Abstract
This study of sentence pattern and usage in Nigeria’s 2015 Presidential Debate identifies and accounts for all occurring major and minor sentences, classifies the major sentences into simple, compound and complex subtypes, determines their typological and thematic distribution, and demonstrates how they were strategically employed to articulate each debater’s points. The data comprises 1876 sentences and was analysed using an improved version of the systemic grammatical model. Results show that major and minor sentences represent 92 and 8 per cent respectively and that while the simple sentence accounted for 77 per cent, compound and complex sentences make up 10 and 13 per cent respectively. Mean length of sentence was 13.6 words and clause density in respect of compound and complex sentences was 1.6 and 2.22 per sentence. Of the seventeen variants of the simple sentence isolated 21 per cent had their elements of structure realised by rankshifted clauses while 20 per cent were affected by multiplicity, mobility and inversion. Though the rest 59 per cent were kernel sentences of the basic SPCA structural pattern, it was not uncommon to find structurally complex groups as elements of clause structure. What determined which of alpha or beta was clause-initially was the focus of the message conveyed. So thematic fronting is not limited to the single clause sentence. Sentence length and type, positioning of clauses or parts thereof, and decisions on conjunctions and finite or non-finite clauses, were greatly governed by theme and the speaker’s mediate goals and grammatical sophistication. These are proofs of the strategic use of the sentence by politicians.
Highlights
The initial motivation for this study came from a recent‐ ly concluded one on the central pronouns in Nigeria’s 2015 Presidential Debate (Adejare, 2018)
What this paper set out to do was to analyse sentence pat‐ tern and usage in the Presidential Debate held in Nigeria in 2015 as a study of syntactic structure in political texts
Employing an improved version of the systemic grammat‐ ical model as analytical tool, the study identified and ac‐ counted for all occurring sentences in the corpus and found the major sentence dominant over its minor sentence coun‐ terpart
Summary
The initial motivation for this study came from a recent‐ ly concluded one on the central pronouns in Nigeria’s 2015 Presidential Debate (Adejare, 2018). To demonstrate the importance of grammatical phenomena and show that complementation can add to the inventory of linguistic tools relevant to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), van Leeuwen compares Geert Wilder’s 2007 speech contributing to the debate on ‘Islamic Activ‐ ism’ with Vogelaar’s He reveals an average sentence length of 15.4 and 19.8 words per sentence (w/s) respectively and adds that where complementation constructions are present, they have rhetorical effects that enable the speaker to de‐ scribe their viewpoint as their perspective, leaving room for discussion and negotiation, and that where complementation constructions are lacking, ideas are primarily pre‐ sented as facts, leaving minimal room for negotiation and discussion. The situation functions of language (Adejare & Adejare, 2006: 86-92) create varieties of clause structures in texts outside the (S)P(C)(A) formula While it gen‐ erates declarative clauses such as ||Jim| gave| a smile.||, it can neither generate the interrogative clause ||Did |Jim| give| a smile?|| nor clauses involving stylistically motivated in‐ version such as ||Inside the room |was |Jim||. I will ignore the situation-induced moves among the moder‐ ators who asked the questions that each candidate answered because they have no major impact on the syntactic forms of the answers to the questions
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
