The Pragmatics of Linguistic Creativity in Nigeria's 2023 Elections Campaign Discourse

Abstract

Elections in Nigeria, as is also obtainable in other countries of the world are characterized by a unique use of linguistic creativity and language codification during campaigns. This is made possible by the different campaign mechanisms employed by different political bodies to market their candidates and as well, de-market candidates of rival political parties. The campaigns preceding the 2023 general elections in Nigeria provide us with a set of unique and creatively inspired texts. The main objective of this study is to understudy the socio-pragmatic content of these texts which manifest mostly as neologisms. The data for this study were elicited using ethnographic approaches and were descriptively analyzed using the principles of post-colonial pragmatics by Anchimbe and Janney (2011,) and Stalnaker’s (2002) common ground notion. Findings indicate that although some of the neologisms used in the 2023 general elections were completely new, some were recycled from previous electioneering periods. The neologisms were basically employed as means of showing intra party and inter party or group identities.