The language of graffiti on public transport vehicles in Kenya: issues and perspectives.

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a linguistic study in graffiti on Public Service Vehicles ( PSVs ) in Kenya using a Lexical Pragmatics fram ework . The main purpose of the study was to investigate and analyze the linguistic elements in graffiti perspective on PSVs in the Kenya . The paper sought to analyze intentionality, communicative effectiveness and the role of context in understanding graff iti on PSVs and to establish whether Lexical Pragmatics theory can be used in the analysis of graffiti on PSVs . The study revealed that Lexical Pragmatics theory adequately accounts for the successful interpretation of graffiti on PSVs in Kenya. The result s revealed further that effective communication in graffiti rely on context for effective interpretation. At the same time, the data also revealed that graffiti can be analyzed in any multilingual set up - English, Kiswahili, and Sheng.