A STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF A SELECTED CAMPAIGN SPEECH OF PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN (ENGLISH AND LINGUISTIC PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS)
ABSTRACT
Language and style are the basic modes of communication and information. They centre on words and utterances and focus beyond these two aspects, that is, words and utterances. Stylistics is based mainly on the interpretation of texts from a linguistic perspective. A stylistic analysis of the selected election campaign speech of President Goodluck Jonathan is carried out in this research. The data used in this work to illustrate the stylistic effects on speech is the Campaign speech of President Goodluck Jonathan. The five stylistic devices identified in this research are the main elements used to prove our claim. Finally, we found that each of these elements functions well enough to contribute to the effective use of words in speech delivery. It can therefore be concluded that these elements trigger and play important roles in passing the intention of the writer or speaker across to the reader or hearer.
CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Language is a fascinating study. This is because of the roles of performs. It captures all the aspects of human thought and endeavours. Language is concepts which many attempt have been made to define. To some people’s point of view, language is a means of communication. To some, it’s a way of expressing our views, ideas, wishes and emotions. But to be more specific about this definition, language is what is spoken or written; it consists of the use of word in a meaningful and agreed order. This definition makes language a rule governed activity.
The first two definitions of language by Chomsky and Cruse suggest that each speech community possess a repertive interest, world vocabulary covering the social concern, political interest, occupational interest, world view and physical environment of the people to fulfill their communicative needs and meet their interactive demands it is this inventory that constitutes the codes with which a community communicates.
Speech on the other hand is a connected discourse. It is a faculty of expressing thoughts, feelings or perceptions by articulation of word. It is spoken formerly to an audience. There are various a type of speeches out of which is the presidential speech.
This speech is the one delivered by a president to the general public or to the members of his cabinet. It can be acceptance speech, presentation speech, campaign speech and many others. Out of these speeches, our focus for this research is on campaign speech.
What is campaign speech? What are the features? What factors are to be considered in delivering the speech? What method of presentation is it going to take? All these are the questions that must be answered in explaining what a campaign speech is. This will be examined in the cause of the cause of this study.
