RHETORICAL STRATEGIES IN SELECTED VOICE-OVERS OF IFEYINWA MOGEKWU’S IFY’S KITCHEN
Keywords:
Rhetorical strategies, voice-over, culinary, code-switching, colloquial language, Code-switchingAbstract
This study investigates the rhetorical strategies employed in selected voice-overs in Ify’s Kitchen, an online culinary content series by Ifeyinwa Mokegwu on YouTube. The primary objective of the study is to identify the rhetorical strategies in the voice-overs and to ascertain how these techniques enhance the viewer's experience. The data for this study comprise six voice-overs from her YouTube content. The study is theoretically underpinned by the Aristotelian rhetorical triad of ethos, pathos, and logos, SFG-based structural description of distinctive features of language use, and a sociolinguistic explanation for substrate borrowing and code-switching. The findings reveal that Ifeyinwa Mokegwu adeptly employs the three elements—ethos, pathos, and logos—in her communication with the audience through her voice-overs. Additional noteworthy linguistic features of her voice-overs include the use of colloquial language, which fosters a sense of relaxation among the audience through informality, adds authenticity and personality, and strengthens connections among participants. Furthermore, the incorporation of English/Pidgin code-switching and substrate borrowing cultivates camaraderie and engenders a sense of inclusion.
References
Abdullah, I. S. M. M. A. B., Kamaruddin, H., Hashima, N., Yaacob, A., Rashid, S. A., & Desa, H. (2014). Rhetorical structures in academic research writing by non-native writers. International Journal of Higher Education, 3(1), 29–38. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijhe.v3n1p29
Diederich, C. (2015). Sensory adjectives in the discourse of food: A frame-semantic approach to language and perception. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, PA: Benjamins.
Emama, E.O. (2023). The Morphology and Effect of SMS/Social Media Habituation On The Spelling Patterns of Some Secondary Students In Delta State, Nigeria. KIU Interdisciplinary Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 4 (1), 127-138
Gerhardt, C., & Litovskaya, S. (Eds.) (2013). Culinary linguistics: The chef’s special. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, PA: Benjamins
Goodman, E. & Johnston, N. (2015). The presentation of self in everyday Life. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
Hauser, G. A. (2002). Introduction to rhetorical theory. P Waveland Press.
Herrick, J. A. (2018). The history and theory of rhetoric. An introduction. Pearson Education. 6th ed. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315404141
https://bmld.com.ng/bmld-stories/ifeyinwa-mogekwu. Retrieved 2023-5-5
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice-over. Retrieved 2023-5-5 Retrieved 2023-5-5
Kennedy, G. A. (1994). A new history of classical rhetoric.
Litovskaya, M.A. (2006). Style infantilism of A. Gaidar.
Lutzke, J., & Henggeler, M. F., (2009). The Rhetorical Triangle: Understanding and using logos, ethos, and pathos. Indiana University. https://www.lsu. edu/hss/english/files/university_writing_files/ item35402.pdf
Mowarin, M. & Emama, E.O. (2020). Linguistic devices and rhetorical strategies in Nigerian stand-up comedy, Abraka Humanities Review 10 (1), 1-18
Ramage, J. D., Bean, J. C., & Johnson, J. (2016). Writing arguments: A rhetoric with readings. Pearson Longman. Ramage, J. D., Bean, J. C., & Johnson, J. (2018). The Allyn & Bacon guide to writing. Pearson.
Richardson, J. (2006). Analysing newspapers: An approach from critical discourse analysis. Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-230-20968-8_7
Wachsmuth, H., Stede, M., Baff, R. E., Al-Khatib, K., Skeppstedt, M., & Stein, B. (2018, August 20-26). Argumentation synthesis following rhetorical strategies. In Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Computational Linguistics (pp. 3753-3765). New Mexico, USA
Zhou, T., Nor, S. M., Lay, H. A. & Sharon, S. (2022). Examining Rhetorical Strategies in Humorous Discourses: A Systematic Review. World Journal of English Language Vol. 12(5) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356635234. Retrieved 2024-10-15
Zulaikha, K., Noor, H. R., Maizura, M. N. & Zurina, K. (2021). The Use of Rhetorical Strategies in Argumentative Essays. Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 29 (S3): 263 - 285 (2021) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356635234. Retrieved 2024-10-15
YouTube Sources
Mogekwu, I. (2019). Ify’s Kitchen.
Mogekwu, I. (2020). Ify’s Kitchen.
Mogekwu, I. (2021). Ify’s Kitchen.
Mogekwu, I. (2022). Ify’s Kitchen.
Mogekwu, I. (2023). Ify’s Kitchen.
Mogekwu, I. (2024). Ify’s Kitchen.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2025 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, adaptation, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors are permitted to post their work online in institutional/disciplinary repositories or on their own websites. Pre-print versions posted online should include a citation and link to the final published version in Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication as soon as the issue is available; post-print versions (including the final publisher's PDF) should include a citation and link to the journal's website.
