Transitivity And Meaning-Making In Travel Vlogs About Pakistan: A Linguistic Analysis

Abstract

With the development of the Internet and social media not only communication has become vibrant but new ways of communication have also emerged such as vlogging. Vlogging generally and travel vlogging particularly has emerged as an effective medium of communication about tourist destinations based on the experiences of the travellers. Therefore, this study has analysed transitivity processes used in travel vlogs about Pakistan posted on YouTube employing Hilary Janks’s rubric (2005) for linguistic analysis. The analysis of transitivity reveals a predominant use of action and material processes which make the travel vlogs engaging for the audience. The frequent use of mental, relational and verbal processes in the narrative of these vlogs reflects the cognitive states of the vloggers, the relationship between the entities and individuals, and their attributes and the acts of communication. These processes provide insight into the vloggers' thoughts, highlight positive attributes of the individuals and other elements in the context and make the message reliable through communication acts and interactions. However, there is limited use of physiological and existential processes in the travel vlogs about Pakistan. Overall, through the effective use of different transitivity processes, the vloggers have presented a positive and appealing image of Pakistan as a tourist destination.