Exploring Non-linguistic patterns of Jordanian Written Wedding Invitations: A Multimodal Perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to provide a comprehensive analysis of salient non-linguistic features that characterize the genre of Jordanian wedding invitation cards. It also explores how socio-cultural and religious beliefs and practices are reflected in the generic formulaic structure of this genre. In order to explore non-linguistic features, a genre analysis was carried out upon a corpus of 200 wedding invitation cards. The analysis was influenced by the work of Kress and van Leeuwen’s (1996) as it profitably illuminates the relationship between social practice and written discourse and refuses linguistic choices as the only meaning-making devices and identifies space, colour, picture, position, and size, among many others, as important semiotic devices. The findings of the study revealed that the writers of Jordanian wedding invitations use a number of non-linguistic resources the way they like to generate some special effects and express private and organizational intentions within the framework of culturally recognised purposes. It is hoped that the results of this study will be of great help in further understanding the socio-cultural perceptions, attitudes and values that shape these two communicative events as well as aiding in efforts towards intercultural communication.