Promotional practices in mission and vision statements of corporate companies: A systemic functional linguistic analysis

Iman Aib; Wasima Shehzad; Sadia Irshad

doi:10.47264/idea.lassij/5.1.41

Authors

Iman Aib Department of English, Air University, Islamabad, Pakistan. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7890-8444
Wasima Shehzad Department of English, Air University, Islamabad, Pakistan. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9777-8593
Sadia Irshad Department of English, Air University, Islamabad, Pakistan. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4874-4581

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47264/idea.lassij/5.1.41

Keywords:

mission statements, systemic functional linguitics, genre, promotional genre, genre analysis, transitivity theory, corporate discourse, vision statements

Abstract

Promotional strategies have become discursive practices in corporate companies’ mission and vision statements. However, less focus was given to the role of grammar in shaping this text type as part of promotional discourse. Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) is arguably the most definite and certain linguistic analysis as a meaning-making resource. Hence, the purpose of this study was to use transitivity grammar theory in SFL to analyse the use of experiential processes in enacting promotional rhetorical moves. Following purposive sampling, mission and vision statements of hundred international companies, which were ranked by current market capitalization, were selected. Using textual analysis, we applied transitivity grammar theory to manually analyse promotional rhetorical moves. The results were quantified and presented in tabulation form. The findings revealed that mental and relational processes are favoured grammatical patterns used by corporate firms to write mission statements that focus on building public image and establish self-concept. The findings of this research can prove helpful for other corporate companies to use similar grammatical patterns to develop mission and vision statements.

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