Written By:
Ngozi U. Emeka-Nwobia.
Languages and Linguistics Department.
Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, Nigeria
reforms, corruption, campaign and inaugural speeches. The speeches of President Olusegun Obasanjo were retrieved principally from the internet. The speeches will be presented and analyzed to see the extent to which they meet the
RESEARCH DESIGN
The research
design adopted for the purpose of this study is the ex-post design since its
findings will not be scientifically based. Ex-post facto design is a non-experimental
design that does not involve the manipulation of the independent variable by
the researcher. The researcher in this
case shall be examining already existing conditions that differentiate the
participant and other members of the group along their demarcations.
INSTRUMENT FOR DATA COLLECTION
The researcher used two instruments
for the collection of data in this study – the down loaded document from
official website and the tape recorder. The downloaded instrument shall be used
to collect the presidential speeches, while the daily newspapers and magazines
will be exploited in eliciting information about the perlocuionary and
illocutionary effect of the presidential speeches.
These
instruments would help us gather factual information from both the president
(Speaker) and the audience (Nigerian people (Hearers).
SAMPLING TECHNIQUE AND SIZE
Though many
sampling methods like simple random sampling, stratified random sampling
technique, purposive / cluster sampling, accidental sampling, panel sampling,
quota sampling techniques are available, this work intends to use simple random
sampling technique bearing in mind that the method of sampling technique to be
used, is often determined by the nature and quality of the frame, the need for
accuracy and detail, as well as the cost and operational implication. For the
purpose of this study, five daily newspapers and two national magazines shall
be randomly selected to represent varied opinions and to assess the
perlocutionary effects.
METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION
This
research work centres on the perlocutionary effect of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s
political speeches. Obasanjo’s speeches are those recorded in the official
document of the federal government, online sources and offline (examples- print
media, newspapers and magazines). We exploited the use of two sources for the
collection of data: primary and secondary sources;
PRIMARY SOURCES:
On this we relied heavily on data collected
from the internet (online source). Sample speeches of former president Olusegun
Obasanjo bothering on different thematic preoccupation were randomly retrieved
from the following cites and dates.
We will heal Nigeria. Inaugural
speech of May29, 2003 - http://www.ngex.com/nigeria/govt/president/obj2003
inauguration.html. Retrieved on 4th March 2012.
· Last
speech of President Obasanjo as President of Nigeria. Accessed on 4th
March 2012.
· President’s
40th Independence Day
Speech-http://www.ngex.com/nigeria/govt/president/obj40thspeech.html. Retrieved
on 5th March 2012.
· The
Road to Recovery. 2001 Budget speech, delivered in November 2000. Accessed on 5th
March 2012.
· Fuel
subsidy must go. Mr. President’s address to the nation on June 15,2000
http://www.ngex.com/nigeria/govt/president/obasanjoonoil.html. Retrieved on 5th
march 2012.
· Chief
Olusegun Obasanjo’s speech on the final of PDP Campaign. -
http://afripol.org/afripol/item/256.chief-olusegu-obasanjs-speech-on-end-of-pdp-campaign.html
. Retrieved on 5th march 2012.
SECONDARY SOURCES
Linguistic
texts, journal articles, selected newspapers, magazines and work on language,
pragmatics, perlocution and political speeches constitute the secondary sources
of data for the research work. The researcher equally gained access to Questia,
the biggest online library, for books and journal articles on the concepts.
These materials were used to map out the theoretical focus and empirical
perspectives of our analysis.
METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS
To achieve our objectives, the sample
speeches of former president Obasanjo were subjected to analysis using
descriptive method. The speeches were
presented and analyzed using Austin’s (1962) Speech Act Theory to determine the
extent they meet with the felicity condition, and to determine if they adhered
to Grice’s (1975) maxim of co-operative principles.
