Examining Textual Patterns in Cameroonian Book Blurbs

Abstract

This paper examines Cameroonian book blurbs, with a focus on identifying and analysing the various textual patterns used by Cameroonian book writers in rendering their blurbs. Data for the study are collected from 80 book blurbs written in English and published in Cameroon. The books are randomly selected from four main fields: language, social sciences, hard sciences and fiction. The data are analysed based on the multidimensional perspective of the genre theory, with an inclination on grammatical and textual features of genres. The analyses focus not only on identifying and describing the various textual patterns used in the blurbs, but also on determining their communicative functions in the texts. The findings reveal that Cameroonian blurbers employ description, narration, exposition, characterization and instruction in the various moves of their blurbs in order to realize the different communicative intentions of the moves, which combine to realize not only the conventional academic and promotional communicative purposes of the genre, but also the ‘non-conventional’ private intentions of the blurbers.