A Lexical Analysis of an Inaugural Speech of the Speaker of Benue State House of Assembly in Nigeria

Abstract

Language of Nigerian politics has been given attention in previous studies from various linguistic approaches such as pragmatics, pragma-stylistics, stylistic, syntax and discourse strategies. However, most of the research works that border on the political speeches are mainly concerned with the speeches of the executive leaders in Nigeria. This study, therefore, investigated the pattern and functions of lexical devices in the Inaugural speech of the Speaker of State House of Assembly as an avenue to expand the frontiers of knowledge on language of politics by legislators. The data were drawn from the speech of the Speaker of Benue State House of Assembly (2011-2013) and analysed based on the Lexical Cohesion theory of Halliday and Hassan (1976). The study reflected that legislators employed lexical cohesive devices such as repetition, synonymy, antonym, collocation, superordination to achieve certain purposes such as interconnectivity, directness, emphasis, appreciation and appeal in the process of negotiating meaning in their use of language.