A LEXICO-PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE INAUGURAL SPEECH OF NIGERIAN SPEAKER OF HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Studies abound on language and politics in Nigeria. Indeed, the nexus between the two central terms can never be overemphasized. It is noteworthy that although various studies abound on political speeches, the speeches of Nigerian Speakers of House of Representatives have not received much attention. Hence, this study intends to provide an elaborate analysis of the Inaugural speech of Nigerian Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2011, Rt Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, through lexical cohesion theory, to demonstrate the inherent lexical choices as devices deployed to perform accentuation, which is primarily and traditionally, as a pragmatic function. The lexical choices made by the speaker demonstrated him as a politician who has employed the choices to achieve pragmatic functions to fulfil social functions.