A Linguistic-stylistic Analysis of Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq’s Inaugural Speech (2019)

Political speeches are frequently loaded with meanings; people tend to misconstrue as well as give false interpretation to what is said and how it is said. This research aims at examining the linguistic-stylistic elements used in Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq’s inaugural speech with a view to identifying how these elements achieve communicative effects to the audience. Governor AbdulRahman’s inaugural speech serves as the data for this study, and the speech was delivered at his swearing-in ceremony as the 20th governor of Kwara State on 29th May, 2019. Halliday and Matthiessen’s (2014) Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) serves as the theoretical framework. The analysis of this text is carried out along the linguistic levels of analysis, which are syntactic, lexico-semantic and cohesive levels. The study reveals that the governor’s speech is made up of 43 sentences; 21 sentences (48.8%) are simple sentences; 5 sentences (11.6%) are compound sentences; 9 sentences (20.9%) are complex sentences; while 8 (18.6%) are compound-complex sentences. The dominant use of simple sentences in the speech aligns with the simple and determining attitude of politicians in getting what they want. The analysis also reveals that the imposition of synonyms and antonyms in the speech helped in enhancing the cohesive quality of the text. Hence, it is concluded that the language of the governor exhibits some unique language features with the intent of exerting great influence on the masses, and grasping power and consolidating it.