A Linguistic Analysis of Representing Actions/ Events/States in Nigeria Political Speeches
Abstract: The thrust of this study is the identification and the analysis of representing Actions/Events/States (verbal group) in budget speeches by the state governors in Nigeria. It describes the thematic preoccupation of the speeches and also elucidates the implications of the political ideologies that are deep-seated in the speeches. The study also relates the themes and the stylistic instruments deployed in the selected speeches to the socioeconomic situations in Nigeria so as to characterise budget speech discourse in the country. This study used both primary and secondary sources of data. The primary data were obtained from selected state governors’ budget speeches in Nigeria. Budget speeches delivered in 2015 were selected because it was the year that marks the beginning of a new era in the country. The data for this research consisted of six budget speeches delivered by state governors in Nigeria. A budget speech was selected from each of the six geopolitical zones in the country. The secondary data were obtained from books, journal articles and the internet. The data were analysed using Jeffries’ critical stylistic approach. The results showed that the producers of budget speech used wide range of linguistic features such as representing actions, events and states to communicate their stance. The analysis of the linguistic features and the description of the themes and content of the speeches revealed the manifestation of representing actions/events and states. The themes and the stylistic tools were also related to the socioeconomic situation of the country. The study concluded that governors utilised various semantic devices to represent political ideologies using representing actions/events and states in the financial statements of their states. Also, critical stylistics helped to give useful insight into the political dynamics of budget speech presentation.
Keywords: Budget Speech: Verbal Group: Political Ideology: Financial Statements
