Suchergebnisse

This paper analyses selected research article introductions of doctoral seminars in the Department of English Language and Literature, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, to determine how these academic writings follow specific formats characteristic of such genres. Specifically the work looks at the staged cognitive organisation of the selected samples in line with the requisite schematic or generic structure postulated in Bhatia (1993) and adopted by the University of Southern California (USC). Every genre is characterized by culture-bound unique structuring and communicative purposes that give it generic coherence. Research article introduction is an academic sub-genre with specified conventions characterising genres from the academic culture/community. A total of eighteen samples of research introductions were analysed, the aim being to determine whether the cognitive move structures in the samples conform with, or depart from, the conventionalized patterns of this academic sub-genre and how the pattern used in the samples enabled or militated against the writers' achievement of the desired communicative purposes. A critical reading of doctoral seminars in the Department shows lack of knowledge of the unique formatting of introductions, making this work to be anchored on English for Specific Purposes (ESP) with particular emphasis on English for Academic Purposes (EAP). The baseline of the findings is to discover the present proficiency of these group of learners, enlighten budding academics on the move structure of article introductions in order to achieve generic coherence as well as target proficiency in that sub-genre of academic writing.

This paper explores the rhetoric of political repression in the Guardian newspaper reports of June and July 2008 Nigerian Union of Teachers" (NUT) nationwide strike embarked upon to demand a special salary scale. It specifically focuses on language use in the newspaper reports on this issue as an indication of the media's seemingly transparent but inherently ideological reportage, projecting the "truth†of the political power elite and repressing the views of the less dominant whose interest the media supposedly champion. Using three theoretical perspectives, critical discourse analysis which takes the side of the less privileged to question the textual representations of the power elite; systemic functional grammar which studies the meaning relations residing in the systemic patterns of textual choices of language users; and argumentation theory used to determine the various appeals made in the reports to argue the case of the various stakeholders, the paper highlights the truism of the media"s apparent neutrality in their reports. The various forms of rhetoric, located in the unsaid, attribution to sources, manipulation of intertextual resources and gatekeeping ideology were among the strategies employed in the newspaper reportage. In a total of forty-six reports, spanning thirty-six days the strike lasted,it was found that the newspaper deliberately avoided an editorial on the strike thereby locating its ideology in the "unsaid". It also, in connivance with the dominant power elite, manipulated the wordings of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 using ad hoc argument and subtle persuasion to quash the demands of the NUT, thus exploiting intertextual resources ("the already-said") to support a suppressive regime. These representations portray the newspaper"s gate keeping-ideology –as partial and selective in its reports. It also implicates the newspaper as adopting the "ideology of silence" and as reneging on its watchdog role as the champion of public interest.

This article examines the reality or illusion of the perceived 'paradises' of 'female power', the purported façade of patriarchy and the claimed pervasiveness of matriarchy in Chinweizu's Anatomy of Female Power. By deconstructing the extreme essentialist perspectives of AFP, and in line with womanism, the article interrogates the perceived covert matriarchal power sites of the masculinist creation and argues that they essentialize woman's place in fixed biologically defined gender spaces, hence negating the concept of societal power as exercised rather than possessed. These placements, while trivializing woman's role in the public sphere, obviously obfuscate the acknowledged dual-sex political system in some African and Nigerian settings. Responding from the generally African and specifically Igbo experience, the work offers an alternative womanist conceptualization, beyond matriarchy-patriarchy and other gender stereotypic binaries; a humanistic form of gender fluidity where the synergy of the two genders will engender complementarity, collaboration, compromise and cooperation.

The paper analyses the thematic structure of two inaugural speeches of Nigerian past leaders using Halliday and Matthiessen's formulation of the lexicogrammatical feature of Theme located in the textual metafunction in systemic functional grammar. It specifically focuses on the speakers' strategies of fronting certain lexical items clause-initially to construe certain meanings in favour of others. For instance, the choice of unmarked theme where the subject conflates with the theme are more prevalent in utterances where the speakers would want to take credit for positive actions and audience acknowledgement, or where they would want to assign modal responsibility to their audience for negative actions, while marked theme seem to feature more in cases that are indeterminate, illusive and less than likely to be realizable goals. These choices serve as ideological tools aimed at legitimating the hegemonies of the power elite in order to manufacture the consent of their electorate. The work concludes that the textual metafunction realized in the lexicogrammatical feature of Theme serve as a resource for speakers to manipulate meanings to suit their ideological ends and calls for critical language awareness which locates the work within the critical discourse analysis (CDA) research paradigm.Keywords: Theme, textual metafunction, critical discourse analysis, power, ideology, critical language awareness, topical theme, marked theme, unmarked theme

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