Speech acts in herders-farmers’ conflict in Nigerian newspaper headlines

Abstract The present study examines the patterns of speech act in the herdsmen-farmers conflict (HFC) news headlines and interrogates the choice of words and context of the patterns of speech act in the headlines. The study adopts Searle, John. 1969. Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Approach to speech act considering its relevance to the study of news headlines. Six Nigerian newspapers that cover a period between March 2019 and March 2021 were selected. Hundred headlines were sampled from each of the selected newspapers making a total of 600 headlines. Twenty-five were purposively selected for analysis. Four illocutionary acts were identified in the newspapers’ headlines, namely, assertive, commissive, directive, and declarative. The study submits that the headlines are capable of spiraling the conflict, therefore, newspaper writers should use headlines that can help to curb the conflict and readers must also go beyond the headlines because of their sensationalism.