GVU Journal of Language, Literature and African Studies

A Social Semiotic Study of Institutional Corruption in Editorial Cartoons of Nigeria’s Vanguard Online News Outlet

2023-06-11T04:32:46+03:00

Editorial cartoon is a medium of socio-political critique and has received intellectual patronage. However, extant studies are yet to access the utilisation of semiotic resources for transmitting contextual meanings in editorial cartoons published within the Nigerian socio-cultural milieu. This article extends the frontiers of the existing literature by exploring the effect of context in the selection and appropriation of semiotic resources in selected editorial cartoons of Vanguard Online news outlet. The data include ten purposively-selected Cartoon Sargeeditorial cartoons obtained from www.vanguardngr.com ). The recurring themes in the cartoons were identified and discussed via content description while Kress and van Leeuwen’s Visual Grammar and insights from Mey’s Pragmatic Acts served as theoretical underpinnings for the data analysis. The analysis reveals that the processes of meaning making in the editorial cartoons is facilitated by semiotic resources appropriated in the editorial cartoons and extralinguistic variables such as shared background knowledge of word choices, referents, references and analogies included in the editorial cartoons also add as meaning making strategies. Also, the result of the analysis indicated that editorial cartoons published within the Nigerian clime is a viable medium through which sociopolitical satire can be hurled in the direction of defaulting government agencies.

A Syntactic Analysis of Commentaries of the Selected European Football Matches

2023-06-11T21:50:01+03:00

Language is inherently adaptive as it has the undeniable potential to adapt to every aspect of human endeavours. It is the nexus that binds people and society together. It is undeniably relevant to every field of human endeavours as there is hardly any aspect of human fields where language is not relevant or being used. Every aspect of human endeavours where language is being used can be referred to as context of situations. Language is therefore context-bound, specific and sensitive as it can mostly be understood or interpreted based on the context it is being used. Football commentaries discourse is one of many contexts where language is being used to describe the events on football pitches during football matches. The study therefore identified and discussed the sentence types inherent in the select commentaries of European football matches. It also related the sentence types to the context of selected football commentaries. This was with a view to characterising the soccer commentary genre. The study employed both primary and secondary sources of data. The primary data consisted of commentaries of the following three European Football Matches: the 2005 Champions League final match between AC Milan and Liverpool football club, the 2008 Champions League final match between Chelsea and Manchester United football clubs and the 2012 Champions League final match between Bayern Munich and Chelsea football clubs. The selected football commentaries were chosen because the commentators were considered good exemplars of the English language usage. The data were downloaded from www.youtube.com. The data were analysed based on Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics. The secondary data include books, journal articles and the Internet. The findings showed that there was a prevalent use of ellipsis, substitutions, non-finite clauses, simple and compound sentences. The findings further showed the use of thematisations in the commentaries. More importantly was the predominant use of minor sentences in a way that made football commentaries a distinct genre. The study concluded that there were inherent linguistic features that made the selected football commentaries distinct from any other discourse.

A Non-Verbal Study of Some Presidential Debates: An Interactional Sociolinguistic Reflections

2023-06-11T22:54:47+03:00

The aim of this study is to uncover the discourse characteristics of election debates in Nigeria using the interpretive text of interactional sociolinguistics. The objectives are to identify and analyse the non-verbal interactional sociolinguistic features in the responses of the presidential aspirants. The data is drawn from presidential debate organised by the Nigerian Election Debate Group (NEDG) on 22nd March, 2015. This presidential debate was purposively selected because of the fact, it was the last debate that Nigeria has experienced till date. The analysis is guided by the concept of non-verbal contextualisational cues of Gumperz (1982) model of interactional sociolinguistic framework. The findings reveal various verbal features which manifested through different non-verbal features. The findings show that the aspirants made use of non-verbal features such as gestures, facial expressions and gaze as emotional qualifiers in their responses to convey meanings in the debate. They were illustrated to reveal the aspirants’ emotional feelings towards the electorate and the country. The study is significant as it has contributed to the existing literature in non-verbal communication and the analysis has helped in understanding of the debates.

Gender Frustration in the African Novel: Matters Arising

2023-06-11T23:37:33+03:00

In many countries of the world especially in Africa, men have enjoyed patriarchal domination over their female counterparts. This subjugated position women are expected to maintain is reflected in the character representation of women in some male-authored African novels. In recent times however, the focus is gradually shifting from inter-gender conflict to intra-gender conflict as well as trans-sexualism in the African novel. This aspect of gender discourse has not enjoyed adequate scholarly attention. Womanism, Marxist Feminism and Intertextuality are adopted as the theoretical framework of the study. This study adopts content analysis of two texts: Night Dancer by Chika Unigwe (West Africa), and Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz (North Africa). The reading and analysis of the selected texts reveal that trans-sexualism is on the front-burner of gender discourse in the African novel. In the contemporary African novel, there have been instances of male/female writers writing in favour of the opposite sex. This is evident in Palace Walk, where the writer, through the characterisation of the protagonist, Jawad, shows empathy for the plight of women in a patriarchal society. More so, there is the issue of intra-gender conflict in contemporary African novels. This is reflected in the conflict between mother and daughter in Night Dancer. The paper proffers a new approach to gender discourse in contemporary African novel in which case the focus is no longer on inter-gender conflicts in which male/female writers antagonise the opposite sex. Rather, there is an intra-gender conflict which reveals an apparent dynamic shift in the gender discourse of the African novel.

A Historical Perspective of Pan-Africanism and The Unity of the Black Race

2023-06-12T11:20:22+03:00

Pan-Africanism is a child of circumstance. The evolution and development of the movement or concept could be viewed in accordance with the prevailing situation the continental Africans and AfroAmerican/Diasporan Africans found themselves. Ranging from the experience of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, European imperialism and the challenges of race relation, the black man has continued to be a subject of discourse. This study undertook a survey of the evolution of PanAfricanism – a movement or concept that aspires for the unity and solidarity of the black race all over the world. It examined the contributions of both the Diasporan and Continental Africans to the PanAfrican movement in the period prior to and during the World Wars. The methodology adopted in this study is a historical narrative approach in highlighting, discussing and evaluating the role the key players, organisations and other stakeholders played in their efforts at unifying the entire black race through ideas and initiatives that emerged in each of the phases of the movement. The paper concluded that while the movement has to a large extent made appreciable progress, there are still hurdles to overcome in uniting the black race.

Women Political Leaders in Africa

2023-06-12T12:00:01+03:00

This paper is titled Women Political Leaders in Africa. It traces the history of women in political leadership positions and the roles they played in redefining the politics of their respective countries from the pre-colonial, through the colonial to the post-colonial periods. It argues that although women played important roles in the development of their various countries in times past and fought along their male counterparts in the struggle for independence, their number and status in leadership positions in African politics today do not reflect the numerous roles they played. Therefore, enhancing their status would go a long way towards overcoming population, food, and political problems and would boost economic growth and political development.

The study employs a historical approach and uses books, journal articles and internet materials for its data collection. It concludes that Africa will attain the peaceful, inclusive, buoyant and just society it requires if more women like their male counterparts are encouraged to take up leadership positions and be part of the decision making that directly affect the population. It recommends that the continent would do better if more women are given their rightful positions in the decision making and implementation in their respective countries; more women should be encouraged to take up those courses reserved for men to enable them challenge and change the discriminatory attitudes and practices that limit their political activities in Africa.

Good Governance: A Pathway to Sustainable National Development in Nigeria

2023-06-12T12:15:39+03:00

Good Governance is intended to enable a government to effectively and efficiently manage, control and harness both human and material resources for the overall development of a particular country. Indeed, Good Governance has a crucial role to play in ensuring that the welfare of the citizenry is improved through the provision of some basic necessities of life. The paper argues that lack of Good Governance is a major challenge to Nigeria’s National Development in the Fourth Republic. The paper, therefore, argues for Good Governance as a panacea for sustainable national development in Nigeria. In doing this, the paper relies heavily on secondary sources of historical data. The paper concludes by recommending that political office holders should be visionary, selfless, accountable and responsive to the needs and yearnings of the citizenry.

Problèmes de Compréhension de Lecture Rencontrés Par les Étudiants à l’Université de Samuel Adegboyega

2023-06-12T14:34:36+03:00

Cet article vise à étudier les problèmes de compréhension de lecture rencontrés par les étudiants de l’Université de Samuel Adegboyega. Cette étude vise également à mieux comprendre les facteurs affectant la compréhension en lecture des élèves. À cette fin, le chercheur a utilisé un questionnaire qui comprend des énoncés généraux sur les principaux problèmes auxquels les élèves sont confrontés dans la compréhension de la lecture. Les participants à cette étude sont 20 (vingt) étudiants (10 (dix) hommes et 10

(dix) femmes) du Département des langues de l’Université de Samuel Adegboyega. Les résultats de l'étude indiquent que les élèves ont une estimation élevée de certains problèmes qu'ils rencontrent dans la compréhension de la lecture en raison de la complexité des textes, de l'anxiété et de la reconnaissance des mots (décodage). Les résultats de l'étude ont également révélé qu'il y avait des différences statistiquement significatives entre les élèves de sexe masculin et féminin en ce qui concerne leurs problèmes de compréhension de lecture.

Problèmes Confrontés dans l’Apprentissage du Français au Nigeria

2023-06-12T14:59:51+03:00

Les professeurs de français sont confrontés à des problèmes dans leurs enseignements en classe. Certains d’entre eux incluent l’interférence de la langue maternelle (L1), l’utilisation de matériel didactique, les défis des installations technologiques modernes, la confusion du français cible. La langue et même les défis personnels des apprenants et des enseignants. Ces défis peuvent affecter les processus d’apprentissage dans les classes. Cet article discutera de certains problèmes rencontrés dans la classe de français et proposera des recommandations pour résoudre certains de ces problèmes.