Cite this article as: Hammangabdo, E. A., Shikaa, B. K., & David, B. (2026). A pragmatic analysis of selected obituary posts and comments on Facebook. Sokoto Journal of Linguistics and Communication Studies (SOJOLICS), 2(2), 530-543. https://doi.org/10.36349/sojolics.2026.v02i02.049
By
Dr. Ezekiel Augustine
Hammangabdo, PhD.
Department of English
and Literary Studies
Taraba State University,
Jalingo
ezekielaugustine2018@gmail.com
08135401091
&
Blessing KwaghdooShikaa
Department of English
and Literary studies
Taraba State University,
Jalingo
07034624733
&
Bridget David
Department of Mumuye
Linguistics
College of Education
Zing
07038560097
Abstract
Face book as social
media is used by millions of people across the global. Just as the usage is
across the globe, it has also attracted the attention of researchers from
different fields of life. This study is a pragmatic analysis of selected Face
Book Obituary posts and comments. The study is hinged on Mey’s (2001) pragmatic
acts theories and H.P Grice theory of conventional implicature. These are
adopted as they border both pragmatics and Stylistics.The study adopts
qualitative approach. A qualitative approach method allows the researcher to
explore, describe and explain the problem under investigation. The identified
pragmatic acts and styles from the texts were described and analyzed in order
to provide insights into the meanings underlying Facebook obituary posts and
responses. To carry out the study, ten (10) Face Book Obituary posts and ten
(10) comments were selected and analysed qualitatively. The results of the
analysis showed that the language style used in Face book posts and comments is
formal. It was observed that the language concise, precise, objective and well
structured. The analysis of the pragmatic acts showed that informative,
declarative, interrogative and expressive acts are prevalent in Face Book
obituary posts and comments. The most prevalent is the informative acts
performed to reach out to the public and acquaint them with information on
funeral arrangements or activities. Conventional implicature was the prevalent
found in the text. These meanings based on the words, phrase or clauses used.
The linguistic devices employed in the texts were sparse. Only incidence of
metaphors was however noted.
Keywords: Language Obituary, Context, Implicature, and Pragmatic.
1.0 Introduction
One of the
characteristics that distinguishes humans from animals is the ability to use
language. Gee (1993) asserts that language is unique to humans in the sense
that it is used to convey information from one person to another, to express
opinions, to convey feelings and to ask for clarification. Language as a means
of communication is used by human beings to communicate in different contexts.
The primary function of language has gone beyond “communication” to “purposeful
communication with social significance.” Taiwo (2009) observes that language is
the most vital tool in the hands of man and a conveyer belt of sole power
either to hurt or palliate the pain of the addressee. Communication, according
to Oladejo (2010), is a means of transmitting information, and there are
several ways by which people communicate with one another. One of them and the
most important is language in its spoken and written forms.
In the ancient African
communities, different modes of communication such as beating drum,
announcement by town criers or sending someone to relations were used to
announce the death of people. Manieson (2007), opines that obituaries are
encoded in various modes such as the traditional verbal announcement,
electronic and print media, billboards, posters, handbills, and telephones. Modes
such as the traditional verbal announcements, print media (Newspapers and
Magazines), televisions, radios and billboards are becoming obsolete as new
forms of social media such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram, X handles, and so
on are replacing them.
Nowadays, obituaries are
posted on Facebook. Facebook is one of the social media platforms that is used
for quick dissemination of information in today’s “global village” world.
However, the way messages are encoded and posted on Facebook poses different
problems of interpretation. This is because different meanings may underlie any
stretch of language put to use. Meaning is an abstract entity, different from
the forms of language used to express it. In the study of language, there are
two forms of meaning. These are semantic and pragmatic meaning. Semantic
meaning is derived from the linguistic forms used by the writer or speaker,
while pragmatic meaning is derived from the context of utterance. It is often
considered as speaker-listener meaning.
There are many
challenges that the public may encounter with reading and interpreting the
posts and comments of the people. Generally, write-ups on obituary posters are
usually understood by people to contain information about the exit of a
personality in a mild, positive and pleasant way, irrespective of the
behavioral tendencies and summaries of the deceased while in the mortal body.
An obituary post on
Facebook can attract considerable attention and or reaction. Writers often mean
much more than they say or write. This is because some aspects of meaning are
not expressed in words but are deducible from the context. In obituary posts
and comments, different forms of contextual meanings can be deduced by the
application of different pragmatic theories.
There is no doubt that
the lay audience may comprehend only the literal meanings. This study is a
pragma-stylistics analysis of write-ups on the obituary posters on Facebook as
a social media platform. Focusing on the formal or standard language, how the
real mental reasoning and attitudes are influenced, how emotive reactions are
channeled. Using the pragmatic act theory. This study therefore, analyzes the
effect of language as a useful tool in obituary write-ups.
Facebook is a type of
technology platform that is commonly used on specific mobile phones and
computers. Since the smart phones became popular, many messaging services were
launched; Facebook remains the most popular of all social media platforms/sites
(Abosede, 2010). This application is highly addictive. It has created a great
positive and negative impacts on the users. Facebook was originally published
as face mash in July 2003 and then changed to Facebook on February 2004, and
later developed properly in 2006. It was designed by Mark Zukerberg, who owns
the American company offering online social networking services. The features
of the app include: creation of profile by the users, uploading pictures,
joining a group or starting a new group.
In recent times, it has
been observed that obituary posts and comments appear on Facebook frequently.
In writing obituary, writers are required to be careful in selecting their
words. The language used in normal conversation is different from the one used
in announcement or notification of death. This implies that understanding
obituary writes-ups and comments may be challenging for many people. Though the
literal meanings may be deduced, the acts performed and the effects of the
posts may not be easily comprehended by the lay audience. Therefore this study
is embarked upon to investigate pragmatic stylistic features of obituary posts
and comments on Face book from Pragmatic perspectives.
2.0 Empirical Review
Sharndama&Tsojon
(2018) studied pragma-stylistics analysis of last will of Micheal Joseph
Jackson. They used speech act theory. The will was downloaded from the
internet, using the qualitative approach. The result of the analysis revealed
that the last will and testament contains archaic words and expressions which
add formally to the text. It was also observed that the locutions are lengthy
and complex which communicates little with the audience. The illocutionary acts
identified were mostly declaratives, directive and representatives. The
perlocutionary acts as shown by the result of the analysis specifies the status
of the beneficiaries and that of the trustees and the executors. A Conclusion
was drawn that the last will and testament like other legal genres has peculiar
or distinctive linguistics features which testators use to state the things
that they like to happen with their estates or properties after their death.
Achoeah&Adelodun
(2013) studied, the Language of Advocacy of Law: Towards a pragama-stylisics
analysis of the case of Tinubu V.I.M.B, security plc. The paper explored
insights from pragmatics, stylistics, advocacy law and rhetoric. Using the
speech act theory, the study found out that major features in language of
advocacy law include the use of personal pronouns (deixis), persuasive speech
act sequencing, dominant use of informative, declaratives and
exercitive/verdictives, Latin words, re-affirmation, figures of speech,
presentations and manipulation of fact. On the whole, the language of advocacy
law is informed by pragmatic and stylistic necessities towards enhancing the
credibility and persuasiveness of case-delivery.
Eromosele (2012) did a
pragmatic-stylistic analysis of President GoodluckEbele Jonathan inaugural
speech. The study was an examination through the pragma-stylistic approach to
meaning of the linguistics acts that manifest in the inaugural speech of President
GoodluckEbele Jonathan as the democratically elected president in May 2011
general elections in Nigeria. Hence, the study focused on speech acts type of
locutions, illocutionary and perlocutionary in the speech. It was therefore,
part of the objectives of the study to find out which of the speech acts was
more prominent based on the speech act theory of Austin (1962) and Searl
(1969). The first twenty (20) sentences were extracted from the speech text,
from which forty (40) speech acts were derived. The findings revealed thus;
assertives- 55%, directives 10%, vindictive- 15%, commissive- 75% and
declarative- 45%. These results showed that President GoodluckEbele Jonathan
relied more on sentences that performed commissive acts than other speech acts
in his inaugural speech. This demonstrated that politicians are apt to show
appreciation to people after victory at the polls. Hence, the speech act
analysis assists in the interpretation of the messages in the selected speech.
Amoussou, Allagbe&Toboula
(2004), carried out research on a pragma-stylistic analysis of Nigeria’s
president Bola Ahmed Tinubus Inaugural speech. Drawing its theoretical
underpinnings from pragma-stylistics propounded by Black (2006), it
specifically seeks to examine such features as speech acts, tenses, deictic
expressions, and tropes encoded in the speech. The findings arrived at reveal
that the aforementioned politician employs four out of the five illocutionary
acts (representatives, expressive, commissives, and directives) in varying
proportions. They also disclose that the simple present, present perfect,
simple past, simple future and imperative are the tenses deliberately deployed
in the discourse. It is inferred from the foregoing that in his choice of
discursive patterns, Tinubu plainly focuses on the socio-political,
socio-economic and geo-political context to manipulate linguistic resources for
ideological purposes in order to restore Nigeria’s trust and faith in his
forthcoming governance, persuade the audience, and manage his message for
effective communication.
The reviewed works
established that there are prevalent researches conducted on obituary but none
was found on pragma-stylistic of obituary post and responses on Facebook as far
as the researcher knows. It is pertinent to state that many contributions have
not been made on the language use in the obituary post and responses on social
media (Facebook) using Jacob Mey’s pragmatic act theory. The present study
arises, therefore, from the need to address this gap by examining the language
use of obituary write-ups and responses on social media (Facebook) from the
perspective of Speech Acts and Implicature.
3.0 Theoretical
Framework
This study is hinged on
Mey’s (2001) pragmatic acts theories and H.P Grice theory of conventional
implicature. These are adopted as they border both pragmatics and stylistics.
3.1 Pragmatic act Theory
The theory was proposed
by Mey in (2001). The theory makes up for the inadequacies of speech acts
theory. Mey defines pragmatic acts as the basic units of communication, which
are used to achieve a specific goal or effect in a social context. Mey claims that
speech acts theory is non-situated, hence the need for pragmatic acts theory
that focuses on the analysis of a text in its context. pragmatic acts builds
upon speech acts theory, which identifies three main types of speech acts:
locutionary (uttering words), illocutionary (performing an action) and
perlocutionary(achieving an effect). The proponent came up with the concept of
“pragmeme”. Mey (2016) describes pragmeme as multiple functions a unit of
linguistic acting can serve. He opines that it would be inappropriate to
describe the said function as just a speech acts given that what we are dealing
with is much more than just voicing but the actual performing of a societal
function of language which is calls a “pragmeme” a pragmatic act. The
significance lies in the fact that pragmemes situated speech acts are not
dependent on the words uttered by an idealized speaker but on the interactional
situation that unfold throughout the interaction. A unit of language use that
incorporated a reference both to the context in which it occurs and to the
culture in which it is embedded. Pragmatic act theory is an approach to explain
the way pragmemes are represented in pragmatic acts in speech situations.
According to Mey, the pragmatic act theory focuses on the environment in which
both speaker and hearer find their affordances, such that the entire situation
is brought to hear on what can be said in the situation as well as what is
actually being said.
This view is captured in
pragmeme, a generalized pragmatic act regarded as the only force associated
with making utterance.
|
Textual part (COCN) TEXT |
|
ACTIVITY PART INTERACTANTS SPEECH ACTS INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS INF REF RL
VCE SSI PSYCHOLOGICAL ACTS MPH “M” PROSODY ACTS BODY SMOVE (GESTURE) PHYSIOGNOMY (FACIAL EXPRESSION) BODILY EXPRESSION (EMOTION) |
Source: Mey in (2001).
He then proposes that
situation-bound utterances (SUBS) are instances of pragmemeActs. Communicative
intentions are central to pragmatic act. The speaker aims to achieve a specific
perlocutionary effect, which is the ultimate goal of the pragmatic act. Mey
emphasizes the importance of inference and implicature in communication. The
listener infers the speaker’s intention and implicature (what is implied but
not explicitly stated). Context plays a crucial role in pragmatic act theory.
The listener uses contextual information to disambiguate and infer the speaker.
3.2 The theory of
implicatures
The concept of
implicature was first introduced by Grice in the William James Lectures more
than 30 years ago (Grice 1967, 1989). An implicature is something meant,
implied, or suggested distinct from what is said. Implicature can be part of
sentence meaning or dependent on conversational context, and can be
conventional or unconventional. Implicature is a matter of saying something but
communicating something else.Grice (1989) said that implicature denotes either
the act of meaning, implying, or suggesting one thing by saying something else,
or the object of that act. The two models are very good for the research under
study because it enables the researcher to know both pragmatic and litery as
aspects of the study
4.0 Research Methodology
This study adopts
qualitative approach. A qualitative approach method allows the researcher to
explore, describe and explain the problem under investigation. The identified
pragmatic acts and styles from the texts were described and analyzed in order
to provide insights into the meanings underlying Facebook obituary posts and
responses. This approach is chosen because it is not easy to quantify the
speech acts and implicatures in the selected obituary texts and the people’s
responses to them. This deals with the strategy of selection. The corpus of the
study consists of ten (10) Facebook obituary posts and five (10) comments. The
twenty texts are randomly selected from different Facebook sites in order to
give some texts a chance of being selected. The selection of the obituaries and
the responses to them were selected irrespective of religious, ethnic or
regional factors. To ensure equal representations, 10 obituary texts and 10
comments are selected. The twenty texts are deemed sufficient since most text
analysis do not depend on large number of data.
The texts for the study
were downloaded from Facebook websites. The selection was restricted to face
book public pages. This was because posts and comments on public pages are
accessible to every face book user. It is in line with this that 10 obituary posts
and 10 comments would be selected to represent the two related language varieties.
Accessibility is the ease with which the researcher gets the texts. Since the
study is based on qualitative data (open ended), descriptive method of data
analysis was employed. Therefore, the selected texts would first be subjected
to analysis in order to identify and describe the prevalent pragmatic acts.
Secondly, the implications underlying the comments on the obituary posts were
explained. The choice of descriptive method is to allow the researcher to
expose the reader’s speech acts and the implicatures purely from the
perspectives of obituary posts and comments.
4.1 The Pragmatic Acts
in the Obituary Post and Comments
Identification of the
various pragmatic acts in obituary posts and comments is another objective of
the study. Pragmatic acts are expressions embedded in context of situation.
They acts that make something happen, done or complete action. Mey (2006) opine
that Pragmatic acts are acts that work not just by their wordings but also by
being embedded in context situation in which participants in a discourse act,
with everything that they bring too their context of interaction including body
movements, emotions and so on. The texts in the corpus of the study were
critically read in order to identify the prevalent or significant pragmatic
acts and stylistics features. Although there are different types of pragmatic
acts listed above by Mey (2006), however this research will consider only four
pragmatic acts because they appear to be the dominant acts identified in the
various obituary texts. Such acts are: informative, declarative, expressive and
interrogative acts as identified and discussed below:
4.2 Informative acts:
This is the acts of
providing information, stating facts or describing situations. On the data
available for the research, informing acts are providing information, stating
facts, or describing situations about the passing away of the deceased, when to
bury and where the burial will take place. It also gives information on the
people he left behind, how old was the deceased. Informative pragmatic acts are
speeches that aim to covey factual information, using the neutral tone without
any emotional or persuasive language. The excerpt from text 1 below contains
several examples of informative acts.
Name: Harison Joseph Janamba
Age 28
BURIAL ARRANGEMENT
Body leaves university teaching hospital port-Harcourt to his home
town Zing
Taraba State
On 17th march, 2024.
Wake keep mass
By 5pm @ st. Patrick CathChur.Zing.
The excerpt above is
informative. It describes the age of the deceased and the funeral arrangement
each expression is meant to give essential information about the funral
program. By these, the public is made aware of the time and place of burial of
the deceased. Other informative acts are fund in texts 3, 4, 5, 9, 10. In these
texts, the information intended for the public are well structured. This
justifies the assertion that the language of obituary post is concise, clear
and objective.
Declarative Acts:
These are the type of
statement that changes the reality or status of something or someone. It is an
utterance that has the power to create, define or alter facts. These are the
type of statement that changes the reality or status of something or someone.
It is an utterance that has the power to create, define or alter facts.
Expressions like “call to glory” (text 5), “celebration of life” (text 4),
“eternal call” (text 10), among others creates new reality that the person is
dead.
Declarative acts as
could exemplify above are statements or utterances that changes existing facts.
Call to glory for examples when utter all the fact of existence, celebration of
life defines exit of at old age; and eternal is synonymous with glorious call.
These are states associated with announcement of death in the society. They
euphemistic statements made to avoid mentioning of death.
An Expressive Act
This are type of
speech acts that express the speaker’s feelings, emotions or attitudes. It
communicates the speaker’s inner state or emotion. The analysis of the comments
on face book obituary posts revealed prevalent occurrences of expressive acts.
Shock and griefs are expressed in different ways once obituary is posted on
face book. The excerpt from text 6 below is an example of expressive act.
“I can’t believe that i will type rip on your picture at this hour
my sister Mairo Augustine Adams”
“You’re one of my sisters that I can count on your support and
happiness in any of my activities but today you left, may your soul rest in
peace, Hmmm DuniyaKenan”.
The above excerpt shows
that the notice or announcement of the demise of Mairo Augustine Adams was
received with shock. The deceased has been supportive to the person making
comment. The surprise, perplexity and bafflement are evidenced by the
expression “ HmmmDuniyaKenan.” This Hausa expression is synonymous with the
world is a passing shadow. Another example of expressive act in obituary
comment is the excerpt below;
: Even
if we know it’s part of life, we are never ready to say goodbye forever. On
this day, our hearts are saddened for losing someone so dear to our hearts. We
are not only mourning your death but also celebrating your life. May you rest
in peace.(Text 8)
In the above text, the
inclusive pronouns “we and our” suggests that this response is on behalf of a
family, friends or associates of the deceased. The group grief’s but the well
spent life of the deceased comforts them. This is evident in the expression “We
are not only morning your death but also celebrating your life.
Other expressive acts in
the comments are:
Text 11
Oh mummy D, thank you
for the love you spread while you were alive. Never be forgotten (Text 11).
This is devastating.
Death is inevitable accept my condolences, please (text 12).
I’m still in denial this
feels so untrue (text 13)
Accept my condolences,
what a painful exit, may her soul rest with the lord (text 15).
All the four texts are
expressions of griefs over the death of loved ones. Text 15 expresses
gratitude. From the expression, it could be discerned that deceased loving and
kind hearted. Text 15 expresses shock and perplexity and condoles with author
of the obituary post. Text 13 is also an expression of shock and bafflement. This
could be a sudden death as the commentator couldn’t believe it. From the
expression “what a painful exit” , it is clear that the deceased is of young
age or is love much by the person making the comment.
Interrogative Act
Interrogative acts is
the act of asking questions. In this context, the question is rhetorical since
it is directed to God. The utterances in which the questions are embedded
expresses bewilderment. It seems as the person is confused and couldn’t know what
to say.
“I have several
questions that are begging for answers; one of which is GOD WHY? My God, you
choose to take my wife from me the time I needed her the most. God why? However
I return all the glory and honour unto you unquestionable heavenly father, may
your name be praise” (Text 2)
The questions “God why?,
is repeated twice in the text which conveys clearly the hopelessness of the
husband of the deceased. However, in his state of confusion, the husband
recognises that no one supremacy of God. He says” However, I return all glory
to you unquestionable heavenly father, may your name be praised. The
questioning and returning glory to God contradictory but clearly expresses the
perplexity and bewilderment of the husband.
Implicature
Implicature refers
to implied meaning, that is, meaning which goes beyond the literal
interpretation of an utterance. It involves inferring additional meaning based
on the context, speaker’s intention, and shared knowledge. Implicature in
obituary post and comments are meant to convey grief feelings subtly and
comfort the mourners. implicature in obituary posts and comments, is used to to
express emotions beyond the visible and observable or convey meanings beyond
the literal level. The excerpt from text 7 below contains implicatures.
“We know how devastating
this is to her immediate family, station, her colleages, friends and
associates. Certainly, the vacuum her demise creates would be a void difficult
to fill. But with total submission to Almighty God, He will strengthen us to
continue where she stopped”.
Three implications can
be inferred from the above excerpt. First, it means that the demise of Dorcas
is a great loss to her family and pleace work. The use of the term
‘deverstating’ entails that the demise of Dorcased caused severe shock,
distress and grief. Second, it implies that Dorcase was a hard work and
dedicated staff. This is made clear by the expression” the voccum her demise
created would be a void difficult to fill.” Third,it means the God is a great
comforter. Other examples are:
Sunset at dawn (texit, 1)this implies
that the deceased died early or very tender age.
Painful exit (text 3): this is a metaphorical expression whichimplies that the decease
died at tender age. It means that there was bewilderment, perplexity and
confusion among family members, friends and the community at large.
At rest (text 9).this phrase has many implications. It could mean
that deceased has buried, or simply the deceased dead not doing physical
resting.
Expressive acts as
exemplified above are utterances depicting states of emotions. It has to do
with the expression of feelings about something.
Linguistic devices
Though obituary are
written in concise and precise language to announce or notify the public about
the demise of a love one by a family member or friends, incidences of the use
of linguistic device about. In texts 1 and 2 for examples, metaphors are used
to refer to contrasting deaths. Van Engen (2008) refers to metaphor as
multifaceted literary device that assists in illustrating complexity and in
expressing clarity. A metaphor as the scholar further maintains helps to
compare the value of variables and expose creativity. The metaphor “sunset at
dawn” in text 1 for instance means the person died at very tender age. Sunset
in the expression refers to the deceased and dawn which literally means very
early morning hours. The expression “celebration of life in text 3” means that
the person passed on at old age therefore nothing to worry about. The deceased
passed on at 98 years, as such the family celebrates a life well spent than
mourning. In obituary posts, the age at which a person passed on often
determines the language to use. The expression “sunset at dawn” is considered
appropriate because the deceased died at 28 years. On the other hand,
“celebration of life is appropriate as the deceased passed on at 98 years.
Imageries are also
linguistic devices used to give vivid description of something or a phenomenon
which appeals to the senses of the readers. The use of imagery is aimed to
depict sensational and emotional experiences. The expression “glorious home
call” for instance appeals to auditory and visual senses. This evokes dignified
passing on which inflicts little or no pain on the mourners. Also, celebration
of life is both auditory and visual. It evokes happiness or excitement.
5.0 Discussions and
Results
In this subsection all
the findings are discussed. The results showed that the language style in face
book obituary posts and comments are formal. This is probably because the aim
is to inform the audience mostly on funeral activities. The uses of informal
feature of language such colloquial expressions or contradictions were not
found. The research has observed that, the most predominant pragmatic acts in
the obituary posts and comments are: expressive acts of condoling (condolence)
expressing sorrow, sympathy and support to the bereaved. (Accept my
condolence), expression of shock and offer of words of comfort to those
bereaved. These are done by performing expressive acts-acts depicting emotional
states. The analysis of the 20 texts in the corpus of the study revealed that
informative, declarative, interrogative and expressive pragmatic acts performed
in obituary posts and comments. These types of pragmatic acts are meant to
achieve different communicative goals. Informative for instance are meant to
inform the audience and describe phenomena vividly; interrogative ask questions
which mostly rhetorical in obituary posts and comments on face book. The
declaratives are factual statements intended to state change in existence or
facts. The examples found in texts 3 of the 20 texts are rhetorical questions
because nobody would expect God to answer why He to the wife at the time that
the husband need her most. The expressive acts are emotional reactions which
condolences in different forms such as accept my sympathy; the Lord comforts
you and the family among other.
Implicatures are not
found much in the texts. This is probably because the implicatures are meanings
beyond the literal level. Since obituary posts are facts convey to the public
about a deceased person and the funeral activities, writers ought to select
their language careful so as to reach out to the pubkic. Pragmatic implicatures
according to Amrullah 2020) are of two types; conversational and conventional
implicatures. The difference is that conversational implicatures dependent on
something other than the truth conditional. On the other hand, conventiona;
impliTcatures are associated the usage and the general meaning. These are
meanings inherent in words of and expression which as the name implies can
interpret outside the context of utterance. In the texts analyse, the sunset at
dawn and painful exit conveys virtually same meaning in any context. The uses
of figurative languages generally fall under conventional implicvature.
The result of the
analysis of the texts in the corpus of the study also showed that figurative
expressions are used in writing obituary posts and comments. A metaphor for
instance is used to compare the death of 28 years old boy (text 1) to setting
of the sun at dawn.The expression is absurd but it refers to the early death of
the boy.
Pragmatics and
stylistics elements overlap in the language of obituary write-ups and this is
informed by context’: structure, the obituary’s structure including the use of
paragraphs, heading coherent and cohesive (stylistic) organizes the information
in a clear and concise manner, making it easier for readers to understand and
process the news(pragmatics). Language, the use of formal, polite (stylistics)
serves the pragmatic purpose of showing respect and dignity. And tone, the
pragmatic need to express condolences and respect (pragmatic) is achieved
through a somber, sympathetic and respectful tone (stylistics).
Implicature are common
pragmatic stylistic features found in the texts analysed. Obitury writers say
often say one thing but means another thing different. The expression, sunset
at dawn for example, goes beyond expressing anomalous setting of the sun. The
sunset is associated with dusk not dawn. In this context, the writer conveys
message beyond the literal level. It implies that the deceased died at very
tender age. Another instance of implicating statement is celebration of life.
It implies that the deceased died old age and has achieved many things in life.
Linguistic devices or figurative expressions are used to in obituary writing
but sparse. Metaphors for example are used to compare untimely death with
setting of the sun in at dawn. It sounds absurd that the sun sets at dawn but
implies early death.
6.0 Conclusion
The study has sun that
pragmatic features abound in face book obituary posts and comments.
Informative, interrogative, declarative and expressive pragmatic acts were
found. These are meat to achieve different things in the context of obituary
writing or posting. Informative acts are employed in order to convey vital
information about funeral activities to the public. Interrogative acts are
often rhetorical and are associated with bewilderment or bafflement. In stances
of rhetorical question “God why?”, “God why” Expressive acts were found common
in face book obituary comments. As the name implies, people make different
comments that depicts their feelings on reading obituary posts. Implicatures
pragmatic features used in obituary texts to convey message beyond the literal
level. In the analysis carried out, implicatures were mostly found in the
comments on face book obituary posts. This is possibly because comments on a
thing have to do with individual views, which could be emotional depending on
the contexts. The uses of linguistic devices were found sparse. This could be
attributed to the fact that writers of obituary posts and comments aim to
convey feelings directly. While obituary posts are mostly objective, the
comments are mostly subjective and emotional.
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