Abstract: Deconstructing legitimation strategies in political discourse is a means to analyse specific ways in which language represents an instrument of control (Hodge & Kress, 1993) and manifests symbolic power (Bourdieu, 2001). This is even more evident in a case of conflict where political actors flex power and seek to influence perceptions of the populace while justifying their actions. This study examined the linguistic features deployed in legitimising the speeches of President Bola Tinubu (BAT) and General Abdourahamane Tchiani (GAT) on Niger coup. The study appropriated the transitivity system of Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar and van Leeuwen’s (1996) Grammar of Legitimation Theory. It incorporated insights from the Critical Discourse Analysis using van Dijk’s Socio-cognition model to delineate identity construction. The four speeches that constituted our data were obtained online and were quantitatively and qualitatively analysed. Findings revealed four legitimation strategies that were used by BAT, namely authorization, rationalization, moral evaluation and mythopoesis. GAT only used two strategies (rationalization and mythopoesis). The legitimation structures were formed using two processes of the transitivity system – material process and relational process. Two legitimate strategies were employed using material process, namely mythopoesis and rationalization. Three legitimate structures were presented using relational attributive process – rationalization, moral evaluation and authorization. The paper concluded by maintaining a position that a thorough analysis of linguistic features and identity construction in legitimation portends a rich model in investigating political discourse in crisis situation.
Keywords: legitimation, legitimation strategies, political discourse, systemic functional grammar, linguistic features, speeches, critical discourse analysis, transitivity system, identity construction.
Title: LEGITIMATION IN SPEECHES OF PRESIDENT BOLA TINUBU AND GENERAL ABDOURAHAMANE TCHIANI ON NIGER COUP D’ETAT
Author: Abiodun Jombadi
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
Vol. 12, Issue 2, April 2024 - June 2024
Page No: 42-51
Research Publish Journals
Website: www.researchpublish.com
Published Date: 20-April-2024
