| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this study was to carry out a multi-modal analysis of the emotive
lexicons, syntactic structures, and conceptual metaphors that were used by the anti-BBI
(Building Bridges Initiatives) bloggers in Kenya. The study addressed the following
objectives: identify the nature of the emotive lexicons used in the construction of anti BBI tweets; establish the conceptual metaphors that were used in the construction of
the anti-BBI tweets; and analyze the functional elements of syntactic structures on
Twitter. According to the literature on political discourse, Twitter has risen to
prominence as the primary communication tool for disseminating political messages
and articulating political agenda. The research was based on multi-modal analysis
theory and conceptual metaphor theory. The study presented a quantitative description
of the multi-modal analysis of the tweets used by the anti-BBI bloggers. The multi modal theoretical framework and the conceptual metaphor theory was employed in the
analysis of data from written tweets and visual aspects of the tweets that were used in
the anti-BBI tweets. In the study, stratified constructed-week sampling was used,
followed by purposive sampling techniques. A checklist was also utilized to determine
the data that suits the study. The mixed research approach was applied to analyze how
the multi-modal responses shaped the discourses against the Building Bridges Initiative
in Kenya. The study findings showed that 79% of the tweets used emotive words to
push their agenda in the anti-BBI discourse, 74% of the proponents of the anti-BBI
discourse used conceptual metaphors while 54% of the tweeps focused on how
syntactic structures were employed in the posting of anti-BBI tweets. Further, the key
syntactic structures feature in the selected data entailed the use of ellipsis in sentence
structure, substitution, and poor punctuation, use of short form as well as intra and inter sentential emojis. The findings provided critical insights on the emotive lexicon,
conceptual metaphors, and syntactic structures and their correlation to Section 5B, Part
4 KICA (2019), which forms a critical pillar in the language use and its place in
boosting national integration. The recommendations drawn from the study include a
need to strengthen Kenyan communities and social bonds among ethnic groups to
reduce feelings of isolation and alienation that can make individuals more susceptible
to polarizing discourse on Twitter. This promotes education and critical thinking skills
to help individuals recognize and counter emotive discourse when they encounter it,
encouraging open dialogue and respectful debate to foster understanding and tolerance
among people with different views, a need to hold those who engage in emotive
discourse accountable for their actions, and whether through social sanctions or legal
consequences. Additionally, need for media literacy programmes that teach people how
to identify and evaluate the credibility of information sources as well as helping them
discern between legitimate arguments and emotive language. Within the applied
linguistic field, institutions such as the Ministry of Education to develop for language
planning and policy development shall use the study | en_US |
