Critical Discourse Analysis of Interpersonal Meaning and Power Relations in Selected Inaugural Political Speeches in Nigeria

Abstract

The paper discusses interpersonal meaning in two inaugural political speeches of Nigerian past leaders – President Olusegun Obasanjo’s “The New Dawn” (1999) and Alhaji Shehu Shagari (1979). The focus is on aspects of the Mood structure of the clause that emphasize meaning as exchange of information, goods and services between interactants, namely, the Subject; and the speech functions of the clause as propositions or proposals and vocatives. A total of 178 and 161 clauses were selected from the two speeches respectively and analyzed using Halliday’s systemic functional grammar (SFG) model and insights from critical discourse analysis (CDA). Our findings showed a deliberate oscillation between the use of singular Subject (I) and Plural Subject (We); rhetoric that in turns seems to take credit for positive achievement and divest responsibility for negative representations. The vocatives were also strategically positioned to assert solidarity, to ostensibly gain rapport and help to legitimize the power and hegemonic regime of the speakers. There was also high prevalence of propositions as against proposals giving the impression of more words and less action. The paper concludes that Nigerian politicians should be more committed to the proposals that offer goods and services to their subjects rather than making propositions that serve purely informative functions.

Keywords: interpersonal meaning, critical discourse analysis, political discourse, power relations, systemic functional linguistics, inaugural political speeches

UJAH: Unizik Journal of Arts and Humanities vol 14 (2) 2013