Harrison
Adeniyi
Lagos State
University, Nigeria
O. Rachael Bello
Lagos
State University, Nigeria
Abstract
For some time now, the female gender has strived to make an
impression in the supposedly male dominated world. Consequently, several
methods ranging from symposia, workshops, conferences, publications to appeal
have been adopted to find a position for the female in the globe. In all of
this, both the verbal and non-verbal means of communication are adopted. In
Nigeria today, the woman has succeeded in finding her voice both in marriage
and even outside marriage. Thus, contrary to what used to exist especially in
the Northern part of the country and especially among members of the Islamic
religion, talking about marriage and the rights of the woman, the women by
their choice of diction now can determine their lot in wedlock and their choice
to be let loose of the marital bondage. In this paper, we explore how the Nigerian
female, through her choice of words, not only make her intentions known but also
succeed at persuading her listeners to understand her plight. In doing this, we
examine the divorce discourse of The Punch Newspaper between 1st
January 2012 to 29 September, 2015. Adopting Engberg’s (2010) second role of
language for specific purposes, we unravel how the Nigerian females in the
divorce dilemma combine discourse features, established through cultural
knowledge and social background to fight her course. As suggested by Engberg,
(2010) therefore, it was discovered from the analyzed data that the basic
assumption lying behind the subject’s choice of diction is marked by the
characteristics of the participants in the communication business and the
purposes pursed by the female participants. Apart from their use of metaphors,
simile, analogy rhetoric, concession strategy etc., the female participants in
this register also appeal to emotions. Such is the case with one of the
informant’s claim: “Please, I still need him; he is the father of my child;
don’t separate us”. Also discovered in the data is the diction of common
knowledge as well as the diction of abstraction as found in: “I am always
available for his sexual satisfaction, but he does not respond”.
Keywords: Marital Freedom, Saturday Punch Newspaper, Diction,
Empowerment, Divorce Registers
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