Collocational choices in the discourse activities of select paramilitary formations in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper investigated the collocational choices used among three Nigerian paramilitary formations in their official discourse activities with a view to ascertaining the contextual meanings of the lexical choices. Data for the study were collected by means of participant observation and key informant interview (KII) of randomly selected segments of members in the office environment, patrol duties and muster parades. The findings showed that personnel of the formations used peculiar collocational choices in their formal discourse engagements with a high level of competence that enhanced in-group mutual intelligibility and solidarity. Categorically, the collocational choices occurred in eight different combinations: noun-noun, adjective-noun, verb-noun, adverb-adjective, adverb-verb, adverb-noun, noun-adjective and verb-adverb lexically compatible to advance institutionally modelled meanings. The lexical collocations are prominently two content words in the open class system consciously devised to communicate professional orientation for the discharge of their security and safety-related statutory duties.

Emotional women and promiscuous men: Language use as discursive stances of wives on cheating husbands

“…In such contexts, the meaning of the emotional expressions and the stance they insinuate are context-dependent, and construed in the differences in appraisal patterns. Uwen [25,26] , and Uwen and Ellah [27] argue that this conception helps to convey situated meanings that define the social context which are only comprehensible to the interlocutors. Meaning here, according to Ukam and Uwen [28] is emphasized in the tone, stress and choice of words by participants.…”