Asian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences (AJHSS) Volume 1—Issue 3, November 2013 ISSN: 2320-9720 www.ajhss.org 60 Stylistic Analysis of Selected Political Campaign Posters and Slogans in Yola Metropolis of Adamawa State of Nigeria Emmanuel C. Sharndama 1 , Ibrahim Mohammed 2 Faculty of Humanities Social Science and Management, Departmentof English and Literary Studies, Federal University, Wukari, Nigeria 1 Adamawa Broadcasting Corporation, Yola (ABC) Adamawa State of Nigeria 2 ABSTRACT Posters are very important forms of visual communication that commercial and political advertiser use to persuade target audience. During election campaign periods all over the world, posters are used to familiarize candidates to the electorates and entice them to vote for candidates. This study, analyzed selected campaign posters in Yola Metropolis of Adamawa State of Nigeria. Crystal and Davy’s (1985) Linguistic stylistic model of analysis was used as method of analysis. The result showed at graphological level that campaign posters are of different shapes and sizes and are beautifully designed to attract the attention of the electorate or passers-by. The vocabulary is descriptive and emotive, thereby enticing to change and accept a political candidate.The syntactic features are concise, precise and usually in declarative or imperative moods. The linguistic features generally are descriptive, emotive and persuasive. Key Words: Posters, style,stylistics, lexis, syntax and semantics. INTRODUCTION Communication as a means transmission of ideas, thoughts or feelings is in two major categories-the verbal and non verbal communication. The most common one used for interaction in human societies is the non verbal. Poster is one of the leading non-verbal means of communication in the society today especially the commercial and political posters. While commercial posters are commonly designed to appeal to customers to patronize a particular product, the political campaign posters are designed primarily to familiarize a candidate to the electorate. Technically put, posters are very important forms of visual communication. It presents picture(s) with meaning lying behind it. In Nigeria, competing posters of various sizes and shapes on walls or billboards at strategic locations in cities, towns and villages announce that election campaign is going on. It is a tradition in politics during election campaigns for politicians to combine images with words in order to persuade the electorates to accept their political ideologies, thereby winning their votes. In addition to the beautifully designed photographs of the candidates, there are inscriptions such as the candidate’s name and the position campaigning for. Above all, campaign slogans are inscribed to sell the candidate’s political mission or ideology. Political campaign posters are made aggressive since they are always pasted on the wall or billboards in completion with others.