A Speech Act Analysis of Selected Christian Religious Print Advertisements in Ilorin, Nigeria

A Speech Act Analysis of Selected Christian Religious Print Advertisements in Ilorin, Nigeria

Ajala Adeola Toyosi

Department of Languages and Linguistics Kings University, Ode Omu, Osun State

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2025.90300192

Received: 14 February 2025; Accepted: 24 February 2025; Published: 07 April 2025

ABSTRACT

This study explores the use of speech acts in Christian Religious Print Advertisements (handbills) within the Ilorin Metropolis, aiming to expound how language functions to persuade and influence the audience towards religious engagement and participation. Through a qualitative analysis of selected advertisements, the research identified and categorized the predominant speech acts, such as assertive, declaratives, commissives and expressive, employed in these adverts. For adequate analysis of the data, seventy Christian handbills were collected from Churches and ministries in Ilorin, Kwara state, Nigeria. Ten out of the seventy handbills were randomly selected as the data used in carrying out the research. The findings revealed that declaratives, affirmatives and expressive are frequently used in the analysed handbills to invoke religious feelings and call the audience to action. This analysis not only enriches the understanding of language use in religious advertisements, but also provides insights into the persuasive strategies of religious organisations in a culturally diverse context like the North central Nigeria.

Keywords: Speech Acts, Language, Effective Communication, Christian Religious Print Advertisement (handbills).

INTRODUCTION

Language plays a vital role in religious communication. It shapes beliefs, influence perceptions, and persuade adherents. In Christian religious print advertisements, language is not only a medium for conveying information, it is also a strategic instrument for evoking emotions, inspiring faith, and encouraging religious participation (Adetuyi, Chris and Alex, 2020). These advertisements employ various linguistic and pragmatic devices, including speech acts, to achieve communicative effectiveness. However, despite the pervasiveness of Christian religious advertisements in Nigeria, particularly in Ilorin, little attention has been paid to how speech acts function in these texts to achieve persuasive and rhetorical goals. This problem arises from the implicit and explicit meanings that are ingrained in these advertisements, which have the potential to influence or mislead audience interpretations. Although some messages are direct, others rely on indirect speech acts, presuppositions, and implicatures that may affect how readers interpret and respond to religious messages.

The effectiveness of these advertisements in achieving their communicative intent whether to inform, persuade, invite, or warn remains Sparsely researched within the linguistic framework of speech act theory. This gap in research necessitates an in-depth analysis of how Christian religious print advertisements in Ilorin utilize speech acts to achieve their objectives. This study, therefore, investigates the types and functions of speech acts in selected Christian religious print advertisements in Ilorin.

Language use in Christian publicity of religious events is a compelling area of study that encompasses the intersection of linguistics, theology, marketing and culture. Christian advertisements, whether through print, digital media, or other forms of communication, serve not only to inform, but also, persuade and motivate the target audience towards spiritual and communal activities. The language utilized in these advertisements is crafted to resonate deeply with personal belief sand spiritual values, shared scriptures and the logical concepts.

Language is an important instrument of effective religious communication because it plays a dominant role in different practices and doctrines (Adetuyi and Patric, 2020, p.83). The study of language in this context explores how specific words, phrases, and rhetorical strategies are employed to create a sense of belonging, inspire faith and call to action. This includes using imperative verbs for calls to action, emotive language to stir spiritual feelings and inclusive pronouns to foster a community sense. Moreover, biblical allusions and references serve to anchor the advertisements’ messages within a familiar and sacred textual tradition. This, however, enhances the persuasive power.

From a theoretical perspective, the use of language can be analysed through the lens of speech act theory, pragmatics and semiotics, each of which provides insights into how language functions beyond the conveyance of mere information to perform actions and construct realities (Ajala, Adebagbo & Adeyanju, 2023). The strategic choice of language in Christian advertising not only aims at effectiveness in communication, but also aligns with broader goals of religious engagement and identity reinforcement. This exploration into the language of Christian advertisements explains how religious organisations adapt linguistic strategies to maintain relevance and appeal in a rapidly changing cultural and media landscape. Understanding these strategies offers broader implications for fields such as marketing, religious studies and sociolinguistics. This provides insights into the dynamic relationship among language, identity and spirituality in contemporary society.

Speech act analysis is a linguistic approach that focuses on the study of language as a tool for action. In this sense, every utterance can be seen as an act that does not only convey meaning but also, has the power to influence the behaviour of others. Lewiński (2021, p.430) asserts that “Speech acts are our intentional contributions to communicative activities and are all, in this sense, direct executions of some inner practical inference regarding our communicative involvement (roughly, our communicative plan)”. Most Christian religious print advertisements (handbills) in Nigeria are written in English language being the second language, and also, the world’s global language with the motive of reaching out to a large number of people. In recent times, researchers have proved that the turn-up to some Christian programmes and gatherings is poor, wherein the intention behind these religious print advertisements (handbills) to host numerous participants at the event is defeated. This is simply because, sometimes, the language use is inadequately or ineffectively constructed in the content of the handbills, thereby nullifying the goal of effective communication. It is against this backdrop that this work embarks on a speech act study of Christian religious prints to identify, explain and analyse the illocutionary acts in the randomly selected handbills with the view of establishing the fact that good usage of language facilitates effective communication and positive response from the audience.

While the aim of this study is to undertake a critical analysis of speech acts in selected Christian religious to reveal how organisers of Christian religious programmes use language to convey their message effectively, the objectives of the study are to:

1. uncover the intended meaning behind the locutionary acts in the handbills by examining the language and style employed by the encoders;
2. analyse the Illocutionary act types of the selected handbills and
3. examine the implicatures and the Common Ground in the Christian religious context. adopteds

LITERATURE REVIEW

Language is a critical phenomenon that has continued to shape relationships between individuals, amongst groups, communities and nations (Adamu and Saleh, 2021). According to Prasad (2009), “language is a system of conventional, spoken and written symbols using which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in its culture, communicate” (P. 2). In Eruchalu and Nwude’s (2022) opinion, a society without a language is inconceivable since chaos and disorder are bound to be rife in it. So, communication in society happens chiefly using language (Mey, 2001, P. 6). Through it, human beings interact with one another and their environment. A conceptual review of language use looking at speech acts involves an examination of the fundamental ideas and theoretical frameworks that underpin the study of speech acts in communication and linguistics. Speech acts refer to the actions performed through language. It highlights the fact that speech is not solely about transmitting information, but also about performing various social functions. Wales (2001, p.363) asserts that “Speech acts are the linguistic acts made while -speaking, which have some social or interpersonal purposes and pragmatic effects”. One influential framework in the study of speech acts is J.L. Austin’s theory of performative utterances. According to Austin, speech acts can be classified into three categories: locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts. Locutionary act is the utterance itself. It is the “sentence with a grammatical structure and a linguistic meaning” that the speaker produces (Finnegan, 2012, p. 305). The illocutionary act is the most significant in speech acts theory because it carries the force of the speech act. While “Illocutions are what is done in saying something” (Verschueren, 2003, p. 22), perlocutionary acts, on the other hand, focus on the effects or consequences of the speech act.

Building upon Austin’s work, John Searle further developed the theory of speech acts by introducing the concept of the speech act’s felicity conditions. Felicity conditions are the underlying conditions that must be met for a speech act to be successful and appropriate in a given context. These conditions involve factors such as sincerity, appropriateness and the shared understanding of social norms and conventions. Another important aspect of speech acts is the notion of pragmatics, which examines how context and the participants’ intentions shape the interpretation and effectiveness of speech acts (Ajala 2017).

Bach and Harnish’s (1979) perspective of illocutionary acts evolved Constatives (Assertives, Predictives,  Retrodictives,  Descriptives,  Ascriptives,  Informatives,  Confirmatives,

Concessives, Retractives, Disputatives, Responsives, Suggesives, Supportives), Directives (Requestives, Questions, Requirements, Prohibitives, Permissives, Advisories), Commisives (promises, offers) and Acknowledgement (apologize, condole, congratulate, thank, accept, reject). Austin (1962) proposes a classification of illocutionary acts into Verdictives, Exercitives, Commissives, Behavities, and Expositives. Searle (1975) also set up the following classification of speech acts: Representatives (acts that commit a speaker to the truth of the expressed proposition, e.g. reciting a creed.), Directives, Commissives (promises and oat), Expressive (speech acts that express the speaker’s attitudes and emotions towards the proposition, e.g. congratulations, excuses, and thanks) and Declaratives.

Theoretical Framework

The theoretical framework for this paper is built on the foundation of speech act theories, which are primarily associated with the philosopher John Langshaw Austin (1962) and other pragmatic scholars, i.e. Searle (1969) and Bach and Harnish (1979) Speech Act theories. The preference for these theories is because their classifications of speech acts are detailed and incorporate most of the earliest philosophers’ theories of pragmatics. In addition to this advantage, their theories explicitly address cogent features of pragmatics in most of the presented data for analysis.

The theory of Speech Act as developed by these scholars provide a framework for understanding the different types of speech acts and their underlying illocutions (the force or function of an utterance). The speech act theory is central to analysing the advertisements’ communicative intentions and effects. For a comprehensive analysis, the framework is further enriched by incorporating Stalnaker’s (2002) Common Ground (CG) Theory of pragmatics, which deals expressly with how context influences language use and its interpretation. This is crucial in understanding how the advertisements are intended to be understood by the target audience. This includes the role of contextual factors such as shared beliefs, norms, practices and shared knowledge in interpreting the advertisements’ speech acts. The religious context of the participants (the encoders and the decoders) is essential for interpreting the advertisements’ meanings and effects. However, the theories listed above form the overarching framework of analysis for this work.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

For the analysis of data, the study adopts a mixed research design of both quantitative and qualitative research approaches. The quantitative approach makes use of numerical data, statistical analysis, and structured methods to answer specific research questions. It aims to measure, quantify, and generalise findings to a larger population (the encoders and the decoders of Christian Religious Handbills). On the other hand, the qualitative approach focuses on the subjective interpretations of the collected data.

The population for the study is the seventy collected Christian handbills from different churches and Christian ministries in Ilorin, Kwara State. Out of the seventy collected handbills, ten was randomly selected to bring out the linguistic (Speech acts) aspects of communication in them. The analysis of the linguistic features was mainly on the themes of the handbills.

Presentation of Data

This section presents the data gathered for the analysis of the selected Christian religious print advertisements in Ilorin, Nigeria, using the Speech Act Theory as a framework. The data comprise a selection of advertisements sourced from handbills used to promote Christian religious events and activities in 2011. The analysis focuses on identifying the predominant speech acts such as directives, declaratives, expressive, assertive, affirmative and representative embedded in the various locutionary acts.

The analysis also uncovers the implicit meanings (implicatures) conveyed beyond the literal text and the shared knowledge or assumptions (CG) that advertisers rely on to connect with the target audience.

Datum 1                                        Datum 2                                           Datum 3

Datum 4                                                         Datum 5                                                                                                                                            

Datum 6

Datum 7                                    Datum 8                                           Datum 9

Datum 10

Table 1: Speech Act Analysis of the Selected Handbills

Source: Author’s fieldwork analysis 2024

DISCUSSION OF ANALYSIS

Speech Act

Christian advertisement handbills are purposely for persuading the general public to attend a religious gathering. The analysis of speech acts in these prints involve examining the use of language, tone, and the persuasive strategies. These strategies are often implored to encourage believers to participate in a particular event.

Speech Act Analysis:

Locutionary Act: The locutionary act is the actual words or phrases used in the advertisements. This includes the themes of the programs of the ten selected handbills as seen in the presentation of data; highlighted in Table one.

Illocutionary Act: The illocutionary act is the encoder’s intended meaning or purpose behind the words. For example, the speaker might be trying to persuade audience to attend a specific event by emphasising its importance or benefits. The use of different speech acts in the seventy collected handbills (even though ten of them were critically analysed) served various functions such as expressive, affirmative, declarative, assertive to mention a few.

Common Ground (CG)

In a Christian religious context, advertisement prints are designed to persuade people to attend a specific religious event, such as revivals, evangelistic meetings, or worship services. The content of these handbills varied depending on the specific event and the goals of the organisers. Looking critically at the ten analysed data, the CG shared among Christians indeed plays a significant role in facilitating the decoding process of Christian handbills. These advertisement prints typically contain messages that are rooted in shared beliefs, values and symbols within the Christian community. For instance, in datum 2, “I have a Lion”, among Christian believers, Lion connotes God as the supremacy, Consuming fire, Rock of ages, and strength, to mention a few. Another notable example of CG is “A MAN AFTER MINE OWN HEART” in datum 4. The Mutual Contextual Belief among Every Christian conversant with the bible is that David is a man after God’s heart. This shared understanding creates a framework through which Christians can easily interpret and comprehend the intended meaning behind the handbills.

Christian handbills often include references to biblical passages, religious terminologies, and symbols that hold specific meanings within the Christian faith. Christians who are familiar with these references can quickly recognize and interpret their significance, allowing for a more efficient decoding process. Furthermore, the CG among Christians extends beyond mere familiarity with religious texts and symbols. It encompasses a shared understanding of the central tenets of Christianity. This shared belief system provides a broader context within which Christians can interpret and relate to the messages conveyed in Christian handbills.

Implicatures:

Implicature is a key concept in pragmatics which involves meanings that extend beyond literal expressions (Carston and Hall, 2012). In the Christian religious handbills analysed, implicatures are strategically employed to persuade, instruct, and influence the target audience. The study reveals that indirect speech acts dominate these handbills, requiring the audience to infer deeper meanings. A major factor in understanding implicatures in these handbills is Common Ground (CG); the shared knowledge and beliefs among Christian audiences. Biblical allusions, such as “A Man After Mine Own Heart” (Datum 4) and “Washed by His Word” (Datum 6), rely on scriptural references that the audience is expected to recognize to facilitate interpretation. Similarly, themes like “I Have a Lion” (Datum 2) metaphorically convey divine strength, while “Total Recovery” (Datum 10) implies spiritual and material restoration.

Beyond biblical references, socio-cultural implicatures reflect real-life struggles in Nigeria. Phrases like “I Will Get There!” (Datum 8) resonate with economic hardships, exhibiting hope through faith. These implicatures make the handbills not just religious messages, but also motivational tools. The analysis also highlights how implicatures in Christian handbills enhance persuasion and audience engagement. By leveraging indirectness, scriptural allusions, and cultural relevance, these handbills effectively communicate religious messages while fostering a sense of community and faith-driven motivation.

In the context of Christian communication, implicature can be particularly important, as speakers may use subtle cues to convey deeper meanings.

Decoding Iimplicature: When Christians communicate among themselves, they draw on their shared knowledge and values to decode implicature more effectively as in the following:

Shared biblical references: The encoders of the handbills use biblical references or allusions. Based on the CG which is the Mutual Contextual Beliefs (MCBs) in Christendom, their fellow believers instantly recognize the relevance and implications of these references. This shared understanding facilitates the decoding of implicature. For instance, Datum 4 is a biblical reference.

Shared theological concepts: There are instances for the use of technical terms or theological concepts that are familiar to the Christian audience. These shared vocabularies help listeners understand the encoders’ intended meaning and decode implicature more accurately. Such terminologies include Lion (Datum 2), the will of God (Datum 4), Glory (Datum 9), and recovery (Datum 10).

Shared values and norms: Christians often share common values and norms related to their faith. These shared values and norms in Christian religious handbills significantly influence how messages are understood to facilitate audience’s inferences beyond the literal text. A key example

is the belief in divine protection and strength, as seen in Datum 2: “I Have a Lion” (Watchman Catholic Renewal Movement), where the lion symbolizes God’s supreme power. This reflects the biblical references in Revelation 5:5 (Jesus as the Lion of Judah). Similarly, leadership and divine appointment are emphasized in Datum 3: “The Emergence of Tomorrow’s Leaders” (Nigerian Christian Corpers’ Fellowship), which underscores the Christian duty to prepare for leadership roles. This aligns with the expectation that young believers should rise to positions of influence guided by faith and responsibility. Christian handbills also reinforce perseverance, hope, and restoration, offering encouragement in difficult times. Datum 8: “I Will Get There!” (RCCG Anointing Service) reflects the Christian belief in trusting God’s plan amid struggles, implying that economic hardship is temporary and that faith and persistence will bring success. Likewise, Datum 10: “Total Recovery” (Special Prophetic Night) conveys the promise of divine restoration, reinforcing the belief that God’s grace can heal all aspects of life. These messages rely on shared theological convictions, making the handbills not just promotional materials but also tools of spiritual motivation, inspiring believers to remain steadfast in faith and action.

Common cultural background: Christians share a common cultural background or tradition that informs their communication. For example, a Christian speaker may use idioms or metaphors that are specific to Christian culture, which can be easily understood by their audience based on the shared belief (CG), i.e. “washed by His word” (Datum 6) and “Waves of Glory” (Datum 9).

Table 2: Table showing the illocutionary Acts in the Ten Analysed Handbills

Source: Author’s fieldwork analysis 2024

Fig. 1: A Pie Chart showing the Summary of Speech Act Categorized According to their Illocutionary Acts

Source: Author’s fieldwork analysis 2024

The table indicates that constative acts which are declaratives, affirmatives and assertive have the highest frequency in all the seventy handbills. This shows how important constatives are in Christian religious handbills. The function of constatives in these handbills is to perform informative and assertive acts to convince the audience, thereby creating the intended act the encoders were looking forward to performing for a positive perlocutionary effect of the advertisement. The use of constatives in these handbills has also helped the encoders to reiterate their points better to influence the belief(s) of the decoders. According to Bach and Harnish (1979, p. 42), constatives are the expression of an intention that the hearer forms (or continues to hold). Likewise, in the seventy collected Christian handbills, constatives are used to tell the decoders about the beliefs held by the encoders.

Commissive and behavitive acts were not used at all in any of the seventy handbills. This is because the encoders were neither committing themselves to any future action (commissives) nor trying to cement a relationship with their decoders (behavitives). The purpose behind the encoders’ locutionary act is to inform the decoders about their programmes. Directive acts constitute 2.8% of the total illocutionary acts. Originally, handbills are not meant to command the decoders to attend a programme. Therefore, the encoders of the seventy handbills were not imposing it on the decoders to come for programme. Although, the encoders were directing the decoders to attend their programmes, in a rather persuasive way and not in a commanding manner.

Ten out of the total seventy handbills were performing expressive acts. The encoders explained their feelings and belief(s) about the focus of the meeting in a simpler form for better understanding on the part of the decoders. Lastly, are the representative acts which constitute 22.9% of the total illocutionary acts in the handbills. The encoders lifted some verses from the Bible to represent and support their belief(s). The act of lifting from the Bible is an assumption by the encoders that the decoders know the Bible and its content (Mutual Contextual Beliefs).

DISCUSSIONS OF FINDINGS

In the course of this study, it was discovered that indirect speech act is often the language of the encoders in most handbills. This is found valid in that, out of the ten randomly selected analysed handbills, nine of their themes are indirectly stated (locutionary acts). The language used in these handbills does not directly point out what the encoders mean and their intentions. This, however, is a stylistic way of strengthening the interest of the decoders. Even though the implicature and the intention are left to the decoders to imply and decode, the encoders use some guiding devices to aid the comprehension of what their locutionary acts mean and their intentions.

The encoders often make use of the linguistic and the non-linguistic aspects of communication as guiding devices for the decoders to make the right inference and appropriate response. Headlines, highlights, boldens and subscripts are the linguistic communication employed by the encoders to interpret the indirectness of the themes (captions of the programs). For instance, the headlines in most of the handbills analysed inform the decoders of the expected participants of the programme, e.g. Kwara men (Datum 1) convocation, Nigeria Christian Corpers, Kwara youth fellowship (Datum 3), etc.

Datum 1, “A head that is ahead “is a theme that is indirectly stated. Not all the decoders would be able to figure out the intention of the encoder. The encoder knowing the indirectness of this locutionary act made use of the caption of the program, (the headline), “Kwara men convocation” to inform the decoders that the programme is exclusively for men. However, this type of verbal communication is employed to aid the decoding process of the decoders.

A close look at the analysis showed that constatives constitute 80% of the total speech acts in the analysed data. This indicates that constatives are very important in religious communication. According to Babatunde (2007) citing Adegbija (1982, p.126- 127), constatives provide felicity for the mapping of the sequences of speech acts performed by advertisement into one master Speech act, a process in which the general pragmasocio- linguistic context of the ad and the reader’s world Knowledge plays a crucial role. The importance of constatives in the analysed handbills is to intimate and help the decoders to confirm their belief, thereby preparing the way for the master speech act. This means that constatives and the master speech act work together.

The study also reveals that performatives have the highest frequency of the total speech act analysed. The themes in the analysed handbills which concentrated basically on linguistic communication reveal that 100% of these illocutionary acts are performing one act or the other. Such acts include affirming, stating, declaring and persuading to mention a few. The overall finding on these performatives is that all the performative acts are felicitous. This is because each of the linguistic communication is appropriate within the context it has been used. The findings with regards to the locutionary acts revealed that the encoders’ wordings i.e. the themes in virtually all the handbills were very brief but well-detailed. The brevity of the encoders is because verbosity of contents a times mars the interest of the decoders. For this reason, the encoders carefully selected their codes to suit and meet the needs of the decoders.

In the course of the analysis, instances of assumptions on the part of the encoders based on the existing CG were revealed. Many of the unstated facts in the locutionary acts were left to the decoders to work out on their own. This nonchalant attitude of not overtly stating some information in the locutionary act is because the encoders were aware of the mutual. Intelligibility among the interlocutors since they were all operating in the same religious context.

CONCLUSION

This study has demonstrated the significance of speech act theory, aided by the concept of CG in understanding the communicative efficacy of Christian religious print advertisements in Ilorin, Nigeria. The qualitative and quantitative analysis of the ten selected advertisement prints revealed how encoders (advertisers) employ various speech acts, such as assertive, declaratives and affirmatives to achieve specific communicative goals. Moreover, the role of CG in facilitating effective communication has been highlighted, as advertisers draw on shared knowledge, beliefs, and values to connect with their audience.

In conclusion, the intersection of speech act theory and CG provides a robust framework for understanding the communicative strategies employed in Christian Religious Print advertisements. This research underscores the importance of context and shared knowledge in crafting effective religious messages, offering insights that can be applied to broader fields of religious communication and advertising. Future research could expand on this study by exploring the role of speech acts and CG in other forms of religious communication, such as sermons, social media posts, or interpersonal conversations. Additionally, investigating the impact of cultural and linguistic diversity on speech acts and CG in religious communication could provide further insights into the complex dynamics of human communication.

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