Analysis of Linguistic, Rhetorical and Visual Devices in Covid-19 Pandemic on Facebook Post

Abstract

This study analyses linguistic, rhetorical, and visual devices employed in selected Facebook posts related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The study addresses a significant gap in understanding how these posts utilise lexico-semantic, syntactic, rhetorical, and visual strategies to convey information and engage audiences during a global health crisis. The aim is to investigate the stylistic features of COVID-19 Facebook posts, focusing on lexical choices, syntactic structures, rhetorical appeals, and visual elements. The study employs qualitative content analysis as its primary method, drawing on linguistic theories by Leech and Short alongside Van Leeuwen's grammar of visual design to frame the analysis. Findings from the analysis reveal a range of stylistic devices within COVID-19 Facebook posts. Lexico-semantic devices are examined; the use of specific nouns, verbs, adjectives, and abbreviations, as well as cohesion, collocation, connotation, deixis, direct address, and semantic field. Syntactic stylistic devices encompass various sentence types (declarative, interrogative, imperative), clause types (main, subordinate), and phrase types (noun, gerund, verb, preposition, adjective, adverb), along with syntactic devices such as anaphora, coordination, ellipsis, and modulation. Rhetorical devices identified include direct statements, religious appeals, and question-answer formats. Visual stylistic devices encompass iconic (logo, symbols, characters), symbolic (images, colour), and indexical visuals (images). This study contributes to a deeper understanding of how stylistic features are utilised in social media discourse during times of crisis, shedding light on the complex interplay between linguistic, rhetorical, and visual elements in COVID-19-related communications on Facebook.