THE PRAGMATIC ACTS IN SELECTED NIGERIAN PRINT MEDIA REPORTS ON THE ABDUCTED CHIBOK SCHOOL GIRLS
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Date
2023
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Abstract
A news report is a form of writer reader negotiated
meaning and contextual consideration of language, structure, and
verbal codes. Thus, the study explored the various pragmatic acts
performed in news reports on the abducted Chibok girls in
Nigeria, especially the construction of ac ts or meaning through
verbal codes. Using Mey’s (2001) aspects of pragmatic acts as the
theoretical framework undergirded the study, a total of thirteen
(13) verbal reports were purposively selected from three Nigerian
newspapers (The Nation, Daily Trust & The Punch) and analysed
from the points of pragmatic acts, Searle’s (1969) classification of
Speech acts, implicature and presupposition. The study revealed
that instantiated acts (practs) are pragmatically patterned to
perform some acts of informing, rep orting to the audience, stating
the fact in the news reports on the abducted Chibok girls and
playing some roles in social change. The study also revealed that
The Nation, Dail Trust and The Punch deploy their news reports
through implicit practs of castig ating the spate of insecurity and
condemning the ineptitude of security agents towards rescuing the
abducted Chibok girls. The study also showed that the
preponderant occurrences of factive presupposition were due to
the fact that the assumptions being mad e about the news of the
abducted Chibok girls are actual, real and easily embedded in the
news report. The study concludes that Nigerian newspapers play
a role in setting the boundaries of what is talked about; shaping
social issues happening around the na tion and exposing them to
their readership.
KEYWORDS:
Media Reports, Pragmatic act; Implicit Allopract;
Explicit Allopract