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DIALOGUE AS DISCOURSE: AN ANALYSIS OF NTA KADUNA EDITORIAL BOARD’S USE OF LANGUAGE

ABSTRACT

This study seeks to examine the spoken language used during NTA Kaduna Newsroom Editorial Board Meetings with the aim of describing the nature of its dialogue, providing an assessment of it, and exposing the peculiarities therein. It brings to the fore features that have otherwise not been observed in newsroom dialogue. The usual assumption by discourse analysts is that language used in institutionalized or formal settings is structured and follows the tenets of Discourse Analysis. As a result, there is a disparity in language use in spontaneous and institutionalized settings. Chapter one focuses on the background to the study. It also presents a brief insight into the case study and the profiles of a few of its staff. It also examines the research problem, aims, scope and delimitation as well as the significance of the study. Chapter two looks at scholarly works that help in understanding discourse analysis and the description of a newsroom, makeup of the editorial board, language use in context, conversational implicature, conversational structure, theoretical framework which was founded on Paul H. Grices‟ pragmatic principles and ethnomethodology. Chapter three is the methodology where data for this research was gathered by means of tape recordings. The use of recorded dialogue was to enable the researcher to observe the proceedings within a newsroom firsthand from an observer‟s point of view. This was done over a period of two weeks. Chapter four assesses the newsroom dialogue. To accomplish this task, two research questions were answered. The study employed the free transcription style in the analysis of its data. Chapter five takes us to a Pragmatic insight which forms the basis for arrival at our conclusion. This study observes that language use within the newsroom is not fashioned in the usual manner of language use in institutionalized settings. It notes that spontaneity is a key feature in newsroom discourse. It recommends that language use in other institutionalized settings should be analysed as well for their flexibility as it pertains to spontaneity and also of the use of other theoretical genres of linguistics for the analysis of dialogue as discourse should be considered.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Language serves as a means of communication and it is one of the tools employed by all fields of human endeavour especially areas where speech is vital for the smooth running of activities. The mere fact that man needs language to communicate with other humans alike, makes language a part of human exercise. English can be referred to as the language that has gained international recognition and Nigeria is not spared the influence of this language. English is a non-native language in Nigeria because it is not the language of any particular ethnic group in the country.

Spencer (1991) in Banjo (1995) states that language has been used in Nigeria since the 16th century and was institutionalised in the 19th century during the Colonial era. Bamgbose (1995) identifies five dimensions of the influence of English in the Nigerian environment: educational, political, cultural, sociolinguistic and linguistic as having contributed to the modification of the language in the Nigerian environment and the thereby, placing it in its present status which can stand alongside World Englishes. Jowitt (1995) looks into the National Language question with the hope that indigenous languages will challenge the pre-eminence of English in domains of government and higher education whilst noting that English language in Nigeria has variants that enjoy a relationship with the Nigerian culture. It could be said that this may have been possible through its contact with Nigerian Languages and has thereby reached an extent in which “each creatively, influences the other” -ibid. Thus, the language has gradually risen in its status especially in relation to the indigenous languages. It is now a popular linguistic discourse to refer to the English language in Nigeria in terms such as „first', 'second', „foreign' or 'official'. Hence, the language is used in NTA Kaduna Newsroom while blending it with an indigenous language.