A Speech Act Analysis of Speeches on Insurgency in Nigeria

A Speech Act Analysis of Speeches on Insurgency in Nigeria

Abstract

Nigeria is still battling with the problem of insurgency. Pictures of bloody acts of violence by insurgents are shown. Insurgency attacks cause serious destruction of lives and properties in Nigeria and have continued to cause fear, anxiety, anger, sorrow and pain to the people of Nigeria. On daily basis, one continues to hear some sad news of mass killings of human beings and destruction of valuable properties. Thousands of innocent people have been displaced, kidnapped and taken to some unknown destinations by these insurgents. If people keep quiet to this situation, it means encouraging the insurgents. Furthermore, people engage in speeches to describe insurgency as a way of finding a lasting solution and to stop the insurgents from their acts of violence. Speeches on insurgency are full of inflammatory verbal attacks on perceived opponents. Hence, this paper examines A Speech Act Analysis of Speeches on Insurgency in Nigeria with a view to finding out the speech acts and linguistic features that characterize the speeches made by the government representatives and the insurgent groups. The speech act presents and documents locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts that convey the intention of speakers in insurgency speeches. In an attempt to carry out the analysis, the researcher randomly collected twenty speeches on insurgency from ten newspapers. Instances of utterances/statements made by the government representatives and the insurgent groups form the 8 data for the study. These utterances were analyzed with the aim of revealing their speech act import. The study adopted a qualitative descriptive research method. The speech act theory as modified by Searle (1969) serves as the theoretical framework. The findings reveal that expressive, directive, commissive, assertive and declarative are found in the utterances credited to the speakers but the declarative dominates. Moreover, the following forceful modal verbs in the utterances mark the speech act categories: “will”, “must”, “do”, “shall”, “kill”, “destroy”, “die”, “wipe”, “kidnap”. In conclusion, utterances made during insurgency served as weapons of negotiation, dialogue, intimidation, blackmail, incitement and coercion and thus created an atmosphere of fear and anxiety within the country. Based on this, the paper recommends that language users or communicators on either side of contention must think before they speak, such speech should be devoid of rage, emotion, irrationality, but must reflect calm, reality and humility. Speakers should use transformational language that can impact positively on their readers/listeners and the society at large.

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