Examining the rhetorical landscape of political campaign slogans in the Philippines: a rhetorical-semantic analysis

Abstract

Understanding the complexities of language utilization in political slogans and campaigns may reveal its importance in molding public conversation and impacting electoral results. The present study examined the meaning of the various election campaign posters in the Philippines, employing rhetorical semantic analysis. The central questions that the study seeks to answer are: How are meanings constructed from these election campaign slogans? and What rhetorical devices were used to build these election campaign slogans? Findings revealed that political slogans in the Philippines embodied a unique linguistic structure. In other words, Philippine slogans possess a distinct linguistic style, as they convey messages of commitment, authenticity, and service from the political candidates. While our findings highlight the use of a more straightforward language in political slogans, it could also be noted that such simplicity of the language is reinforced by the use of the local language. This is very important in the context of political communication because the Philippines is a multilingual country, and using the local language is a good way to appeal to the people’s emotions. This could suggest familiarity and relatedness, which are important traits for people to vote for a particular political candidate.

Keywords

• Campaign slogans
• language manipulation
• linguistic techniques
• political discourse
• semantic analysis
• Mass Communication