A Corpus-based Approach to the Linguistic Features in Nigerian and American Presidential Speeches

Abstract

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.