Browsing by Author "Osisanwo, A."

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A morphological study of the use of pidgin in selected Nigerian Electronic Media Advertisements
(CUVILLIER VERLAG, 2015) Osisanwo, A.
A semiotic analysis of selected political posters in the development of politics in Nigeria
(Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation (CBAAC), 2011) Osisanwo, A.
‘A threat to national unity, an emancipator’: discourse construction of the Yoruba nation secessionist agitation in selected Nigerian digital communities
(Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group, 2023) Osisanwo, A.; Akano, R.
The recently resurged Yoruba Nation (YN, henceforth) agitation joins some socio-political movements, social protests, and resistance group discourse in Nigeria that continue to gain traction in (critical) discourse studies. Guided by the theoretical paradigms of van Leeuwen’s representational strategies and Martin and White’s appraisal framework, 24 representative posts out of a thousand posts culled from Nairaland, Gistmania, and Naijaloaded generated between October 2020 and October 2021 were purposively selected and subjected to discourse analysis. Two levels of construction were realised: YN agitators and YN agitation. YN agitators were associated with four constructions: cowards, violence mongers, terrorists, and organised strategists. YN agitation was associated with three constructions: a threat to sovereignty and national unity, and emancipation from oppression. Negative labels manifested more than positives. The dominant negative constructs of the YN agitation manifested implicitly and explicitly through labelling, negative comparison, appeal to sentiments, expression of detest, and flaming, while the positive constructs manifested through encomium and appeal to ethnic benefit. Online participants do not only project and spread their ideological stances on the YN agitation; they also make efforts to suppress antithetical stances.
Blame-frame and praise-frame on the Boko-Haram terrorism in Nigeria newspapers: A discourse examination
(Global Research & Development Services, 2019) Osisanwo, A.
Boko Haram, as reported by the media, has been terrorising Nigeria, especially since 2009. Linguistic studies on terrorism and Boko Haram in Nigeria have considered, among others, the representations of the group by the media and policy makers. However, insufficient discourse attention has been devoted to the framing tactics deployed by social actors in identifying the roles played by two administrations in the escalation or denigration of Boko Haram terrorism in Nigeria. Yet, the consideration can lend further insights into the Boko Haram operations, and identifying the possible failures and successes in curbing the menace in Nigeria. Therefore, this paper examines the strategies deployed by social actors (political, religious and ethnic) as reported by selected newspapers to identify the roles played by two administrations in the State, Nigeria. For data, different utterances on the blame-praise frames, credited to different social actors are purposively selected from the electronic versions of newspapers from 2013 to 2017 (two years each from two administrations). Guided by aspects of critical discourse analysis, with bias for van Dijk’s ideological structures, the study revealed that there are two broad frames on the administrations: blame-frame and praise-frame. The blame-frame strategies include blame-frame as propaganda tactic, finger-pointing and demonization strategy, justification for political migration, buck passing, and social-control technique. The praiseframe strategies include praise-frame for ventilation and behavioural reinforcement, strengthening bilateral relations, proof of change actualization, and self-praise. The frames are reinforced with sixteen ideological discourse structures, including 'actor description', 'authority', 'categorisation', among others.
Code Alternation in Selected Nigerian Hip-Hop Music.
(Unilag Press & Bookshop Ltd, 2023) Osisanwo, A.; Oyeyemi, T.
Conceptual Metaphors in Newspaper Reportage of the War on Boko Haram Terrorism in Nigeria
(Faculty of Arts, University of Ibadan, 2017) Osisanwo, A.
The government of Nigeria has continued to wage (a) war on Boko Haram (BH) terrorists in Nigeria. Previous linguistic studies on (war on) Boko Haram terrorism in Nigeria have examined the media reportage of the BH activities, while such studies have not paid sufficient attention to metaphorisations in the representations of the news reports. This study, therefore, identifies conceptual metaphors deployed by the selected newspapers in representing the war on BH terrorism. Headline and overline stories are purposively sampled from four newspapers, published between 2011 and 2014, from the northern and southern parts of Nigeria. The purposively selected newspapers, Daily Trust, Leadership Nigeria, The Punch and The Nation, widely reported BH activities. The conceptual metaphor theory, complemented with systemic functional grammar, provided theoretical underpinnings; and the analysis reveals that the newspapers metaphorically conceptualise BH terrorism as war, evil and crime. The newspapers' metaphorical conceptualisations have cognitively tasked the readers. Readers' experience in relation to BH terrorism has been linked to the understanding of one thing in terms of the other.
Contextual triggers of family conflicts in Folake Amanfo’s celebrity marriage and Caliph Uzar’s after knot
(Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group, 2024-04) Osisanwo, A.; Akintaro, S.
This study investigates contextual triggers of family conflicts, as portrayed in Folake Amanfo’s Celebrity Marriage and Caliph Uzar’s After Knot. Aspects of pragmatic theory and context model served as the framework. Findings showed that six discursive contexts are foregrounded as triggers of family conflicts. The contexts – speculative assumption, rebuttal argument, communication gap, emotional insecurity, aggressive complaint and blame shift –realize verbal, physical, financial, and sexual family conflicts. Speculative assumption which enhances family conflict is realized through cognitive, linguistic, and social macro contexts. Rebuttal argument stimulates conflict through high voice pitch (VCE) and metaphor (MPH). Communication gap triggers conflict through (wrong) inference and linguistic context. Emotional insecurity necessitates family conflict through cognitive and linguistic contexts. Aggressive complaints and blame shift, as prompters of family conflict, are enhanced by metaphor, linguistic and social contexts. Participants within the family interactions make inferences to create and sustain family conflict.
Conversationalization of Discourse in Tell and The News’ Representation of Nigerian General Elections
(Department of English, University of Port Harcourt., 2012) Osisanwo, A.
Existing studies on media representation of elections in Nigeria did not pay adequate attention to a critical linguistic perspective on language used in reporting electoral matters. Such studies have not really examined how such ideologies could be accounted for using discourse features. Given the fact that ideologies are very crucial in elections, this study investigates the ways the cover stories in two Nigerian news magazines, Tell and The News, conversationalise the ideological pursuits of social actors in the 2003 and 2007 general elections in Nigeria. Fairclough’s model on discourse is adopted as theoretical framework. The discourse patterns that expressed ideological pursuits in the reports were generally non-neutral. The analysis shows that both magazines adopted the radical and pragmatic approaches to pattern the quotation sequence as Quoted-Process-Sayer to discursively shape the readers’ perceptions, and authenticate claims. The discourse of the stories indicated an attempt to shape the perspective of readers in elections; the magazines held the view that they are responsible for the social orientation of the electorate.
"Coronavirus is enemy, formidable and opportunistic”: Pragmatic acts in selected Covid-19 political speeches in Nigeria
(De Gruyter Brill, 2025) Osisanwo, A.; Abidoye, O.
Political speeches are fundamental instruments used by political officeholders to address pressing social and political issues. Existing works on Nigerian political speeches regarding COVID-19 have primarily focused on the speeches of former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, with limited attention paid to the COVID-19 speeches of other notable Nigerian politicians. This study, therefore, examines pragmatic acts of persuasion in selected COVID-19 political speeches of Governor Babatunde Sanwo-Olu (GBS), Dr Osagie Ehanire (DOE) and Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (PYO) on COVID-19 precautionary measures. The qualitative analysis of the data was supported by the theoretical principles of Mey’s (2001) Pragmatic Acts. Data were purposively selected because of their significance to the study’s aim and objectives. While PYO’s speech was retrieved from his website on https://www.yemiosin bajo.ng, GBS’s speech was accessed on the Facebook page of the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development (MPPUD), Lagos State. DOE’s speech was retrieved from YouTube and was later transcribed for ease of analysis. Data were subjected to pragmatic analysis. Seven practs were identified in the COVID-19 speeches: assuring, advising, pleading, reporting, informing, appreciating and stating. These practs were used to strengthen listeners’ conviction, emphasise proactiveness, show exigency, encourage alertness, create awareness, sustain moral values, and spell out the reality of COVID-19, respectively. The pragmatic resources of speech act, inference (INF), reference (REF), relevance (REL), metaphor (M), shared situation knowledge SSK) and shared cultural knowledge (SCK) were utilised by the political actors to solicit compliance with COVID-19 precautionary measures by Nigerian citizens.
Delegitimating the Nigerian state and other anti-Boko Haram in selected messages of Abubakar Shekau
(Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group, 2024) Osisanwo, A.
This paper examines the delegitimation of the Other in selected messages of Boko Haram (BH), using seven of the messages delivered by the longest-serving BH leader, Abubakar Shekau. The messages delivered during Shekau’s period as the BH leader between 2009 and 2021, were identified using f4analyse as a coding tool and discussed analytically using Theo van Leeuwen’s Discourse Legitimation approach to discourse analysis. The analysis unearths Shekau’s deployment of four delegitimation strategies: authorisation, moralisation, rationalisation and mythopoesis to discredit the actions and practices of the Other – those who do not associate with BH. The four delegitimation strategies are linguistically realised through negative other-presentation strategy. The messages deployed polarisation, other-condemnation, other-blaming, negative tagging (derogatory labelling/nomination) of anti-BH, otherexclusivity in perceived positive contexts, metaphorising, hyperbolising and euphemising to accentuate in-group consensus and ingroup solidarity. The strategies are deployed to negatively represent the Other in order to delegitimise their actions, beliefs and principles.
Directives and references in selected coronavirus-motivated internet memes
(De Gruyter Brill, 2024) Osisanwo, A.; Falade, T. M.
The use of directives in communicating the nature of the pandemic and reference to social experiences were promoted using images on social media platforms. The images or memes are used to create awareness and reinforce the criteria for safety during the pandemic. Previous studies on internet memes have concentrated on humor generation, speaker-hearer shared knowledge, neologism, and multimodality among others, with insufficient attention paid to the use of directives and references in such coronavirus-motivated memes. This paper, therefore, examines how directives and references are employed in conveying expected social responsibilities through coronavirusmotivated internet memes in Nigeria and other socio-cultural contexts. For data, one hundred coronavirus-motivated memes were purposively selected from Facebook, and eight representative memes were subjected to pragmatic analysis using aspects of Jacob Mey’s (2001. Pragmatics: An introduction, 2nd edn. USA: Blackwell Publishing) pragmatic acts theory to unearth insights from them. The paper observes that the various spheres of life that are relatable to an online audience help to express what the pandemic is about and enhance the meaning of the pandemic with the context of the use of the memes, giving clearer perspectives on the pandemic. Directives and references are useful tools for conveying social responsibilities to online audience.
Discourse Analysis
(Kraft Books Limited, 2015) Kamalu, I.; Osisanwo, A.
Discourse and visual strategies in framing internet fraudsters in selected Nigerian newspapers
(Department of English, University of Ibadan., 2021) Osisanwo, A.; Olaniyi, T.
Fraudulent activities on the Internet have become a challenge to unsuspecting internet users. Informed by the observation that the representation of internet fraudsters and their activities in the media still remains a blind spot for researchers especially within the ambit of linguistics and allied areas, this work critically examines the discourse and visual strategies that are deployed by selected Nigerian newspapers to frame internet fraudsters and their activities. Excerpts of news reports published by four national newspapers, The Punch, Nigerian Tribune, The Nation, and Vanguard, between January 2021 and May, 2021, which contained both texts and pictures about internet fraudsters, constitute the data for this study. Theoretical insights were gleaned from van Leeuwen's social actor approach to critical discourse analysis and Halliday's transitivity model. Four textual (identifying, stating, narrating and indicting) and visual (individualisation, collectivisation, location and colouration) strategies each were deployed in framing internet fraudsters as moneybags, youths, students, fetishists, impersonators and drug peddlers. Nigerian newspapers frame internet fraudsters as social actors whose actions have substantial socio-economic implications in the country.
Discourse issues in Nigerian media reportage of Pro-Biafra protests in selected newspapers
(Department of Linguistics, African Languages, and Communication Arts, Lagos State University (LASU), 2021) Osisanwo, A.; Iyoha, O.
This study examines the discourse issues in the reportage of the 2015 and 2016 pro-Biafra protests in selected Nigerian newspapers. Previous studies on the reportage of protest have examined the representational and discursive strategies as well as the ideological inclinations in news reports, leaving the discourse issues in the protest understudied. The study therefore examines the discourse issues represented in the 2015 and 2016 pro-Biafra protest presented in selected Nigerian newspapers. Data for the study were news reports purposively drawn from four widely circulated Nigerian national dailies, The Punch, The Nation, The Sun and Vanguard newspapers which allocate sufficient space to the coverage of the protests. The period covered was between 2015 and 2016, a period when the protests were prominently reported in the country. Ruth Wodak’s Discourse Historical approach to Critical Discourse Analysis and M.A.K Halliday’s Transitivity model of Systemic Functional Linguistics served as the theoretical framework of the study. The data were subjected to critical discourse analysis. The discourse issues identified include marginalisation of the Igbo, worsening economic situation, human rights abuse, injustice, corruption and unemployment
Discourse of ‘self’ and ‘other’ in newspaper editorials on insecurity in Nigeria
(Sage Publications, 2024) Osisanwo, A.
The spate of security threats in Nigeria has recently become quite alarming, dominating newspaper headlines and editorials. This article examines the discourse strategies deployed in the representation of ‘self’ and ‘other’ by editorials in two Nigerian newspapers on the security challenges in Nigeria. Drawing insights from Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive model of critical discourse analysis, the sampled editorials on insecurity in Nigeria from two e-versions of newspapers from the northern (Leadership Nigeria) and southern (Punch) parts of Nigeria, published from 2017 to 2020 are subjected to discourse analysis. The paper identified the deployment of eight discourse strategies, motivated by nationalist and humanist ideologies. The newspapers polarise between self and other through positive in-group and negative out-group ideologies on the security challenges bedevilling Nigeria with attendant implications for Africa and the world at large.
Discourse Representation in News Stories on Obasanjo’s Third- Term Plot in TELL and The News
(Faculty of Arts, University of Ibadan, 2013) Osisanwo, A.
Existing studies on media discourse have studied from different angles the use of reported language in newspaper reports. The use of reported language relates to discourse representation, and has proved to be a reliable tool in determining the faithfulness or the level of objectivity and subjectivity of news items. Meanwhile, between 2005 and 2006, there were allegations of a third-term intention by the president of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. Yet, previous studies in the discourse examination of media reports on the political terrain in Nigeria have not paid sufficient attention to the reports on the Obasanjo third-term agenda. This paper, therefore, examines the authenticity of the allegation in the reports of two purposively selected Nigerian newsmagazines, TELL and The News, on the third-term issue and describes them from a number of perspectives. It is guided by Volosinov‟s and Fairclough‟s parameters used in the representation of discourse, and Halliday‟s register variables. The paper focuses on three, that is, mode, boundary maintenance and situationality out of the five parameters used in the representation of discourse. These parameters are interpreted in terms of the overall function of reported voices in media reports and the connection between them is discussed; the functions of the register variables in the reports were also examined. The analysis shows that both magazines adopted the quotation sequence pattern as Quoted-Process-Sayer to discursively shape the readers perceptions and authenticate claims. Depth analysis proves that the discourse representation modes‟ functions are not simply restricted to faithfulness but are further related to the magazines' or reporter‟s personal involvement in selecting and processing what to report.
Discursive Construction of the Goodluck Jonathan Administration in the War against Boho Haram Terrorism in Selected Nigerian Newspapers
(Department of English, University of Ibadan., 2016) Osisanwo, A.
Discursive representation of Boko Haram terrorism in selected Nigerian newspapers
(Sage Publications, 2016) Osisanwo, A.
Studies on terrorism with bias towards Boko Haram (BH) have mainly been carried out from nonlinguistic fields. The few linguistics-related studies that have examined the media reportage of the BH activities, with emphasis on the discourse and linguistic strategies deployed in the representations, have not been sufficient. This study, therefore, identifies the linguistic and discourse strategies deployed by selected newspapers in representing the BH and other social actors. For data, headline and overline stories are purposively sampled from four newspapers, published from 2011 to 2014, from the northern (Daily Trust and Leadership Nigeria) and southern (The Punch and The Nation) parts of Nigeria. The analysis is guided by a combination of critical discourse analysis and systemic functional linguistics. In all the reports subjected to analysis, 13 representational strategies were identified, while at least 15 tools from Van Leeuwen’s categorisations were used in representing social actors. The newspapers also deployed discourse strategies to manage the voices of social actors, identify and specify the social actors and action, label, condemn BH activities, among others. The mediated reports on BH insurgency orientate Nigerians.
Discursive strategies in selected political campaign songs in Southwestern Nigeria
(Science Publishing Group, 2020) Osisanwo, A.
"Discursive strategies are often deployed to create awareness, capture and persuade electorate in political campaign songs. Existing scholarly works on political and electoral issues have examined different aspects of political discourses but have not sufficiently examined the import of political campaign songs in electoral and political discourses. Therefore, this paper examines the use of political campaign songs in southwestern Nigeria with a view to identifying the discursive strategies deployed to persuade the electorate. The YouTube Channel was visited in order to retrieve the transcript of political campaign jingles used during the 2011, 2015 and 2019 general elections in southwestern Nigeria. The selected period comprised the most recent general elections in the region. Guided by relevant aspects of the socio-cognitive model of critical discourse analysis, data were subjected to discourse analysis. The analysis uncovers the vital relationship existing between the political campaign songs and the Nigerian socio-cultural spatial setting that produced them. Eight discursive strategies: allusion (historical, religious/biblical, socio-cultural), propaganda, indigenous/native language usage and code alternation, reference to collective ownership, figurative/proverbial expressions, adaptation of common musical tune, and rhythmicity were identified. Politicians use different discursive and rhetorical strategies in their political campaign songs to open the door to the heart of the electorate.
Discursive Tropes of Aggression Against Queer-Sexuality in Nigerian Standup Comedy
(Springer, 2024) Ilesanmi, O.; Osisanwo, A.
The increase in the online presence of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) persons is astounding, despite the threat to their security, especially in the Nigerian context. Extending debates on linguistic and non-linguistic research on queer-sexuality, this paper examines the discursive patterns in the jokes of Nigerian standup comedians (NSCs), who occasionally project idiosyncratic ideologies about Nigerian LGBTQ persons. The argument advanced in this paper is that though LGBTQ contents are applied to challenge Nigerian laws against gender and sexual minorities, Nigerian humour producers continue to criminalise homosexuality and transgenderism comically. Using insights from Jacob Mey’s Pragmatic Acts Theory (PAT) and Meyer’s Superiority Theory of Humour (STH), this paper probes how pragmatic variables interact with humour strategies to tease out specific discursive tropes in the linguistic acts of NSCs. The selection of joke routines is purposive and based on Nigerian humour productions of “Pencil Unbroken Show” AY Live and African Kings of Comedy between 2013 and 2023 on YouTube media. Seven texts are selected and subjected to pragmatic and humour analysis. Ten discursive patterns alongside shared linguistic and situational knowledge, inferences, voice, reference and metaphor are deployed to demystify the motivations for queerness in Nigerian standup comedy. The study reflects aggression against queer-sexuality from the point of view of the Nigerian religious, political, socio-cultural and legal contexts. It also indicates that NSCs strive to enforce conservative standards and deploy humour as a corrective measure to identify LGBTQ persons as threats, offenders, victims, unfit, mentally unstable and illusive.