Abstract

This work investigates pragmatic features of politeness in select Nigerian Newspaper Editorials. It affirms the fact that language is central to newspaper communication and can take different forms and shapes in order to inform, interpret and entertain its audience. This study assesses the various politeness maxims exploited and violated in select newspaper editorials the Daily sun, the Nation and Thisday Newspaper. It also examines the various presuppositions, deixis and honorifics in use in these select editorials. This study is hinged on the theoretical framework propounded by leech (1983) on politeness principles. The study adopts a text based descriptive methodology in analyzing twelve editorials randomly selected from three national newspapers basically on politics and democracy in relation to the 2015 election. Findings from the investigation indicates that Nigerian newspaper editorial texts on politics rely heavily on existential presupposition (definite descriptions) and little of structured and factive presupposition. There are also evidences of deixis and honorifics, exploitation of these maxim: approbation, tact, sympathy, modesty, agreement and consideration/pollyana principle but we have more of violations of these maxims. No cases of lexical, factive, non-factive, counter factual presupposition were observed. The study concludes that the language use in newspaper editorials employ more of violation of politeness maxims than exploiting them. This is consequent upon reporting events the way they are. It is therefore recommended that the language users should exploit the maxims of politeness appropriately, irrespective of the situation confronting them.

CHAPTER ONE – GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

The function of the print media in a democratic process have elicited much interest from media practioners. Onyeka (2005) opines that the print media is an important element of public life and media institutions like any other are governed by traditions and dynamics of their own. Duyile (2005:110) informs that an important task for the media under democratic rule is to monitor political life and to draw the attention of voters to how politicians are fulfilling their responsibilities to the society. Therefore, the need for a balanced interpretation of the days happenings is central to the process.

Onyeka (2005:13) notes that critics of media assume that there is a perfectly objective way to represent each event in the world. They assume that deviation from fair representation can be accounted for by media bias Onyeka elaborates that ‘bias’ in this context means that the reporter or editor knows what the real event look like, but will colour it to advance a political, economic or ideological aim.

Onabajo (2000) illustrates his view by arguing, that in exercising control, many owners of newspaper across the world prefer to remain at a distance from the editorial affairs. Awoyinfa and Igwe (1991) argues that objective journalists are not devoid of opinion, nor do they entirely refrain from expressing them. Indeed, their opinion are what readers want in the form of editorials and commentary column. The print media provides more Leeway for the opinions of editors, journalist and ordinary citizens to express themselves. Editorial allow for open debate and discussion on important issues.

In every information flow, language plays a very vital role. Information is essentially transmitted by the different media of communication using language. Language is a social institution when viewed as a system of vocal and linguistic symbols used in a particular society. The essence of language whether spoken or written is for communication. Communication through language takes place within the context of social activities like journalism, law, medicine, religion, advertising etc. These varieties have a lot that differentiate them as variants of the same language and each variety is distinct based on the social activities and context of usage. The purpose of language according to O’ Grady (2011) is to transfer meaning from one human mind to another, language in this instance is both speech and written forms of language. Crystal (1987) points out that language possesses special powers. Whenever language fails in its communicative purposes in conveying or carrying meaning, then it has lost the status and prestige of being called a product of language and wear the garb of noise.

The creativity of language goes hand in hand with the presence of systematic constraints that establish the boundaries within which innovation can occur. These innovations depend on knowing the rules that are the integral part of our knowledge of language. Speakers of a language are able to produce and understand an unlimited number of utterances including many that are novel and unfamiliar. The journalist while reporting news interact with a mixed audience that is made up of the different classes of the society ranging from the literate and semi –literate who can read and understand the language used.

Osuafor (2004:10) points out that even when the journalist speaks, he often relies on written matter and the result is still the kind of writing we find in newspaper and magazines, also whether the journalist is examining, criticizing, providing information he finds himself communicating with different classes of the society- the literate and semi-literate who can understand the language being used. Although the journalist deals with a variety of issues and unlimited subjects, his reader is the general public not a chosen class. Thus, the best writers of all time were never those who were hardly understood. Duyile (2005:50) echoes the need for clarity and avoidance of the use of ambiguous words and terms in journalistic report writing by stating that the purpose of news writing is to communicate the news to the reader not to confound and confuse him, to make explicit and clear rather than enigmatic and complex.

As we try to determine what people mean by what they say, we usually need to accept or accommodate a great deal of information which we feel is known to both the speaker and ourselves. There should be a shared knowledge of information.

Information is said to produce a contextual effect, if it interacts with the linguistic and extra linguistic context by having implications that yield new information that conforms, contradicts or otherwise modifies the hearers previously held assumptions and beliefs with regard to some proposition.

The background to this study consequently dwells on using pragmatic principles to investigate how editors in their editorial manipulate forms and structures of English language to transmit meaning and make their target audience understand the language being used. English is the language predominantly used in the publication of the editorials of Nigeria print media.

1.2 Purpose of the Study

It is the claim of pragmatics based approach that texts do not have meaning rather in producing texts people intend meanings. Thus a text can only be approached through an interpretation, that is to say that the translators attempt to understand the authors’ intents in creating the source text for their audience and then recreates to an extent that intent for the target audience using the target language. Yule (2007:127) sees pragmatics as the study of intended speakers’ meaning. It is in many ways the study of invisible meaning or how we recognize what is meant even when it is not actually said or written.           The purpose of this study is to subject the select editorials in the Nigerian dailies- the Daily sun newspaper, the Nation newspaper and Thisday Newspaper to descriptive analysis using Leech politeness principles.

This study sets out to:

1. examine the politeness maxims exploited in select newspaper editorials.
2. examine the politeness maxims violated in these newspaper editorial discourse.

• assess the presuppositions in use in these select newspaper editorial.

1. highlight the honorifics used by these editorials.
2. also examine the deixis in use in these newspaper editorials.

1.3 Research Problem

Akpan (2000:70) asserts ‘language and Style are personal to editorial writers. Each has his language and style. Despite each editors uniqueness in an editorial, its purpose to convince or persuade is still retained. Editorials are written from different angles to achieve a target. Editorial could be explanatory or interpretative text, persuasive text, constructively critique texts, exhortive texts. The angle an editor chooses determines his language use. Previous studies have explained newspaper editorials from the perspective of grammar, discourse on title or subject matter of editorials, examination of newspaper editorials through lexical (vocabulary) approach. However the study of invisible meaning of a text or how we recognize what is actually meant has not been fully explored. Newspaper editorial have not been explored from the pragmatic perspective consequently this study sets out to examine the politeness principles by Leech (1983), how these maxims are exploited and also violated, assess the various presupposition in use in the select editorials and also examine deixis and honorifics in use by these editors.

1.4 Research Questions

The following questions guide our inquiry

1. To what extent do politeness maxims enhance political editorial discourse?
2. To what extent do presuppositions impact on political editorial treatise?
3. How do deictic usages affect political editorial discourse?
4. To what extent do honorifics affect editorial write-ups?

1.5 Hypotheses

The following hypotheses guide our inquiry

1. There are peculiar politeness maxims exploited and violated in the select newspaper editorials
2. There are peculiar pre suppositions used in the select newspaper editorials.
3. There are deictic usages in these select newspaper editorials.
4. There are honorifics used as politeness markers in these select newspaper editorials

1.6 Delimitation and scope of the Study

The scope of this study is limited to three National Dailies, the Daily sun, the Nation and Thisday newspaper. The issue in the editorials is limited to politics, democracy and national issues. This is purely a pragmatic study and not a stylistic or discourse study. The research work is not an attempt to criticize or perjure these newspaper house and the Nigerian government, but an analysis of language use in editorials.

1.7 Limitations of the Study

This research faced little limitations in the area of data collection. The issue analyzed in the work is strictly politics in relation to 2015 elections and collection of data was not easy as editorials write ups vary on daily basis.

1.8 Significance of the Study

Editorial is one of the most important features in modern day journalism (print media) therefore understanding the message the editor is putting across to its readers is to be encouraged. The need for politeness, which in the context of pragmatics can be glossed roughly as tact is an important aspect of communication. In politics, a well chosen face threatening putdown can be destabilizing.

Apart from this study being of relevance to the teaching of ESL, this study has direct relevance to political sciences, psychology, socio linguistic. There is therefore need for the people to understand their leaders in relation to specific events in the polity, and also criticize or applaud them and this can only be achieved through accurate interpretation of facts presented especially through the print media which has a very wide audience participation.

1.9 Choice of Texts

The texts selected for analysis are newspaper editorials from the Nation, Thisday and the Daily sun newspapers. These texts chosen discussed politics, democracy and national issues in relation to Nigeria 2015 election. The text chosen covers a period of eight months from September 2014 to March 2015.

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