A Stylistic Analysis of Some Selected Political Speeches by John Evans Atta Mills

Abstract

The research investigates some selected political speeches delivered by John Evans Atta Mills. The selected speeches span almost every sphere of his political life, including; a campaign speech (as an opposition leader in the run- up to the 2008 elections), an inaugural speech, an independent day speech, a republic day speech and a new year‟s eve message to the nation (all as president). The objective is to unravel the stylistically significant features prevalent in the selected speeches, find a possible relationship between the background of the speaker and the stylistic features, and ascertain whether or not the inherent stylistic features project him as a Man of Peace as he was acclaimed. Through an eclectic approach, the analysis encapsulates the metafunctions as postulated in Halliday‟s Systemic Functional Linguistics and Onah‟s Concept of Peace as perceived in the African Traditional culture as its framework. The analysis of the data is structured on Fairclough‟s three dimensional models which include; a textual analysis, a discursive analysis and a socio-cultural analysis (2001). The findings show that the speaker employed stylistic features such as positive self-projection, repetition, code switching, biblical allusions, historical allusions, a fatherly imagery and the imagery of a preacher. Also inherent in these stylistic features is the speaker‟s mental disposition, his world view and traces of his background. The manner in which these prevalent stylistic features were employed by the speaker with respect to the underlining socio-political, socio-cultural and religious situation of the country project him as a Man of Peace