LINGUISTIC CONSTRUCTS AND MEANING INTERPRETATION OF MISSION STATEMENTS OF SELECTED PUBLIC COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN GHANA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46827/ejlll.v4i3.222Keywords:
colleges of education, genre theory, linguistic constructs, mission statementsAbstract
Mission statements (MSs) carry the culture, philosophy, and ideology of institutions that own them. By drawing on discourse as genre (Bhatia, 2005), we examined how writers of the MS genre negotiate meaning in the context of language use. The data involved MSs of the thirteen (13) public colleges of education (COEs) in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Zone of Ghana drawn from the COEs’ official web sites and the display of the MSs on campuses. The findings indicate that MSs were written in one sentence, but varied in length, ranging from seven (7) to forty-nine (49) words. Second, there was a common use of nouns and noun phrases (with “teachers” as the head element), verb forms (generally present, imperative, and purposive infinitive), and persuasive adjectives and adverbs. Third, the linguistic components in the MSs had persuasive appeals and depicted the ideal image for the public: (1) nouns and noun phrases indicated the institutions’ identity and uniqueness; (2) verbs and verb phrases expressed inescapable actions and obligations; (3) adjectives and adjectives phrases highlighted the greatest degree of quality of the institutions’ services; and (4) adverbs and adverb phrases expressed good traits. Finally, the study concludes that the MSs were similarly formulated in terms of linguistic constructs, both paradigmatically and syntagmatically, to appeal to the interests of accreditation agencies, government, industry, alumni, students, and staff. The study contributes to the development of genre studies.
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