A stylistic analysis of Nigerian states’ slogans: a syntactic approach

Abstract

This paper is a stylistic interrogation of the slogans of the 36 (thirty six) states of Nigeria. A direct investigation of stylistic markers was here in deployed based on a linguistic and contextual analysis if its components. A nominal group was found to dominate the syntactic structure of the slogans while most of the nouns were nature-based and abstract entities such as nation, beauty, pace, pearl, land, light, knowledge, state, centre, harmony etc. The slogans were predominantly short, simple and collocative expressions that were also memorable, readable and canonical. They expressed the typical ethos, aspirations and compliments chosen by each of the states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The conclusion of the findings was that, stylistically, the captions meet the expected standard of sloganization as a means of communicating ideas, beliefs, precepts or brand marks through a nickname emblazoned in a pithy headline.

Keywords: Slogans, nominal group, collocative, memorable, compliments, sloganization, headline