The stylistic study of the language of Ogun State House of Assembly

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to identify and discuss certain linguistic features of the language used in Ogun State House of Assembly. The approach adopted for the study is that of general stylistics or linguistic stylistics, which studies variation in language. The methodology adopted is that of fieldwork. A total number of twenty –seven official reports of legislative sittings of the Ogun State House Assembly, Eighth Assembly from March to September, 2016 were collected, categorised, analysed and discussed. It was found that there was a particular way of address by the members of the house and a special usage of the use of personal pronouns and different sentence types is observed. In conclusion, the language of legislative debates constitutes a distinct sub-variety of the language of politics. It is suggested that more work should be done in studying the language of debates in the houses of assembly in Nigeria so as to make a comprehensive statement about the language of politics in the country.

Keywords: Linguistic stylistics, register, metaphor, personal pronouns, allusion