Browsing by Author "Ibrahim Omolabi"

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    A critical-pragmatic study of the representation of female gender in Nigerian Hip-hop music
    (JAHCA, 2023) Ibrahim Omolabi
    Hip-hop music has become a popular trend in Nigeria, as it enjoys a high level of acceptance among the Nigerian youths. Thus, this study examines the representation of female gender in hip hop music and the messages the music conveyed about female gender; it also unravels the hidden pragmatic meanings behind the content of the music. Nine (9) data from the lyrics of selected hip hop music were randomly selected and analysed using Mey's (2001) pragmatic act theory. This paper adopted a qualitative approach which is due of the nature of the data that was analysed and the approach that was used in analysing it. Findings revealed a dominant portrayal of slangy expressions suggesting sexual overtimes, female as mere edibles, women as sexual stimulant, seductive dance steps, and indecent dressing in the lyrical contents sampled. The paper also revealed that the implicit practs of exposing, seducing, luring and proposing were used in the data to show the role females play as characters in hip-hop music videos. The paper concludes that the use of vulgar expressions in the description of these female characters portrayed them mainly as sex commodities and sex workers, this questions the dignity of the African woman and the virtues she is expected to project to her fellow female folk, home and abroad. Keywords: Hip hop, Gender, Inequalities, Practs, Pragmatic Acts
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    A Linguistic Stylistic Study of Selected AbdulRasheed Na’allah’s Ilorin Praise Poetry
    (2021) Ibrahim Omolabi
    Linguistic stylistics explores the linguistic features of a text; it is primarily concerned with the use of language and its effect in a text. This study is aimed at analysing the language structure/system of Abdulrasheed Na’Allah’s Ilorin praise poetry in order to render a linguistic description that is, identifying the linguistic features of Na’Allah’s poems and describing how they deviated from the known rules to create effect. The study purposively selected three (3) poems from the collection of Ilorin praise poetry. Some aspects of stylistic features at the lexical, syntactic and semantic levels were adopted in the analysis of the data collected from a selection of words and structures in the poems. Findings reveal that the poet incorporates certain marked pattern devices such as imagery, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, etc. to enrich the language of the poem in a bid to show prominence of his intended message to the readers through effective transmission of ideas and message. It was also revealed that meaning potentials were used in a manner that give prominence to his choice of language in a way that the description and representation of ideas used were distinctively made explicit for example, the poet used metaphor to draw attention of the reader to the despicable condition of Ilorin markets and heroes, and also used to give clearness and liveliness to things being praised. It was also found that the poet made use of repetition of same words or phrases at beginning, in close and end of successive stages as in the case of anaphora, epizeux and symploce to secure emphasis and draw the readers’ attention to certain issues. The study concludes that the linguistic choice and pattern in a work of art determines the style of language use; therefore, language is a powerful tool in the hands of poets; they manipulate the tool to suit their purposes.
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    A Pragma-Crafting Study of President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2022 Democracy Day Speech
    (2022) Ibrahim Omolabi
    A Pragma-Crafting Study of President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2022 Democracy Day Speech Political speeches have been studied from different perspectives and using different ways of analyses. However, existing studies on these political speeches have largely been focused on interviews, inaugurals, democracy speeches, media interviews, etc. using the tools of speech acts, pragmatic acts, critical studies and stylistics. Despite these, there are still insufficient studies of analyses of political discourse using Achoea’s Pragma Crafting Theory as a new paradigm of speech act theory. This paper, therefore examines a pragma-crafting study of President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2022 Democracy Day Speech with a view to seeing how politicians use language to win the support of the masses. The speech was downloaded from the internet, and a total of eight (8) extracts were drawn from the transcript extracted from NTA Station and were rigorously analysed using a random sampling technique. The speech systematically uses Pragma crating theory as the theoretical framework underpinning the study. Findings revealed that democracy speeches are structured in different ways to perform some indirect speech acts of promising, and asserting facts about their integrity. The study also revealed that another notable feature is the use of inclusive language, where President Buhari consistently used pronouns such as “we” and “us” to create a sense of unity and shared responsibility with his target audience. The paper concludes that by understanding the pragma-crafting features employed in this speech will further give an understanding of how political rhetoric is shaped by cultural, historical and personal factors in political settings. Keywords: Pragmatics, Pragma Crafting, Democracy, Language and Politics
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    A Pragmatic Analysis of Selected Consumer Goods Adverts on Social Media
    (2023) Ibrahim Omolabi
    Advertisements are powerful forms of social communication that aim to persuade consumers to take an action. They have become part of our life to the extent that they sometimes determine many of our choices. Thus, this study explores a pragmatic analysis of selected consumer goods adverts on social media with a view to seeing how advertisers use language to persuade and convince consumers to buy their products or services. A total of seven (7) consumer goods adverts were purposively selected from the social media platform and analysed using Mey's (2001) Pragmatic Act Theory. The findings revealed that instantiated pract of informing was primarily used by advertisers to inform consumers of their new products or re-inform them (consumers) of their already existing products. Implicit practs of recommending, assuring, luring, proclaiming, advocating, announcing, stating, introducing, promising, reminding and acknowledging were also used by advertisers in the selected adverts with the aim of persuading consumers. The study also revealed how advertisers flout the Gricean maxims, especially the maxim of quality because most of their claims are not true. The study concludes that advertisers use specific pragmatic strategies in advertisements to achieve their aims of persuading and convincing their target audience (consumers) to buy their products.
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    Discursive Strategies in Selected Newspapers’ Reports on (in) security in Nigeria
    (2022) Ibrahim Omolabi
    News reporting on security situations mainly manipulates discursive and representational strategies in portraying people, actions and events either negatively or positively based on certain prejudiced ideologies. This paper examines salient discursive strategies deployed by Nigerian newspapers’ reporters on insecurity to represent socio-political ideologies in their reports on herdsmen and banditry. Data comprises 22 instances of discourse strategies drawn from three Nigerian newspapers published between March 2018 and December 2021. By integrating insights from van Dijk’s (2006) Critical Discourse Analysis, findings reveal that both Nigerian newspaper’ reports on insecurity create polarity of positive in-group and negative out-group ideologies through seven discursive strategies which include slanted headlining, negative labelling, evidentiality, number game, hyperbolism, victimization and depersonalization. The study found out that there is a link between the strategies and ideologies as the strategies embody ideologies. The strategies embody ideological prejudices of positive self and negative other-representations which are rife in both nations’ news reports on the insecurity reports in Nigeria.
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    Instantiated pragmatic acts in Kehinde Akano’s Pajemolobi
    (GADAU Publishers, 2023) Ibrahim Omolabi
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    LANGUAGE, VISUAL IMAGERY AND CORONAVIRUS MOTIVATED HUMOUR ON THE SOCIAL MEDIA: A CRITICAL- SEMIOTIC STUDY
    (2022) Ibrahim Omolabi
    The social media has witnessed a frenzy and influx of discourses from the broad street and world street because of the novel Coronavirus which has infected and killed many people world over. In Nigeria, the ways in which news of the virus is framed communicate ideological meanings which have a range of effects on the readers particularly on social media. Nigerians have taken the issue of Covid-19 pandemics as a form of humour so as to release their stress and tension of the agony which is relatively new. This paper therefore investigates humour that reflect the social, economic and health challenges in Nigeria shared through the social media in order to identify CMH as a form of humour through which real-life experiences of other people can be understood. Insights are drawn from Kress’ Critical Semiotic theory to analyse a total of ten (10) purposively selected humour on Coronavirus from social media, specifically Whatsapp and Facebook. The study found that the pictures are framed using both episodic and thematic framing. These frames are interlarded with pregnant ideological meaning(s) as to warn corrupt and inefficient leaders in Nigeria, particularly on health facilities in the country. Also, the paper concludes that humours do not only make people laugh, but also comment on certain societal maladies that finger the minds of Nigerian citizens. Key Words: Coronavirus, humour, Critical-Semiotics, Cartoon.
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    Pragmatic acts and lexico-semantic variations of vulgar expressions in selected Nigerian Hip Hop Songs
    (2018) Ibrahim Omolabi
    Hip hop music is becoming very prominent because it is a popular youth culture and able to generate diverse interpretations. Thus, the study examines the various pragmatic acts performed in the selected hip hop songs in order to bring to the fore the covert meanings in it. The study is anchored on Mey (2001) aspects of pragmatic acts and Adegbija’s (1989) classification of Lexico Semantic Variation as the theoretical appurtenance underpinning the study. A total of three (3) hip hop songs were purposively selected and analysed from the points of Pragmatic acts theory and Lexico Semantic Variations. The study reveals that artistes employ assertive practs of informing, requesting, persuading, inviting etc. to connote vulgar expressions by using existing lexical forms to achieve intended meaning. The study found that the artistes, in rendering the songs, adhere to socio cultural value of the Nigerian society which forbids public discussion of sex and issues pertaining to it, and therefore often use metaphors and euphemisms to connote sexual expressions. It was also found that semantic-shift is the major type of lexico-semantic variation used by the artistes in the selected songs. This is because artistes use already existing lexical terms to refer to the sexual organs and experiences based on partial likeness or similarity in the forms of the entities compared. The study concludes that Nigerian hip-hop artistes are mindful of the Nigerian socio-cultural norms and values as regarding the topic of sex, and that Nigerian society influences their choice of expressions and places constraints on their use of language in discussing issues pertaining to sex.
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    Pragmatic Acts in Selected Fulani Herdsmen’s Killing Reportage in Nigerian Newspapers.
    (2019) Ibrahim Omolabi
    The media are a major player during periods of conflict because of the influence they can exert on the public’s understanding and perception of conflict situations. Thus, the study explores the various pragmatic acts performed in the selected news reportage on Fulani Herdsmen’s Killings in Nigeria, especially the construction of meaning through verbal codes. The study drew insight from Mey's (2001) aspects of Pragmatic acts as the theoretical framework underpinning the study. A total of ten (10) verbal news reports relating to the stories of the Fulani herdsmen crises were purposively selected from two Nigerian newspapers (The Punch, The Nation) and analysed from the point of pragmatic acts. The study reveals that instantiated acts (practs) are pragmatically patterned to perform some acts of informing, condemning, reporting to the audience, stating the fact in the news reports on the Fulani herdsmen killings and playing some roles in social change. The study also revealed that (The Guardian, The Nation and The Punch) deploy their news reports through the practs of castigating, challenging, condemning and lamenting the spate of insecurity and condemning the ineptitude of security agents and government towards the crisis. The study has also shown that newspapers were diligent in carrying out their surveillance function- gathering and providing timely reports on occurrences of the crisis between herders and farmers in the country. The study concludes that Nigerian newspapers play a role in setting the boundaries of what is talked about; shaping social issues happenings around the nation and exposing them to their readership. Keywords:Pragmatic Acts, Practs, Herdsmen, Reportage, Fulani