. Mansions that are used in a television series shot in Turkey are presented to the viewer as a visual narrative text. In this context, these mansions are intended to be read semiotically. In the study, the placement of the mansion building style, which has an important place in Turkish culture, as a visual space and the meanings attributed to it are examined. Based on Panofsy's method of semiotic iconographic analysis, the use of these mansions is discussed in the context of the semiotic narrative. The narratives that exist through the meaning and visual narrative in which Turkish society has positioned the traditional living environments, as well as the narratives that it tries to place in the audience, are tried to be evaluated.

The Functional Building Blocks of Emoji in Consumer Engagement

Firms are struggling with developing effective consumer engagement strategies on social media. Emoji have been identified as a potent tool for consumer engagement. Yet, their use in this context is not well understood. Treating emoji as digitally mediated visual signs, this study provides a framework of five functional building blocks of emoji in the consumer engagement domain (i.e., beatification, affection, information, participation, conversation), and offers emoji strategy recommendations (i.e., branding aesthetics, brand humanization, social listening, online community engagement). The proposed framework can advance visual semiotics theory by applying it in the context of social media, and also broaden emoji and consumer engagement literatures by providing conceptual support that addresses the symbolic significance of emoji in the complex and dynamic digital space. Utilised individually and together, these building blocks allow marketers to understand emoji as a new form of marketing semiotics, while also guiding them to enable and shape consumer engagement on social media.

A Semiological Analysis of Dudley's Political Cartoons in the Namibian Newspaper

Political cartoons communicate powerful politically inclined renditions reflective of how cartoonists view contestable contemporary issues in society. All over the world, political cartoons that satirize governance practices are a common feature in the press. As in economies of many African states, from 2016 to 2019 the Namibian economy has generally been on the decline, thereby calling for new thinking in socio-economic and fiscal policies of the country. This qualitative study employs the connotative and denotative model of analysis from the Bathesian semiological perspective to reveal how a purposive sample of political cartoons in the Namibian newspapers, exposes how Dudley satirizes mainly against poor service delivery, corruption, and unequal distribution of wealth in Namibia. The study recommends the adoption of a servant-leadership approach based on Ubuntu.

A Cognitive Semiotic Study of Suicide Notes in Selected E-Newspapers in Nigeria

The study investigates suicide discourse in selected e-newspapers in Nigeria using the theoretical framework of cognitive semiotics, espoused by Zlatev. It specifically explores how language and mind interact implicitly to project ideological meaning in the selected websites. Findings show that adverbials and interrogatives/rhetorical operations are significant socio-cognitive cues deployed by suicides to express ideational, justificatory, interpersonal, revolutionary, affective, aggressive, and depressive attitudes in the data. Instances of adverbials specifically evoke some physical dimensions of suicide, while Interrogatives/rhetorical operations reflect the psychological aspects of suicide. The study concludes that the solution to the subject of suicide lies partly in the hands of government (by providing jobs, bridging the gap between the rich and the poor, and regulating the sales of hazardous pesticides) and partly in the hands of every individual in the Nigerian clan (by learning to share their problems with guidance counsellors and reliable people around).