Meaning Ambivalence through the Expression of Relative Distance in Road-side Sign-posts

Abstract

Written discourse, like dialogical discourse types, consists of sequences of ordered speech acts that convey communicative action and promote the negotiation of meaning in situated contexts. This paper aims at offering a general account of the structure and functions of speech act sequences as conceptualised by individuals based on the circumstance of reading the message contained in signposts through the expression of relative distance. The written discourse in question is both graphics and visuals as the two combine to effect variations in meaning to different decoders through the instrumentality of mediation, which, by our intent, is termed ‘meaning ambivalence’. Ambivalence here is in view of the fact that what is someone’s preference may be another person’s dislike, and what is in-depth at a point may be a scratch on the surface at another, depending on the perspective of viewing and the viewer’s propensity and disposition. Within the speech act theoretical framework, presupposition was adopted as it offers several planes of pragmatic assumptions. These assumptions include the factive, the structural, the lexical and the existential. With relative distance attached to the perusal of messages contained on signposts, an opinion initially held may suffer diffusion, just as imagination may turn to reality. It was discovered after analysis, that colour separation and mixture serve as determinants of meaning construction to the audience at different moments of the day (given the realities of road usage) as purportedly orchestrated by the encoder. It was thereby concluded analogically that getting the fact of a matter requires some level of proximity and that uncovering the truth of a matter may involve extra ordinary devices and time.