Language, Power, and Ideology: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Selected Speeches of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and John Dramani Mahama

Abstract

This study analyses the power relations, ideologies and persuasive techniques employed through language in the selected campaign speeches of two presidential candidates – Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and John Dramani Mahama during the 2012 general elections in Ghana. The linguistic and textual features of the selected speeches and the socio-cultural situations that influence the speeches are considered in the analysis. The analysis employs analytical frameworks mainly in a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) fashion with other related frameworks serving as associations. (Fairclough 1989, 1992, Halliday 1978, Wodak 1996). It analyses these under three subtopics: Descriptive, Interpretational and Explanational to reveal the implicit underpinnings by which the speakers sought to persuade their audience to endorse their quest for power. The analysis is undertaken through an eclectic selection of sections of the data. The findings reveal that the selected candidates develop power relations, and use strategies that are ideologically motivated in presenting their ideas to the audience. These strategies have an ultimate aim of persuading the audience to endorse their bid for the position of president. The relations developed and ideologies presented by the speakers are weaved into the speeches implicitly and explicitly. The analysis reveals the following persuasive strategies among others: self projections; blurred agency; literary devices; intertextuality; speech acts which are developed and supported by appropriate interpretations of the social practices of context towards persuading the audience.