An analysis of impoliteness as the oppositional discourse in the Nigerian #EndSARS protest

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study investigates the possible application of impoliteness strategies to discourse on the 2020 Nigerian #EndSARS protest on Twitter. Examining impoliteness strategies employed in tweets and comments on the #EndSARS protest in Nigeria, identifying the most used impoliteness strategy(ies) and contextualising identified strategies remain the study’s preoccupation. The data, drawn from 350 tweets to 100 tweets and 250 comments with the hashtag #EndSARS, are descriptively analysed based on the tenets of Culpeper’s anatomy of impoliteness. The findings of the study reveal the presence of five impoliteness strategies in tweets and comments with the hashtag #EndSARS with no manifestation of off-record impoliteness. It is found that face threatening acts (FTAs) are both culture- and context-specific; membership categorisation and impoliteness strategies especially bald-on-record and negative impoliteness work hand in hand to produce the full effect. The study establishes further that the interplay of prior knowledge and actual situation knowledge gives rise to bald-on-record impoliteness while also noting that conjunctions, adverbs, and modal auxiliary verbs depending on their manner of application are capable of triggering impoliteness. The study, therefore, concludes that context, together with turns preceding and succeeding any turn construction unit (TCU), are strong determinants of impoliteness in any discourse.