Written Text on Pakistani Vehicles: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Linguistically, the word ‘language’ has shifted into ‘discourse’ which is a social phenomenon not only to express the thoughts but also to reflect the mindset and contexts of a specific community. The purpose of this study is to examine the slogans written on Pakistani automobiles and to understand the logic behind the social and cultural affiliations of these slogans. Pakistani culture of the art of making pictures and written phrases, poetic verses and imperative sentences on vehicles is famous all over the world. The study has analysed the writings found on vehicles, and although these writings might look trivial on the automobiles, they address various social issues. The Three-Dimensional Model of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) by Fairclough (2001) is used as a theoretical framework that explains the study at three levels: lexical, syntactic patterns, interpretations, and social practices. The discourses written on the vehicles are characterised into different categories, which are life’s mission statements, loud messages, mind baffling messages, everyday life annoyances, provoking statements, and religious looms. Twenty images and pictures have been captured from vehicles as a random sample of this study. The results reveal the mindset behind these discourses. They are used to highlight social issues which Pakistan faces, being a developing country. In short, the study discloses the strong link between the vehicles and the people using them to convey messages to the society which can bring harmony among the public. The current study is limited to only Pakistani motor vehicles.

The Influence of Brand Story Towards Perceived Brand Image on Malaysian Airline Industry

The public’s perception towards brands varies from one to another. Consumers’ purchasing behaviours keep changing over the years, and people are no longer interested with a one-way flow of communication when it comes to purchasing, or in simpler words, consumers “don't like to be sold”. Brand story is one of the strongest marketing strategies that most of the big companies apply to grow their business as well as to portray a good company image. Studies show that the influence of brand story is powerful in building a positive brand image, for it can empower and motivate the audience, convey purpose, and enhance customers' purchasing experience. The purpose of this paper is to identify the respondents’ perception of brand story, to ascertain their levels of perceived brand image, as well as to examine the relationship between the perception of brand story and perceived brand image. A survey through the use of a questionnaire was carried out, and 384 respondents participated, and the results indicate a significant value on the relationship between the influence of brand story and perceived brand image.

Exploring an Integrated Conceptual Framework as an Interpretive Framework for Intercultural Communication Research

This paper describes an interpretive framework that is based on an integrated conceptual framework for intercultural communication as the focal point to understand the interconnectivity between social categories and intercultural interactions. Intercultural communication is communication between individuals who are culturally distinct. While a wide range of intercultural communication studies can be found in various literatures, none has offered an integrated conceptual framework to study intercultural interactions in a Malaysian context. There is a gap on an interpretive approach as a framework to support its data analysis and meaningful claims, particularly in multicultural and multilingual Malaysia. Thus, this paper offers an integrated conceptual framework based on intercultural communication, language and intercultural communication, social identity theory, and identity and interaction, to address face-to-face interactions between culturally diverse individuals. Besides adding on to the body of knowledge in intercultural communication, this paper assumes an impetus for approaching interdisciplinary future research in various intercultural interaction settings.