One message, many tongues: An exploration of media multilingualism in Nigerian political discourse (original) (raw)

Political Discourse, Code-Switching, and Ideology

Russian Journal of Linguistics

Language and Ideology is an area of critical discourse analysis that has increasingly gained importance in the linguistic sciences. The vast influence of the media has provided a need for the explicit analysis of common linguistic mechanisms, particularly those in political discourse. Codeswitching, general pattern in a speech community of switching between two or more available languages or dialects with respect to certain extralinguistic factors (Blom & Gumperz 1972) is strategically employed by politicians to gain support for elections (Jarraya 2013; Craig 2013). Senator Tim Kaine was one of the first White politicians to engage in code-switching during the 2016 presidential election, however his use of Spanish when engaging in political discourse was met with great resistance and skepticism by the media and voters, many of whom felt that he was pandering to Spanish-speaking citizens. Using a language ideologies framework, the present paper seeks to determine how code-switching w...

Linguopragmatic aspect of modern communication: main political media speech strategies and tactics in the USA and the UK

XLinguae, 2018

The article is devoted to the definition of the concepts "speech strategy" and "speech tactics", consideration of political media discourse as an environment for the realization of speech strategies and tactics, linguopragmatic analysis of American and British political media texts. Main political media speech strategies and tactics used by politicians in the USA and the UK are identified and described. A political media speech strategy is defined as the whole complex of speech acts carried out to realize the goals of the political dialogue in mass media. A political media speech tactic is the specific stage of political media speech strategy. It is established that political media discourse represents the environment for the realization of speech strategies and tactics. The main blocks of media political speech strategies are positioning, cooperation, and conflict strategies. The self-representation strategy is a general strategy, which implements all these block strategies.

Political Discourse Analysis: A Case Study of Code Mixing and Code Switching in Political Speeches

Proceedings of the Fifth Workshop on Computational Approaches to Linguistic Code-Switching

Political discourse is one of the most interesting data to study power relations in the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis. With the increase in the modes of textual and spoken forms of communication, politicians use language and linguistic mechanisms that contribute significantly in building their relationship with people, especially in a multilingual country like India with many political parties with different ideologies. This paper analyses code-mixing and code-switching in Telugu political speeches to determine the factors responsible for their usage levels in various social settings and communicative contexts. We also compile a detailed set of rules capturing dialectal variations between Standard and Telangana dialects of Telugu.

Language, Power and Manipulation: The Use of Rhetoric in Maintaining Political Influence

It is important to study language as a tool used by politicians to persuade the public with their assertion of power. In fact language is ideological as speakers can speak in a way that supports their interests. What are the mechanisms of power inherent in language? Language is a powerful instrument employed by political leaders. They use linguistic strategies including linguistic manipulation as an influential instrument of political rhetoric to persuade audiences for a specific political action. To argue in favour of their political ideologies and goals, political leaders deploy a broad range of manipulative and rhetorical devices at the phonological, syntactic, lexical, semantic, pragmatic and textual levels in their political discourse. In this paper examples will be taken from a number of world leaders, past and present, dead or alive, who have used such strategies to persuade their audience of the correctness of their stance in order to provide the reader with information about the most widely used political rhetoric devices.

"I want to be a prime minister", or what linguistic choice can do for campaigning politicians

Language and Literature, 2002

The aim of this article is to analyse the strategies that politicians can use in order to defeat their political adversaries. To this end, I have put some ideas developed by discourse analysts to the test, taping some of the speeches, interviews and debates of the 2000 electoral campaign in Andalusia (Spain), scrutinizing the four main candidates' most significant discursive devices and paying special attention to the way they interact with each other, their interviewers and the audience in their political meetings. In this way, I have tried to see whether their different political persuasions may produce a characteristically different distinctive linguistic style, whether gender might influence their choice of discourse structures, and the extent to which the winning candidate's linguistic idiosyncrasies might have contributed to his success.

Language and Politicking: A Pragmatic Analysis of Political Texts inPolitical Posters and Jingles in Oyo State, Nigeria

2014

This paper attempts a pragmatic analysis of political texts in political posters and jingle(s) of gubernatorial candidates for 2015 General Elections in Oyo state, Nigeria, within the purview of Mey"s (2001) Pragmatic Acts Theory. Data was collected from political posters and jingles of Governor Abiola Ajimobi(the incumbent governor of the state), the erstwhile governors of the state, Rasheed Ladoja and Alao Akala, and Professor Adejumo, a yet to be declared PDP"s gubernatorial candidate for the said election. The study reveals that the language of politicians in the state is characterised by practs such as accusation, challenge, abuse, warning, persuasion, commendation and condemnation which draw on contextual features such as Shared Situational Knowledge (SSK), Shared Cultural Knowledge (SCK), Metaphor (MPH) and Relevance (REF). The paper concludes that politicians in the state, an indication of what happens on a large scale in the country, employ language to attack one another"s personalities, rather than address issues that could help move the state forward.

Persuasion And Connection of Words: Discursive Strategies and Interpersonal Resources in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's Inaugural Speech of May 29, 2023

ATRAS, 2023

Political speeches serve as a platform for communicating policy agendas, motivating collective action, and nurturing a sense of unity among the citizens. Specifically, this paper focuses on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's inaugural speech, examining the discursive strategies and interpersonal resources, to provide insights into the intricate interplay of language and power dynamics, contributing to our understanding of political communication and its implications for leadership and public engagement. Drawing on van Dijk's ideology stance and Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics, the study explores the ideological and social functions of his speech. The findings reveal topicalization and actor/situation descriptions within his speech, highlighting key themes, ideas, and the polarization of "us" versus "them", which reinforces his ideological stance. Furthermore, the speech showcases lexicalization techniques, including synonyms, collocations, repetition, parallelism, and metaphors to enhance clarity, impact, and rhetorical effectiveness, while also conveying nuanced meanings within his speech. Modal verbs in the speech demonstrate the utilization of epistemic, deontic, and dynamic modality, with deontic and dynamic modality emphasizing President Tinubu's strong commitments, obligations, and proactive engagement, while epistemic modality suggests a lesser emphasis on expressing uncertainties. Moreover, the deployment of personal pronouns reflects his perspective and attitude toward the audience. The inclusive/exclusive use of "we" fosters a sense of unity, shared responsibility, and emphasizes his connection with the people. The analysis offers valuable insights into the intricate interplay of language and rhetorical strategies, contributing to a deeper understanding of political communication and its impact on leadership and public engagement.