Abstract
Presidents are considered as caring and sensitive fathers of their nations whose words of condolences are usually needed in times of grief. One medium through which they express their condolences is through the delivery of tributes to eulogize the dead and sympathize with bereaved families. There is therefore the need to examine how presidents employ the faculties of language to eulogize the dead in their tributes. Premised on the transitivity framework postulated by Halliday and Matthiessen, the present study investigates the use of transitivity patterns in Ghanaian presidential tributes to unearth various experiences and also unveil the implicit relationships that exist between politicians and traditional rulers. The sample for the study is composed of four tributes delivered by Akuffo Addo, Mahama, Kufour and Rawlings to the late Queen Mother of the Ashanti Kingdom, Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Apem II. The data were manually coded using the consensual coding strategy. The results indicate a preponderant use of relational processes to identify the unique qualities possessed by the late Queen Mother which further unveil the varied relationships between her and the presidents. Other process types such as material, mental, verbal and behavioural processes are used to construe the positive actions carried out by the late Queen Mother during her lifetime, activate the minds and emotions of mourners and sympathizers regarding the loss, posthumously project the late Queen Mother as a legend who needs to be modelled after and present a collective purgation of emotions of pain and agony. The study concludes that, despite the apolitical status of traditional rulers, they still have a latent but cordial relationship with politicians.
 
 Citation:Mwinwelle, P., Duah, I. and Ernest Mensah, S. (2021). Eulogising the Dead: A Systemic Functional Exploration of Tributes Delivered by Ghanaian Presidents. International Journal of Technology and Management Research (IJTMR), Vol. 6 (2): Pp.38-58.
 Received: April 15, 2020Accepted: September 1, 2021
Highlights
Introduction TheAkans, the largest ethnic group in Ghana ‘believe that when death occurs, mourning is seen as an inevitable and universal human reaction to explain how grievous they are to the loss of someone who is loved and very much appreciated’ (Yeboah, 2017)
It seeks to identify the dominant transitivity patterns used in funeral tributes delivered by Ghanaian presidents to the late Queen Mother of the Ashanti Kingdom and explore the communicative functions encoded in the identified transitivity patterns. 1.2 Literature review The literature on studies that focus on forms of funeral text types such as death announcement in newspapers (AlAli, 2005; Khatib and Salem, 2011; Afful, 2012; Al-Zubaidi, 2012) and condolence messages (Dilevko & Gottlib, 2004; Yahya, 2010; Samavarchi and Allami, 2012; Tareq, 2013; Kuang, 2015; Kongo and Gyasi, 2015; Kuang, 2017) are replete
The results indicate that among the process types used, relational processes were preponderantly used to identify unique qualities possessed by the late Queen Mother
Summary
Introduction TheAkans, the largest ethnic group in Ghana ‘believe that when death occurs, mourning is seen as an inevitable and universal human reaction to explain how grievous they are to the loss of someone who is loved and very much appreciated’ (Yeboah, 2017). When death occurs, one cannot but let out their perception and the relationship they had with the deceased This makes tributes delivered by politicians to traditional rulers a potent linguistic resource for unearthing the latent relationships between politicians and traditional rulers. It is based on this premise that the present study seeks to explore the process types used by Ghanaian presidents to encode various experiences, relationships and thoughts in their tributes delivered to the late Queen Mother of the Ashanti Kingdom. It seeks to identify the dominant transitivity patterns used in funeral tributes delivered by Ghanaian presidents to the late Queen Mother of the Ashanti Kingdom and explore the communicative functions encoded in the identified transitivity patterns. The empirical review will help draw methodological and theoretical divergence and convergence as well as enable the present study to confirm or contest findings of earlier studies on funeral tributes
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