A STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF A SELECTED
CAMPAIGN SPEECH OF PRESIDENT
GOODLUCK JONATHAN
BALOGUN OLUWAFUNMILAYO DORCAS
07/15CD069
AN ESSAY SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF THE
DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS (HONS) IN
ENGLISH
TO
THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, FACULTY OF
ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN, ILORIN.
MAY 2011.
CERTIFICATION
THIS ESSAY HAS BEEN READ AND APPROVED AS MEETING
PART OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF A
BACHELOR OF ARTS DEGREE (HONS) IN THE DEPARTMENT OF
ENGLISH OF THE FACULTY OF ARTS, UN IVERSITY OF ILORIN,
ILORIN.
SUPERVISOR
DATE
HEAD OF DEPARTMENT
DATE
EXTERNAL EXAMINAL
DATE
i
DEDICATION
This work is dedicated to the Almighty God, the incredible father,
who has been a faithful father to me has and has been my help from ages
past, my hopes for years to come. He is the one that has made my learning
in this great citadel of learning a success.
ii
ACKNOWLEGEMENT
With the joy of the Lord in my heart, I express my gratitude and
appreciation to the ever faithful God, who in his unfailing love and infinite
mercy saw me through his present time and made this dream a reality.
My profound gratitude also goes to my able supervisor, Dr. M. S.
ldiagbon who guided and put me through during the course of my writing.
His co-operations and effort towards the success of this long essay
unquantifiable.
To my dearest father, late pastor J. K Balogun for his fatherly care
and advice, who fought the battle and won the race. Through he’s dead but
his memory still lives. And also to my lovely mother who through the
thick and thin did not give up on me. For her parental love and advice
given and showing me in the course of my study from the elementary level
to this time. I love you mum. I pray you shall live long to eat the fruit of
iii
our labour in Jesus name. Amen. My siblings in persons of Seun, Solomon
and Bamidele you are wonderful, your concern has gone a long way in
contributing to the success of this work.
I cannot but express my immense to gratitude to my indefatigable
uncle and his wife – Mr. and Mrs. Femi Olatide for their parental support
in many areas and their Godly advise in my course of my learning. Also to
my wonderful little brother and cousin Olatide praise whose sincere
concern and prayers have help me so much in many areas. Thank you so
much. I pray the lord will grant you your heart desires and crown your
years with success.
My friends also are not left out. Akinboyewa Am, Abajo Eunice,
Agemo Oluwatosin, my colleagues Tunmise, Toni, Solomon, Halimat, My
wonderful room mates Belinda, Florence and Arinola.
v
I will be an ingrate if I fail to appreciate my wonderful family in
Christ , the Foursquare Students Fellowship, Dr and Mrs Bariki and Dr
Adeyem ifor your assistance and support through these years. I love you
all.
I will not but appreciate my sparking president, the president of
Foursquare Students Fellowship the person of Bariki John, the out gone
and newly elected executive members for their love and care. Also, my
gratitude to my school sister and friend Omogbemi Funmi for her moral
support. Thank you all.
vi
ABSTRACT
Language and style are the basic modes of communication and
information. They centre on words and utterances and focus beyond these
two aspects, that is, words and utterances. Stylistics is based mainly on the
interpretation of texts from a linguistic perspective. A stylistic analysis of
the selected election campaign speech of President Goodluck Jonathan is
carried out in this research. The data used in this work to illustrate the
stylistic effects on speech is the Campaign speech of President Goodluck
Jonathan. The five stylistic devices identified in this research are the main
elements used to prove our claim. Finally, we found that each of these
elements functions well enough to contribute to the effective use of words
in speech delivery. It can therefore be concluded that these elements
trigger and play important roles in passing the intention of the writer or
speaker across to the reader or hearer.
vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Titles
Page
Title
Certification
i
Dedication
ii
Acknowledgment
iii
Abstract
vii
Table of Contents
viii
1.0 CHAPTER ONE
1.1 Background to the study
1
1.2
Purpose of the study
3
1.3
Scope of the study
4
viii
1.4
Justification of the study
5
2.0 CHAPTER TWO
2.1
Introduction
7
2.2
Stylistic
8
2.3
Style
12
2.4
Approaches to stylists analysis
16
2.5
Levels of stylistics analysis
18
2.6
Cohesion
21
2.7
Speech
24
3.0
CHAPTER THREE
3.1
Introduction
28
3.2
Analysis
28
4.0 CHAPTER FOUR
4.1
Summary
52
4.2
Findings and Conclusion
53
Bibliography
57
ix
CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Language is a fascinating study. This is because of the roles of
performs. It captures all the aspects of human thought and endeavours.
Language is concepts which many attempt have been made to define. To
some people’s point of view, language is a means of communication. To
some, it’s a way of expressing our views, ideas, wishes and emotions. But
to be more specific about this definition, language is what is spoken or
written; it consists of the use of word in a meaningful and agreed order.
This definition makes language a rule governed activity.
The first two definitions of language by Chomsky and Cruse suggest
that each speech community possess a repertive interest, world vocabulary
covering the social concern, political interest, occupational interest, world
view and physical environment of the people to fulfill their
communicative needs and meet their interactive demands it is this
inventory that constitutes the codes with which a community
communicates.
Speech on the other hand is a connected discourse. It is a faculty of
expressing thoughts, feelings or perceptions by articulation of word. It is
spoken formerly to an audience. There are various a type of speeches out
of which is the presidential speech.
This speech is the one delivered by a president to the general public or to
the members of his cabinet. It can be acceptance speech, presentation
speech, campaign speech and many others. Out of these speeches, our
focus for this research is on campaign speech.
What is campaign speech? What are the features? What factors are to be
considered in delivering the speech? What method of presentation is it
going to take? All these are the questions that must be answered in
explaining what a campaign speech is. This will be examined in the cause
of the cause of this study.
1.2 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The principal aim of this study is to examine the stylistic effects on the
selected presidential campaign speech of President Goodluck Jonathan in
Nigeria through the description and analysis of this speech.
In the same vein, this research will examine the difference in the use of
language of the selected speech with the use of stylistic tools in analyzing
the selected speeches. It will identify the have devices linguistic and
literally and discuss how they have contributed to the beauty of the
language use in the selected speeches.
1.2 SCOPE AND DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The research titled ‘stylistic analysis of a selected campaign speech of
President Goodluck Jonathan’ is aimed at studying the use of language in
the selected campaign speech of president good luck Jonathan. The areas
to be covered in the stylistic analysis of this speech are phonology,
morphology, cohesion, graphology and lexico- syntactic structures. The
nature of this research is empirical which has to do with general and
extensive study of a particular field or area. For example H.G widow son’s
‘stylistic and the teaching of literature’ are both previous works in this
field. They both deal with the analysis and pedagogical treatment of
literary texts from a view point of stylistics.
On the contrary, this research is unique –that is, different from other
previous works because it focuses mainly on the stylistics analysis of
presidential campaign speech of president good luck Jonathan and not just
on stylistics analysis and this will makes readers of this work not to only
look at the text of any speech what so ever, but also the context in which
lies the style of language.
1.4.
JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY
Several works have been done on the stylistics analysis of some
selected presidential campaign speeches in Nigeria in which the one
selected for this research can be inclusive. But this research is necessary
because not all these works were able to pin-point the main idea behind
campaign speeches especially that of the president and because just few of
these works are centered on campaign speeches all others are just on
stylistics or stylistic analysis.
It is not this study of stylistic or stylistics analysis that borders the
readers but the details, the break down (anatomy and physiology) of the
given speeches. To this effect, some gaps have been left unfilled by these
previous works. Gaps like detail stylistic analysis on campaign speeches
the analysis of the mode by which it is delivered and many others will
prove the authenticity of this research.
CHAPTER TWO
2.0.
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1.
INTRODUCTION
The analysis of language style goes back to classical rhetoric, but
modern stylistic has its roots in Russian Formalism and the interrelated
Prague School, in the early twentieth century. In 1909 Charles Bally’s
Traite de francaise had proposed stylistics as a distinct academic discipline
to complement Sanssuran linguistics. In the late twentieth century, Roman
Jacobson brought together Russian formalism and American new criticism
in his chosen statement at a conference on stylistic. Stylistics therefore has
passed through many generations and has been examined and discussed by
different writers and scholars.
2.2.
STYLISTICS
Stylistics is the study and interpretation of texts from a linguistic
perspective. As a discipline, it links literary criticism and linguistics but
has no autonomous domain of its own. The preferred object of stylistics
study is literature but not exclusively “high literature” but also other forms
of written texts such as text from the domains of advertising, pop culture,
politics or religion.
Thus, there are divergent scholarly views on what stylistics is all
about as opinions differ from scholar to scholar. Several ideals varying
submissions on stylistics have been proved by critical studies to be of a
similar massage but different voices. We shall therefore consider
complementary views about stylistic.
Crystal (1980) defines stylistics as “A branch of linguistics which
studies the features of situational distinctive uses (varieties) of
LANGUAGE and tries made by individual and social groups in their use
of language.
Allan (1988) as quoted in Babajide (200) is of the same view with
Crystal but added that a stylistics study is conducted “with particular
reference to literary language”.
In the submission, Lawal (1997) presents stylistics as one of the
relatively branches of (applied) linguistics with a special bias for both a
descriptive and analyzed further that the practice of this stylistic approach
(descriptive and analytical) on the linguistic features of texts is done in
relation to their meaning. He also opines that “language variation and the
distinctiveness of features within and across texts and the texts as
occasional by situational factors are the major purview of stylistics as an
emergent field in the study of language.
Stylistics defined by leech and Shard (1981) is “the linguistic study
of style, is rarely undertaken for its own sake, simple as an exercise in
describing what is mode of language”. Another definition of stylistics is
by H.G Wideclowson (1991) who defines stylistics as “the study of
literary discourse from a linguistics orientation.”
Nills Enkuist considers the multifaceted nature of stylistics and its
relationship with the discipline of linguistics and literary study:
We may…regard stylistics as a sub-department if
Linguistics and give it a special subsection dealing
With the peculiarities of literary texts. We
May choose o make stylistics a sub-department of
Literary study which may draw on linguistic methods
Or we may regard stylistics as an autonomous
Discipline which draws freely and electrically,
On methods from linguistic and from literary
Study:
Hartnan and stork describe stylistic as the application of knowledge to the
study of style. M.H Abrams, after review different definitions of stylistics
concludes that:
Stylistics is expanded so as to incorporate most
Of the concerns of both traditional literary
Critism and traditional rhetoric… it insists
On the need to be objective by focusing sharply
On the text itself by setting out to discover the
‘rules’ governing the process by which linguistic element
And patterns in a text accomplish their meaning
And literary effects.
All the above notions consider stylistics as a discipline crisscrossing
literary critism and linguistics. But linguistic has not always been
considered as an invariable part of stylistics. For example Leech and Short
define stylistic in very broad term as “the linguistic study of style”. This
notion gives us two options: stylistics would relate to the discussion of
style by general literary critics and another dilettante who would discuss
the artistic without applying linguistic tools.
2.3.
STYLE
As earlier indicated in this work, authors have simply defined
stylistics as the study of style in language. Among such authors are Leech
and Short (1992), mattews (1997) Wales (1990) e.t.c. this suggests the
important role style plays in stylistics. Style is to stylistics what language
is to linguistics. Since any discourse on stylistics in exclusion of style does
not make it worthwhile, this research will present a more authoritative
description of style than earlier stated.
Style has often been described as the shell of thought, the choice
between altercative expressions, a set of individual characteristics and also
the relationship between linguistic. Entities beyond the sentence level.
Crystal and Davy (1969) attempt an encompassing listing when they relate
style to the distinctive language habits of an individual, a group or a period
and also in a restricted sense others, Epstein (1978) has also analyzed style
in term of some perceived peculiarity ‘something extra’ or something
beyond ordinary. Clearly style is one phenomenon that everyone seems to
have an inking of but which defiles a single or wholistic appraisal. Its
definition is therefore marked if not occasionally marred, by the
perspective and necessary limited objective of the defining agent.
Enkist sees style as the aggregate of the contextual probabilities of
its linguistic items; that is the aggregate of frequent of linguistic items.
Style may also be seen as an individual and creative utilization of the
resources of language (Spencer 1964).
Style is applicable to both associated with written literature. Style
is also distinctive in essence; the set and sum of linguistic features that
characterized a genre or period e.t.c. crystal and Davy (1969) simply
define it as saying the right thing in the most effective way.
Going by Haynes (1992) style is defined as “a structural choice
between alternatives (form particular linguistic system). Style according to
him operates in consonance with the context because it is a situation
sensitive concept. Haynes identified three broad contexts in style in which
it operates. They are the field of discourse mode of discourse, and tenor of
discourse, holiday in his work Linguistic Function and Literary style
(1971) made mention of these three contexts Crystal (1985) also point out
that Halliday’s ‘tenor’ stands as a roughly equivalents term for ‘style’
which is more specific alternative used by linguists to avoid syboquity.
Halliday’s third category ‘made’ is what he refers to as the symbolic
organization of the situation. Downes recognizes two distinct aspects
within the category of mode and suggests that not only does it describe the
relation to the medium: written, spoken and so on, but also described the
genre of the text. (Downes, 1998).
From the view of the ongoing discussion on stylistics and style, it could be
seen that stylistics is a branch of linguistics, that stylistics studies and
accounts for situationally occasioned difference in language use; that
stylistics thought has preference for literary language also analyses
linguistically that stylistics in any relation is analyze the presidential
campaign speeches of president Goodluck Jonathan thus arises. So much
as they are speeches that may have been subjected to a stylistic analysis
prior to this period.
2.4.
APPROACHES TO STYLISTIC ANALYSIS
In analysis stylistics effects of text, there are different perspective
form which it counted for Lawal (1997) identified these factors as
approaches but Babajide (2000) called them concepts and the authors
however gave similar points of the fourth and the fifth approaches
respectively.
The first approaches are style as personality or individually darned
largely from ‘idiolect’ socio-linguistic concept, prove that every individual
or person is unique one way or the other.
A distinction could be made between two writers.
Style as a choice from variants is the second approach which is
backed with the fact that every phenomenon has many possible
alternatives that form the variants. An individual can choose from the
available possibilities considering paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations
among linguistic elements.
Style as deviation from norms is an approach in which language is
a beheviour governed by roles and norms the dimensions of this language
norm are accuracy and appropriateness. When something is done in a way
different from the normal. It is said to be a deviation from norms. This is
achievered by reconstructions from the structural resources of language to
extend the frontiers of usages. This approach is common both lexical and
syntactical levels. It is for effective communication.
Style as a situation or relationship between massages vacuum the
message and the medium are always of importance. A situation or medium
can be formal or informal, casual or cordial, spoken or written Different
context of operation commands different language use.
The last approach is style as a temporal phenomenon. In Babjide’s
view, style change as nothing in life is static abreast of time. This accounts
for our identifying style as being in or out of vogue. There are features of
certain periods, thus, language style changes according to time and style is
recognized by the predominant features of the period. For instance in
language, there are classical and Neo-classical time differentiated by
features. Old English, Middle English and Modern English periods.
Elizabethan, Victorian, and Renaissance age with peculiar features
(literary and linguistics) stylistic analysis could be conducted using any of
these approaches in the levels around element of analysis.
2.5.
LEVELS OF STYLISTIC ANALYSIS
The levels of stylistic analysis are identified as the stylistic tools in
this research; five of them shall be explained.
Ofuya (1997) says phonology “describes the ways in which speech
sounds are organized in English into a system; that is the English language
spoken and understood only by people who know the language”. Peter
Roach (2000) described phonology as the way “phonemes function in
language and the relationship among the different phonemes”. In
phonology are vowels and consonants. These are the broad areas in
phonology. They are comprises of alliteration, consonance, assonance.
Graphology is another level of stylistic analysis which is
concerned with word graphical process. Crystal and Davy (1969) define
graphology as “the analogous study of language’s writing system or
orthography as seen in the various kinds of handwriting or topography”.
For Leech (1969) graphology transcends orthography “It refers to the
whole writing system” punctuation, and paragraphing as well as spacing”.
Alabi (2007) defines graphology as “ a grapholigical discussion of style
among other features which entailed the foregrounding of structures, the
full-stop, the colon, the comma, the semi-colon, the question mark, the
dash, lower case letters, and bold print, capitalization, small print, spacing,
periods and full stops e.t.c.
Morphology as defined by Johann (1749-1832) is the study of
forms. It also refers to morphology as the mental system involved in word
formation or to the branch of linguistics that deals with words, their
internal structures and how they are formed. George (2003) defines it as
“the study of morphemes, obviously one up from phonemes”. Although
they are understood as units of meaning, they are usually considered as a
part of language’s syntax or grammar.
Lexico-Syntaxtic
patterns
and
choices
“occur
along
the
syntagmatic (chain, horizontal) axis. One of such pattern is formed when
words, phrase, clauses, or deals of equivalent value share a similar
grammatical structure to create an inherent comparison among them…”
(Alabi 2007) It consists of marked lexico-syntaxtic patterns and choices as
well as marked phonological and graphological devices. Alabi (2007)
identifies word balance, marked word order, omission of words and
repetition which are the lexico-syntactic patterns. She also identified
marked lexico-syntactic choices which can be obtained through devices
such as pilling of usual and unusual collocates, lexical items metaphor
compounding some particular part of speech.
COHESION
Cohesion is the grammatical and lexical relationship within a text
or sentence. It can hold a text together and give it a meaning it is also
related to the broader concept of coherence. (Wikipedia). There are two
main types of cohesion: grammatical, referring to the language content of
the language content of the piece. Holliday and Hassan identified five
general categories of cohesive. Cohesive devices that create coherence in
texts; reference, ellipsis, substitution, Lexical cohesion and conjunction.
According to Halliday and Mattysen (2004) reference is a
relationship between things or facts (phenomena or met phenomena). It
may be established at varying distances…”They both present reference to
have two references items is recoverable means that the identity presumed
by the text. From the Wikipedia, an exospheric reference is described to be
used to describe generic or abstracts without ever identity them. Exoteric
on the other hand means that the identity presumed by the reference items
is recoverable from within the text itself as soon as the text unfolds.
Exoteric reference may point forward or backward. It may point backward
to the history of the unfolding text. This type of reference is called
anaphoric reference and the element that is pointed to be called
antecedent. Anaphoric reference occurs when the writer refer back to
someone or something that has previously been identified to avoid
repetition. (Wikipedia). Cataphoric reference is the opposite of anaphoric
reference. It points forward to the unfolding text. Ellipsis is another
cohesive device. It happens when after a more specific mentioned words
are omitted when phrase needs to be repeated. In other words, we
presuppose something by means of what is left out. According to Alabi
(2007) “Ellipsis entails the deliberate omission of a word or words, which
are readily implied by the content…. Ellipsis creates brevity, emphasis or
ambiguity”. In other hand substitution is not omitting of “a word as in
ellipsis but is substitution for another, more general word”. Halliday and
Hassan (1976).
Conjunction sets up a relationship between two clauses. Its aim is
to create a logically articulated discus. According to Halliday and
Mattysen (2004) conjunction is divided into three broad types which are
elaborating, extending and enhancing-conjunction.
However, cohesion also operates within the lexical zone of lexico
grammar. Here as speaker or writer create cohesion in discourse through
the choice of lexical items. Holliday and Hassan (1976) described this as a
lexical cohesion which refers to the language content of the piece. Lezis
organized into a network of lexical relations its primary types are
repetition, synonymy, hyponymy and metonymy and collection. The most
direct form of lexical cohesis is repletion. According to Alabi (2007)
repletion’s the lexical-syntactic level may be realized through anaphora,
epistophe, and epanalepsis e.t.c.
Lexical cohesis results from the choice of a lexical item that is in
some sense synonymous with a preceding one. The choice of some
particular parts of speech, collocations and some figures of speech Alabi
(2007).
2.6.
SPEECH
According to Rebecca Hughes (1996) “Speech is primarily an
aural or oral process which takes place through the dimension of time in a
strictly linear fashion”. It can either be written or spoken. These are the
two channels of communication. This is the nation that the spoken and
written forms of language differ from their most fundamental level in
terms of the way in which they are transmitted and perceived. According
to Harold barret (1973), speed is seeing in two different perspectives as a
social act and as a process of communication, the major concern if a
speech is to convey a (some) message(s) to the reader or audience.
The factors to be considered when delivering a speech are the
audience, the occasion, the subject and writing techniques. The following
discussion was extracted from ‘my speech lab com’. “Audience is the
most important factor to be considered when delivered a speech, knowing
one’s audience would mean exercising care with jokes or anecdotes,
considering whether the audience will appreciate them. Audience is
central to the topic and purpose. The success in informing or persuading
an audience tests largely on audience analysis. Also the age and sex of the
audience is to be considered, their socio-cultural background is very
important”.
“For effective campaign, the campaigner should be able to reach
out to the audience in the language of the immediate environment
of the audience”. (Youngwritersworkshop.com).
More importantly, a campaign speech should start with a theme or
hook (thesis). This subject or theme should be simple, something that the
people will easily remember and also associate with the candidate.
(myspeechlab.com).
However, writing great campaign speeches involve not luck but
proper speech writing techniques. A great speech can help define a
candidate
and
shape
voters’
understanding
of
him
(youngwriterworkshop.com).
According to an article from (myspeechlab.com) campaign
speeches are consist of some features like using of ornamental expression.
In other words, sweet and appealing expressions in order convince their
audience, long sentence or words instead of short sentences or words to
mystify their audience. Also, campaign speeches are usually comprise of
the use of foreign phrases usually known as political jargons, three part
statements, use of rhetorical questions and pronouns to influence and
impress the audience. There is a large use of quotations and adequate use
of repetitions. The mode is manipulative and persuasive. The language is
ideologically embedded. Nevertheless, proper writing technique is needed
for a great speech.
CHAPTER THREE
3.0.
DATA ANALYSIS
3.1.
INTRODUCTION
As earlier stated, this chapter is providing an analysis of the
selected presidential campaign speech in Nigeria. The speech to be
analyzed here is the presidential campaign speech of President Goodluck
Jonathan. The phonological, morphological and graphological levels of
analysis are going to form the basis of this analysis also; the cohesive
devices and the lexico-syntactic patterns will not be left in this analysis.
3.2.
ANALYSIS
“SPEECH
BY
THE
PRESIDENT
OF
THE
FEDERAL
REPUBLIC
OF NIGERIA, DR. GOODLUCK JONATHAN, GCFR, ON
THE OCCASION OF DECLARATION OF HIS CANDIDACY
FOR THE PDP PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES, TODAY
18TH SEPTEMBER, 2010.”
This speech presented the speaker as the President of his country
who still seeks for the betterment of his people through good governance
by imploring the member and supporters of his political party to vote for
him in the party primaries. He presented vividly the achievements of his
predecessor when he was in office. He also state the reasons while he
needs to be voted for.
PHONOLOGY
i. Alliteration: It is generally taken to be the repetition of the initial
consonant in two or more adjacent words.
Examples:
“PDP presidential Primaries”
/P/
“Perfect peace”
/P/
“Petroleum Products”
/P/
“Present Position”
/P/
“trying times”
/t/
“working with”
/w/
“security situation”
/s/
“for free and fair”
/f/
“place partisan politics”
/P/
“blessed by”
/b/
“Good governance”
/g/
“Self sufficiency”
/s/
“retrain, revamp”
/r/
Mass media”
/m/
“Commission comprising”
/c/
This element is also meant to sustain the readers’ interest and to
maintain the flow of rhythm.
ii. Assonance: It is also a half rhyme realized by repeating the same
stressed vowel but with different final consonants in a sequence of nearby
words.
Examples:
“Mandate today”
/ei/
“glọbal fọra
/eυ/
“tọgether tọ
/ə/
iii. Consonance: In this case the final consonants are repeated but with
different preceding vowels.
Examples:
“generation
distribution”
/n/
“drinking
farming”
/ŋ/
“occasion
declaration”
/n/
“working
Saving”
/ŋ/
The speakers has been able to use the repetition of sounds of words
in linking related to reinforce meaning. They provide tone and musical
colour and they aid memorability.
MORPHOLOGY
i. Suffix: It is a word or morpheme or a group of morphemes or words
added to the end of a word to create another word; that is, deflates or to
change the tense of a word, that is; inflectional
Examples of derivatives
“leadership”
-
leader + ship
“leading”
-
lead + ing
“Presidency
-
president + cy
“Confronted” -
confront + ed
“national”
nation + al
-
“Patriotism” -
patriot + ism
“confidence
-
confide+ nce
Pronouncement -
pronounce + ment
“generation” -
generate + ion
“governance -
govern + ance
Examples of inflectional morphemes
“days”
-
day + s
“critizes”
-
critize + s
“Primaries”
-
primarie + s
“Nigerian”
-
Nigeria + n
“Potentials”
-
potential + s
ii. Prefix: it is a word, a morpheme or a group of words or morphemes
added to the beginning of a word to inflect the meaning.
Examples:
“Retrain”
re + train
“Re-addressed”
re + addressed
“International”
inter + national
“Incorruptibility”
in + corruptibility
GRAPHOLOGY
i.
Capitalization: The title and topic of the speech are written in
capital as well as the first letter of each paragraph in order to
make emphasis on the importance of the speech and the
personality.
Examples: “SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL
REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, DR. GOODLUCK EBELE
JONATHAN, GCFR, ON THE OCCASION OF THE
DECLARATION OF THE CANDIDACY FOR THE PDP
PRESIDENTIAL
PRIMARIES,
TODAY
18TH
SEPTEMBER, 2010.”
The topic line after the first paragraph is written as upper case letters as
thus;
“MAY HIS GENTLE SOUL REST IN PERFECT PEACE,
AMEN”
This is done in order to emphasize the speaker’s feelings about the
deceased predecessor and also show his respect for him.
Also the speaker observed all the protocol present at the occasion
by simple putting the word protocol in upper case letters as
“PROTOCOL”
In paragraph twenty four also for instance,
Certain words are capitalized so as to lay emphasis on the very crucial
areas the speaker will work on if he is voted into power.
ii.
Periods or full stops: They are found at the end of every successive
sentence. Here the period performs the typical function of ending an
independent clause.
iii
Exclamation marks: it is to express the speaker’s emotion as in
paragraph twenty four.
Also in the last two sentence exclamation marks was used to express the
speaker’s good wishers for his country.
iv. Bold Print: As in the title of the speech draw special attention to the
subject of the speech; that is words and the phrases.
V. COMMA: it separates sentential element and is employed for a very short
pause. For example in the title of the speech, the speaker employs the use of
five commas.
vi. Semi – colon: unlike comma, it is used for longer pause but not as long as
that of full stop. For example in paragraph 12, three semi- colons were
employed.
COHESIVE DEVICES
i.
Conjunction: this is of three types, elaboration, extension, and
enhancement.
Examples
Elaborating
–
Extending
_
“and”
“however”
“but”
“in spite of”
Enhancing
_
“in the last few days”
“from the moment”
“in my early days”
“todays”
The elaborating conjunction “and” in the speech joins two
independent clauses. For instance in paragraph three:
“We confronted those moments “AND” their challenges
To national security with patriotism AND care”
Extending conjunction on the other hand is used to introduce a
statement that contrasts with what has just been said.
Enhancing conjunction is used to give detail and additional
information about the on-going speech. The main function of conjunction in
this speech is for marking transition in the unfolding of the text.
ii.
Reference: As earlier discussed in chapter two, reference is another way
of achieving cohesion in an utterance. it can be anaphoric, anaphoric or
exospheric.
Examples:
Anaphoric:
“Forty months ago my predecessor in office and i embarked on a joint
ticket in the governance of our great country, Nigeria”. Paragraph 1
“i... my predecessor ..... Sadly, he passed away....”
“... President Yar’ Adua and I shared great dreams... We.....”
Paragraph 3
..... Education system to return..... To them.
Paragraph 7
“..., I, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan ....” paragraph 11
“... I have served as President of Nigeria .....” paragraph 4
“My party, the People’s Democratic Party..., “paragraph 11
“….our great Party, the Peoples Democratic Party…” Paragraph 11
“..... My running mate, Architect Namadi Sambo .....” paragraph 11
“I was not born rich .... A child from... “Paragraph 13
“Fellow Nigerians ... you too can make it!” paragraph 14
The anaphoric referential item in the reference. This is done to avoid
unnecessary repetition.
Cataphoric:
“.... my predecessor in office.... president umaru musa yar’ A dua ... “
paragraphs 1 and 2
“... The vast potentials of this office ....” paragraph 4
“I cannot end this speech ....” paragraph 25
“... without thanking you all for attending this occasion:” paragraph 25
“We confronted those moments .....” paragraph 2
“We toiled together to realize those dreams....” paragraph 3
“... Architect Namadi Sambo, the vice president of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria.”
The underlined and arrowed items in these examples are the
cataphoric referential items which refer forward to the proceeding nouns
to unfold the text.
iii. Substitution: pronouns “my, I” are substituted for “Goodluck Ebele
Azikiwe Jonathan”.
This element takes advantage of the patterns in grammatical
structure, substituting particular element of structure. It is used to avoid
repetition and for brevity.
iv. Lexical cohesion: this element has to do with lexical items such
repetition, synonymy, hyponymy.
Repetition: “I” is repeated in virtually all the paragraphs
“era” in paragraph 12
“Leadership” paragraph 12
“Never despaired” in paragraph 14
“I see” in paragraph 15
“My story” in paragraph 16
“We will” in paragraph 24
“Give me” in paragraph 25
For instance “I” is repeated in all the paragraphs so as to show the
personality and the authority of the speaker about the speech.
“Leadership” in paragraph 12 mainly does the work of anaphoric. All
these are meant for laying of emphasis.
Synonymy: “highways” is synonymous to “road” in paragraph 7
V. LEXICAL SYNTANCTIC PATTERNS AND CHOICE
A. PATTERNS: It consists of word balance of which we have parallelism
and antithesis.
Parallelism: It entails similarity of structure in a pair or series of related
words, phrases or clauses.
Example: “.... I will return, revamp and motivate the civil service.”
paragraph 21
“A Nigeria built on the virtues of love and respect for one another,
on unit, on industry, on hard work and on good governance.” paragraph 16
“I had no shoes, no school bags.” paragraph 14
B. Inverted order: this may be realized through anastrophe, and
parenthesis. But in this analysis, the only types identified are parenthesis
which has to do with insertion of verbal unit in a position that interrupts
the normal syntactical flow of the sentence.
Examples:
“....I, good luck ebele azikiwe Jonathan have decided to
humbly offer myself as a candidate....” paragraph 11
“.....presidential primaries of our great party, the people’s democratic
party, in order to stand for the 2011 presidential elections,” paragraph of
the federal republic of Nigeria.” paragraph 11
“.... a child from otuoke, a small village in the Niger delta...” paragraph 13
C. repetition: this element may be realized through anaphora, epanalepsis,
epistrophe, polyptoton.
1. Anaphora: It is the repetition of the same word or phrase at the
beginnings of successive stages of a chosen pattern.
Examples:”.... a leadership that is uncontaminated by the prejudices of the
past, a leadership committed to change; a leadership that re-invents
government....” paragraph 12
“.... I see a nation..... I see millions of Nigerians.... I see Nigerians who can
make a difference...” paragraph 15
“My story symbolizes.... my story hold out the promises...” paragraph 16
“I have come to say to all of you.... I have come to launch a campaign of
ideas... I have come to preach love.... I have come to break you away...”
paragraph 17
“Let the word go out .... Let the word go out from here.... let the word go
out that my plans.... let the word go out that or health sector....” paragraph
18 and 19
“Let all the kidnappers.... let the ordinary... let the international...”
paragraph 20
2. Epanalepsis: It is the repetition of a word at the beginning and the end of
a sentence respectively.
Example: “our country is at the threshold of a new era; an era
that...’ paragraph 12
“.... beckons for a new kind of leadership; a leadership that is....”
paragraph 12
3. Epistrophe: It entails the repetition of the same word or group at the ends
of successive lines or clauses.
Examples: “I carried my books in my hands but never despaired; no car to
Take me to school but t never despaired.... I had only one meal but I never
despaired. I walked miles and crossed rivers to school
Every day but I never despaired....” paragraph 14
4. Polyptoton: It repeats words derived from the same root.
Examples: “... have opened my eyes to the vast potentials of this
office as a potent instrument ....”Paragraph 4
“I set the stage for free and fair elections by constituting an electoral
commission....”
Generally, repetition is for emphasis, it helps to produce a permanent
effect on the hearer or reader.
B. CHOICE: these are obtained through devices such as pilling of usually
collocates, compounding, metaphor, and some particular parts of speech.
a. Pilling of usual collocates: it may be used to obtain clarity and for
persuasion.
Examples: “... goods and services...” paragraph 6
“.... water... drinking” paragraph 7
“... Banking industry, price stability, low inflation...” paragraph 8
Compounding: it means joining of two free morphemes to create a new
meaning.
Examples: “will power” paragraph
“Threshold”
paragraph
“Highways” paragraph
c. Metaphor: it gives direct representation of a subject or object. it gives
cleanness and liveliness to words
Example: “sacred cows” is used in paragraph 8 as a metaphorical
statement to signify some important personalities in the country who think
their actions can never be questioned.
D. some particular parts of speech like adjectives and preposition which
gives precise and accurate descriptions, adverbs which seeks precision and
intensifies meaning and pronouns are accurately used in this speech as a
means of achieving cohesion .
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0.
SUMMARY FINDING AND CONCLUTION
4.1.
SUMMARY
This study has used the elements of stylistic under phonology,
morphology, graphology, lexico-syntactic and cohesion to analyze one of
the campaign speeches of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Stylistic
displays in the speech and its effect on the readers have been the main
focus of this research.
The first chapter is an introduction to the whole body of the study
under which the introductory background to the study, purpose of the
study, scope and delimitation are discussed.
A review of the related literatures to the study and theoretical
framework upon which the analysis is based is done in chapter two.
The third chapter got pre-occupied with the thorough analysis of
the stylistic devices used in the datum.
In conclusion, this study reveals that thoughts, feelings and
messages could only be effectively expressed when words are chosen
correctly, to that effect.
4.2.
FINDING AND CONCLUSION
Nothing else could be in place of a right and appropriate use of
language in order to achieve the purpose of informing or stirring up the
emotion of listeners or readers and making a striking impression on them.
This research on stylistic analysis if the selected Presidential
campaign speech of President Goodluck Jonathan reveals that there is
more to speeches in term of message and content than what a stains when
a speech is merely spoken or written and read or heard by the audience
and hearer respectively. The distinctive choice of words, creative
phonological use and correct sentential structures work together to attain
meaning and Communication.
This speech analysis is found to be loaded with stylistic devices
and elements at all levels of analysis. Each of the elements however has
functions which contribute to effective, communication and occurrence
between the speaker, his intention (message) and the targeted audience.
The speaker addresses the condition he and his predecessor met the
state of the nation and the development they were able to bring to its He
also expresses his grieve for the deceased predecessor and promises a
brighter failure if he is voted into power as the President of the Country.
The speaker exposes the evil doers in the society. For example, he
used “Sacred cows” to refer to some rich influential personalities in the
country who think they are free to do whatever they please to do.
Lexico-syntactic patterns and Choices elements show that choices
of words have been purposely selected to enhance intelligibility between
the writer or speaker and reader or hearer respectively.
The sentential structure reveals the intention of the speaker / writer
to communicate intelligible to his reading audience. Thus he employs
profuse use of simple sentences.
On the context of situation in the speech, the field of discourse is
generally political. Tenor of discourse is ‘spoken’
With obedience to precision and clarification of thought. Readership and
interpretation are being enhanced by these findings.
This work will enlighten the students studying literature and
language in the essence of language and style in any text that is
stylistically explored as this work. The phonological, morphonological,
graphological levels of analysis and aspects of lexicon-syntactic patterns
and choices and cohesion may form inspiration for other language
researchers depending on interest and focus.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Source
THE WILL – Goodluck Jonathan’s Abuja Declaration Speech
http:/the willnigeria.com/politics/5914-Goodluck-Jonathans
– Abuja – D…
Secondary Source
Alabi, V.A, (2007), “Lexico-syntactic, phonological and graphological
patterns choices and devices in Discourse”. O. Obafemi,
G.A. Ajadi, V.A. Alabi (eds), Critical Perspectives on
English Language & Literature, Ilorin: The Department of
English, University of Ilorin.
Aronoff, M. and Fudeman, K. (2005), what is Morphology? Malden,
USA, UK, Carlton, Australia: Blackwell Publishers.
Birch, D. (1989), Language, Literature, and critical practice: Ways of
Analyzing text, London and New York: Routledge.
Birch, D. (ed) (1995), Context and Language: A functional Linguistic
Theory of Register: London, New York, Pinter.
Bradford, R. (1997), Stylistic, London ND New York: Rout ledge.
Carter, R. (ed) (1982), An introductory Readers in Stylistic: Newyork:
George Allen & Unwin (Publishers) Ltd.
Carter, R. (1988), “Directions in the teaching and stud of English
Stylistics”, M. Short (ed) Reading, Analyzing & teaching
literature, Newyork and UK: Longman Group.
Carter, R. (1988), “ What is Stylistics and why can we teach it in different
ways “, M. Short (ed.) Reading, Analtzing & teaching
literature, Newyork and UK: Longman Group.
David, C. (1998), Language Play, London: Penguin.
Envist, N.E. (1913), Linguistic Stylistics, Hague: Mouton.
Freeman, D.C. (ed.) (1971), Linguistics and literature style, New York:
Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Geoffrey, L. & Michael, H.S. (1981), Style in fiction: A linguistic
introduction to English Functional Prose: London,
Longman.
Halliday, M. (1978), LNGUAGE AS a Social Semiotic: The Social
Interpretation of Language and meaning, London Eduward
Arnold.
Hartman, R.Stock, F. (1972) Dictionary of language and linguistics,
Essex: applied science.
Haynes, J. (1989), Introducing Stylistics, London & Newyork: union
Hayman Ltd.
Mellisa, K. Effective Speech Writing: The importance of Theme A part of
the New York Times Company 2011 About.com,
http”//712educatorsabout.com/cs/speech/a/speechwriting.htm
Michael .T. (1998), Language in Literature: An introduction to Stylistics,
U.K & London: Hodder Education.
Nick, M. (2003), Speechwriting Under the Gun – HBs Working
knowledge: Harvard management Communication Letter,
http”//hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/3707.html.
Ofuya, A.(2007), “English phonetics and phonology.” O. Obafemi, Ajadi,
G.A. Alabi (eds.), critical perspectives on English language
$ literature, the department of English, university of Ilorin.
Peter, R. (2000), English Phonetics and phonology: A Self contained
comprehensive pronunciation course, Third Edition,
Cambridge University Press.
Priscilla, O & Diri, I.I. (2006), Types of Stylistic: An Encyclopedia of the
Arts Vol.4
Widdowson, H.G. (1975), “Stylistic and the teaching of literature”,
London: Longman Group Ltd.
William, D. (1998), Language and Society, 2nd edition, Cambridge
Cambridge University Press.