A Corpus Based Approach To The Linguistic Features In Nigerian and American Presidential Speeches
Previous studies on political discourse in Nigeria have dwelt on the application of manual approaches to the analysis of political speeches with little or no attention on a corpus based approach. This study aims to demonstrate the viability of a corpus based approach to the analysis of political speeches. Using two sets of different speeches of Nigerian and American Presidents as its database, the study explores the sorts of linguistic features revealed by a corpus based approach, the differences in both speakers' usage of these linguistic features and how effectively they were used for communicative purpose. The results through the Wmatrix software show the following linguistic features: pronominal reference, nominalization, negation/contracted negation, Saxon genitives and repetition. The study concludes that both set of speeches rhetorically employ these features to distinctively enhance their language and give extra weight to their messages. Obama's overuse of pronouns, negation/contracted negation and Saxon genitive shows that he presented himself as more informal, interactive and conversational than Jonathan, while Jonathan's overuse of nominalization (elaborate noun phrase) and repetition presented him as formally inclined. Introduction Political discourse is a subject, which has received a considerable attention from researchers over the years (Van Dijk, 1996; Chilton Schaffner, 2002; Wilson, 2001; Beard, 2000) Various disciplines address the concept from varying viewpoints. The delineation of the concept of political discourse centres on what one views as politics, a word which has "both wide and narrow senses" (Taiwo, 2007: Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016 2 p.20) A straightforward delineation is the one narrowed to the undertakings of "institutions, such as political parties, government and congress" in the attainment of political onuses (Taiwo, 2007: p.23) Beard considered politics "as a struggle to obtain and maintain control among associates of these institutions" (2000: 36) The definition, which we adopt in this study, is that of Wilson, for whom it is: language used in formal and informal political environments with political artists, such as politicians, political institutions, government, political media and followers functioning in political environs with political objectives (2001: p.398) This definition is most appropriate for this study because it relates language to politics and also encapsulates our task which is to analyse the language used in political speeches. Language as used here is "considered the vehicular expression of politics" (Ayeomoni, 2004: p.200) Lyons used the notion to mean the major mode of communication used by a group of human beings residing within a linguistic community (1970) The foregoing definitions point to the fact that language and politics are interconnected. Harris (1979) corroborates this when he asserts that language is the medium by which political ideas are disseminated to the public and that such language has powerful effect. The past few years have seen an explosion in the development of approaches and methodologies for analysing political texts (Baker, 2004; 2006) These approaches include the development of software tools for corpus analysis and comparison which provide the room for researchers to be precise, comprehensive and detailed as possible in their analysis of texts (Norgaard, Montoro and Busse, 2010: p.10) A corpus based approach to the linguistic features Adagbonyin, Aluya Edem 3 Literature review Previous studies on the analysis of political speeches in Nigeria have dwelt on the application of manual approaches with little or no attention on a corpusbased approach. For instance, Yusuf (2002) explored the dysphemism in the language of President Olusegun Obasanjo. Ayoola (2005) conducted a discursive study of President Olusegun Obansanjo's July 26, 2005 inaugural address to the National Assembly. Ayeomoni (2005) analysed the speeches of former presidents, head of states, governors, ambassadors and political advisers from the six geo political zones from a linguistic stylistic perspective. The study showed that the language of the Political elite in Nigeria exhibits some features, which are used in various forms to achieve political intentions. Opebi (2006) engaged in a study of negative campaigning in Nigerian political discourse. His study showed how Nigerian politicians use different sorts of abusive language to degrade their counterparts and woo the attention of the electorates. Omozuwa and Ezejideaku (2007) conducted a stylistic analysis of political campaigns using the 2007 general election as a case in point. The study revealed how Nigerian politicians use language during political campaigns to discredit their opponents and win more votes. Also, Taiwo (2007) satirized politicians and public officers in Nigerian newspapers. Adetunji (2006) analysed the inaugural speeches of Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo and America's President George Bush from a comparative standpoint. Babatunde and Odegbedan (2009) examined the Pragmarhetorical strategies in selected speeches of President Olusegun Obasanjo. Abuya (2012) conducted a Pragmatic stylistic Analysis of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan's Inaugural Speech. The study identified the noticeable speech acts in the inaugural speech of President Goodluck Jonathan and how these speech acts project meanings.None of the studies mentioned above have analysed political speeches using a corpus based approach. A manual approach to the analysis of political speeches requires the use of a hard copy of the selected speeches as its database, while the corpus based approach on the other hand uses the soft of copy of such Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016 4 speeches as its database. Since there has been little or no corpus based approach in the analysis of political speeches in Nigeria and the use of this approach to compare the speeches of Nigerian presidents and those of other countries, the present study fills that gap as it applies a corpus based approach to the analysis of political speeches. The speeches for review in the present study are those of Goodluck Jonathan, the former president of the federal republic of Nigeria and Barack Obama the incumbent president of the United States of America. Contextualization of speeches The political speeches analysed in this study were produced during the general elections in Nigeria and the USA. The American political speeches analysed here were produced in 2007 2008 during the last general elections in the United States. The ruling Democratic Party was in contention with the Republican Party, its main opposition party (Harlow, 2008) Studies show that Barack Obama, the then US senator for Illinois referred in his campaign speeches to the following pointers: war, the dwindling economy, lost homes, unemployment, expensive health care, the nuclear threat, social equality among all, failed government policies, greed among politicians, etc. (Harlow, 2008) These factors arguably consider the social and political concerns of the period. During the time of his campaign, America was at war with Iraq and Afghanistan. The nation's economy was beginning to shrink due to poor government policies and greed among politicians. The rate of unemployment was gradually beginning to increase with 232,000 Americans losing their jobs in 2008 compared with 178,000 during George W Bush's government. Health care was extremely expensive; its services were inaccessible to the average American. Moreover, pensioners were not being paid their allowances (Harlow, 2008) In the case of Nigeria, the ruling party the People's Democratic Party (PDP)was competing with other political parties among which the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the Action Congress (AC) were the major opposition parties. Nigeria is a huge A corpus based approach to the linguistic features Adagbonyin, Aluya Edem 5 country, embracing various cultures. However, research suggests that, the country's human development is ranked low 158th out of 177 countries (Tejumaiye, 2008 and Udende, 2011) After independence, the country was characterised by underdevelopment. This underdevelopment is evident in such social and economic pointers: as the domination of the primary sector agriculture, oil and minerals) and the apparent incapability of its leaders to foster a suitable environment for great value added activities. There is low domestic capital formation and declining direct foreign investment, foreign aid dependence, heavy indebtedness and a high rate of unemployment and in the formation of the economy and most of its people live in penury. For these reasons, the country is deficient in basic physical infrastructure. Consequently, most people have no access to basic services such as portable water, electricity, roads and health care. The state of underdevelopment has been entrenched by political factors such as despotism, political instability and ethnic and religious conflicts (Edigheji, 2005) The above social and political pointers suggest the contexts of speeches to be analysed. Objectives of the study This study was primarily meant to establish the potential contribution which a corpus based approach can make to the analysis of political discourse. The study tries to: (a) to establish the sorts of linguistic devices which the corpus based approach can reveal; (b) to compare and contrast both presidents' usage of linguistic devices in terms of frequency at the levels of keyword, part of speech and semantic domain as well as the communicative purpose which the linguistic devices serve; (c) to ascertain if there are differences or similarities in the issues which both presidents are set to tackle; Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016 6 Research questions To achieve the objectives of this study, the follow