Cover not available

Article published In: English Text Construction
Vol. 13:2 (2020) ► pp.158–177

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Conflict-motivated acts in the open letters of two former Nigerian presidents

 | Redeemer’s University
 | Redeemer’s University
Published online: 10 December 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/etc.00039.unu
Abstract
This study investigates conflict-motivated pragmatic acts employed in the open letters exchanged by two former Nigerian presidents (Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan). The data are analysed using Mey’s pragmatic act theory. The findings reveal that while Obasanjo employs pragmatic acts of warning, appealing, and praising in order to counsel Jonathan, Jonathan employs pragmatic acts of acknowledging, boasting, correcting, and reminding in order to defend himself. However, they both employ the pragmatic acts of insulting, complaining, accusing, and requesting. These acts are influenced by nationalist and anti-ethnic ideologies as well as the context of the open letters, i.e., conflict among political leaders in Nigeria.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background of Obasanjo and Jonathan’s open letter exchange
  • 3.Theoretical framework
  • 4.Data and methods
  • 5.Analysis and discussion
    • 5.1Pragmatic acts used by Obasanjo
      • 5.1.1Warning
      • 5.1.2Appealing
      • 5.1.3Praising
    • 5.2Pragmatic acts used by Jonathan
      • 5.2.1Acknowledging
      • 5.2.2Boasting
      • 5.1.3Correcting
      • 5.2.4Reminding
    • 5.3Pragmatic acts employed by Obasanjo and Jonathan
      • 5.3.1Insulting
      • 5.3.2Complaining
      • 5.3.2Accusing
      • 5.3.3Requesting
  • 6.Discussion and conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (41)
References
Akyeampong, Emmanuel K. & Henry L. Gates, Jr. (eds). 2012. Dictionary of African Biography. London: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Allan, Keith. 2010. Referring as a pragmatic act. Journal of Pragmatics 42 (11): 2919–2931. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anchimbe, Eric. 2013. ‘Motions of Support’ and the communicative act of thanking in political discourse. In The Pragmatics of Political Discourse, Anita Fetzer (ed). Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 219–242. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ashraf, Hina. 2014. Letters to the editor: A resistant genre of unrepresented voices. Discourse and Communication 8 (1): 3–21. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Auchmuty, Rosemary. 1994. Inversions: A tribute to the late all-women publishing house, open letters. Women’s History Review 3 (3): 439–443. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Austin, John. 1962. How to Do Things with Words. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bach, Kent & Robert M. Harnish. 1979. Linguistic Communication and Speech Acts. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bagwasi, Mompoloki M. 2008. Pragmatics of letter writing in Setswana. Journal of Pragmatics 40 (3): 525–536. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, Penelope & Stephen C. Levinson. 1987. Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chiluwa, Innocent. 2015. Radicalist discourse: A study of the stances of Nigeria’s Boko Haram and Somalia’s Al Shabaab on twitter. Journal of Multicultural Discourses 101: 214–235. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Compton, Josh & Jordan L. Compton. 2013. College sports, losing seasons, and image repair through open letters to fans. Communication and Sport 2 (4): 345–362. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cutting, Joan. (2002). Pragmatics and Discourse. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Doty, Kathleen L. & Risto Hiltunen. 2009. Formulaic discourse and speech acts in the witchcraft trial records of Salem, 1692. Journal of Pragmatics 41 (3): 458–469. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fraser, Bruce. 1996. Pragmatic markers. Pragmatics 6 (2): 167–190. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Geis, Michael L. 1995. Speech Acts and Conversational Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Henry, Alex & Debbie G. E. Ho. 2010. The act of complaining in Brunei – then and Now. Journal of Pragmatics 42 (3): 840–855. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Igwebuike, Ebuka & Ikenna Kamalu. 2015. A critical discourse analysis of rhetorical strategies in open letters to president Olusegun Obasanjo in selected Nigerian newspapers. In Essays on Language, Communication and Literature in Africa, Akin Odebunmi & Joyce T. Mathangwane (eds). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 250–274.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kecskes, Istvan. 2010. Situation-bound utterances as pragmatic acts. Journal of Pragmatics 42 (11): 2889–2897. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kupolati, Oluwateniola Oluwabukola & Eniola Boluwaduro. 2018. Gubernatorial debate sessions in Nigeria: A socio-cognitive analysis. Discourse and Communication 12 (1): 20–38. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Landert, Daniela & Andreas H. Jucker. 2010. Private and public in mass media communication: From letters to the editor to online commentaries. Journal of Pragmatics 43 (5): 1422–1434. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martin, John. R. & Peter R. R. White. (2005). The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English. New York NY: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mey, Jacob L. 2001. Pragmatics: An Introduction. Malden MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Monehin, Funmi. 2015. A Stylistic Analysis of Language of Politics in the Open Letters Exchanged between Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan (Unpublished BA thesis). Redeemer’s University, Nigeria.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nevalainen, Terttu & Sanna-Kaisa Tanskanen (eds). 2007. Letter Writing. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nwokocha, Stanley. 2014. Nigeria: Godfathers-Godson Relationships Gone Sour. [URL] [URL]
Odebunmi, Akin. 2006. A pragmatic reading of Ahmed Yerima’s proverbs in Yemoja, Attahiru, and Dry Leaves on Ukan Trees . Intercultural Pragmatics 3 (2): 153–169. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. Pragmatic functions of crisis-motivated proverbs in Ola Rotimi’s The God’s are not to Blame . Linguistik Online 33 (1): 73–84.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. Ọmọlúàbí. In Handbook of Pragmatics Online (Vol. 191). Ola J. Ostman & Jef Verschueren (eds). Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1–20. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Oladipo, Dotun. 2013. Nigeria needs clarity of purpose – Akinyemi. The Punch, August: 541. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Searle, John R. 1969. Speech Acts. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tseng, Ming-Yu. 2010. The pragmatic act of fishing for personal details: From choice to performance. Journal of Pragmatics 42 (7):1982–1996. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Unuabonah, Foluke. 2011. Our threatened democracy: A socio-cognitive study of a memo to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) of Nigeria. Issues in Political Discourse Analysis 4 (1): 59–71.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Uzoigwe, Amara M. 2011. The Nigerian Christian Attitude to Civic Duties: An Exegetical Application of Romans 131: 1–7 (Unpublished MA thesis). University of Nigeria, Nsukka.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Dijk, Teun. 2001. Critical discourse analysis. In Handbook of Discourse Analysis, Deborah Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen & Heidi E. Hamilton (eds). Oxford: Blackwell, 352–371.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2002. Political discourse and political cognition. In Politics as Text and Talk. Analytical approaches to political discourse, Paul A. Chilton & Christina Schäffner (eds). Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 204–236. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005. Politics, ideology and discourse. In Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Wodak Ruth (ed). London: Elsevier, 728–740.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. Discourse, context and cognition. Discourse Studies 8 (1): 159–177. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. Society and discourse: How social contexts influence text and talk. Journal of Language and Politics 9 (3): 469–474. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Verschueren, Jef. 1999. Understanding Pragmatics. London: Arnold.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
White, Peter R. R. 2011. Appraisal. In Jan Zienkwoski, Jan-Ola Östman and Jef Verschueren (eds), Discursive Pragmatics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 14–36. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Unuabonah, Foluke Olayinka & Oluwateniola Oluwabukola Kupolati
2023. Generic structure and pragmatic acts in Yoruba traditional weddings in Southwestern Nigeria. Journal of Pragmatics 211 ► pp. 15 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 9 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue