Analysis of Experiential Meaning in Selected Inaugural Political Speeches in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper analyses two inaugural speeches of two Nigerian past leaders; Alhaji Shehu Shagari (1979) and General Olusegun Obasanjo (1999), using the systemic functional grammar model propounded by Halliday. The paper looked at the lexicogrammatical choices and how these systemic choices realize the experiential meaning; meaning as content or as a representation of reality. Since language is a resource for making meaning by choosing from a wide range of potential options available in the linguistic system, the actual choices speakers and writers make are said to be constrained by how they are positioned in terms of power, their ideologies and other purposes which they wish to accomplish in the various contexts of situation. The paper offers explanations for the actual linguistic choices made as against the potential choices which could have been made, and how these choices portrayed the power relations and ideological positions of these past leaders. The findings aim at creating awareness to readers to strive to decode hidden meanings from naturalized and commonsense discourses. This stance locates the present work within the theoretical framework of Critical Discourse Analysis.

Keywords: experiential meaning, systemic functional grammar, critical discourse analysis, power relations.