Papers by Adegboye Adeyanju PhD
The main objective of this study is the use of satire to expose societal flaws, political corrupt... more The main objective of this study is the use of satire to expose societal flaws, political corruption, and moral decay. This study critically examines the use of satire in Nigerian literature, focusing on the works of Ola Rotimi, Femi Osofisan, and Wole Soyinka. Through an analysis of plays such as Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again, The Gods Are Not to Blame, Midnight Hotel, and A Play of Giants, the research explores how these playwrights employ techniques such as caricature, irony, parody, and reversal to critique political selfishness, corruption, gender inequality, and superstition in Nigerian society. The study aims to analyse the effectiveness of satire in addressing socio-political concerns, examine how playwrights use and exaggeration to critique leadership, governance, and societal norms, and highlight the enduring relevance of satire in shaping public discourse and inspiring societal change. By examining the interplay between satire and socio-political commentary, this research underscores the role of literature in challenging oppressive systems and provoking critical reflection, emphasizing that satire remains a relevant and impactful tool in Nigerian literature, serving both as a means of entertainment and a vehicle for social and political critique.
Studies in Linguistics and Language Education, , 2025
Our task in exploring J. P. Clark-Bekederemo's All for Oil is to demonstrate that via pairing the... more Our task in exploring J. P. Clark-Bekederemo's All for Oil is to demonstrate that via pairing the linguistic tools of Ecolinguistics with Bach and Harnish's Mutual Contextual Belief, MCB, the variation of the Speech Act Theory by J.L Austin and J.R Searle we can derive the Ecosophy of a text and aid a thorough understanding of an eco-linguistic text which focuses on not just the embarrassingly sustained environmental despoliation of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria but how, and through which agency such practices occur. Study findings indicates that the 'rape of the Niger Delta' involves the combined causative factors of greed and betrayal by the Niger Delta leadership aided by multinational oil corporations acting in sync with the Nigerian state as well as local cronies.
Ecological degradation, as its artistic portrayal in the English-medium Nigerian Niger Delta writ... more Ecological degradation, as its artistic portrayal in the English-medium Nigerian Niger Delta writings, is as endemic as it is unnerving. Nigerian Niger Delta Crises originate from the 1950s, when natural resources prospectors with varying methods of manipulation and natural resource exploitation emerged in the region, and according to Anikulapo-Kuti, leaving 'sorrow, tears and blood' as their 'regular trade marks'. This study aims to show how a linguistically-oriented and theoretically informed close-reading of an environmental text, J.P Clark-Bakederemo's Wives Revolt, henceforth WR, can help us to understand not just despoliations, but also how it occurred. It involves relating features of WR to features of the context of situation and culture. The methodology employed is a concatenation of stylistics, critical semiotic and ecolinguistic approaches to interrogate the conjunction between Niger Delta socio-political and species concerns. Study findings indicate that WR characters within the play deploy in/formal linguistic and discourse features to encode their respective ideological positions using animal species; that WR is beyond being categorised a feminist play: it is a classical Nigerian eco-critical and eco-activism enterprise; and that such encoding is only apparent from a stylistics, critical semiotic and ecolinguistic textual re-analysis to demonstrate that the activities the human characters in WR are engaged in where 'goats' and 'pigs' are particularly juxtaposed is ideologically significant and these animal labels are highly loaded terms.
Motifs, 2023
This study examines the function, form, and structure of greetings and appreciation in the ‘exord... more This study examines the function, form, and structure of greetings and appreciation in the ‘exordium’ or sermon openings of Pastor E.A. Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Lagos-Nigeria, a popular Nigerian charismatic Christian Preacher. Most often ‘exordium’ is referred to as ‘the introduction’: an ‘opening whose execution determines the success of the following speech or undertaking.’ The study specifically focuses on a vital but less focused structural sub-component within the sermon opening texts: perhaps the most highly stylized opening portions of sermon texts.
The introduction is significant and crucial to the movement or progression of the sermon discourse. According to Cicero, the introduction must achieve three goals: it arouses interest, it secures favor, and prepares to lead. The introduction should not exceed 5 to 10% of the preaching time. A bad beginning and/or lack of greetings and appreciation mean a bad ending. We have particularly isolated for investigation 15 forms and functions of greetings and appreciations and analyzed their structures
socio-pragmatically in the sampled six (6) Holy Ghost Service, HGS, sermons Exordium/opening/introduction data of 2006, 2009, and 2012 collected to demonstrate the (frequent or non-frequent)occurrences of speech acts types and/or their relationships as closely reflected in the selected corpus. Study findings indicate that Adeboye, the preacher, carefully focuses on his introduction and further
that he does not begin speaking until he is in the pulpit and has established eye contact with the audience. The introduction of his HGS sermons is always subdued. It grips the heart of his audience and molds their mood. While the HGS sermon in general combines both inductive and deductive elements, the introduction is always inductive, starting significantly with greetings and appreciation perhaps, with contemporary contacts as much as possible.
Keywords: Greetings, Pragma-discourse features, Exordium, The holy ghost service, Pastor E.A. Adeboye
Jos Journal of Religion and Philosophy, Vol.4, No 1, December 2023, 2023
Testimonies are invaluable to effective sermon composition and delivery. The testimony is a narra... more Testimonies are invaluable to effective sermon composition and delivery. The testimony is a narrative but strictly speaking the narrative is not always a testimony. Yet, the narrative as a feature of preaching has only recently just begun to be appreciated as a critical component of religious communication. This study locates the (sub)genre of testimony as an obligatory narratives accompaniment which imbues preaching with greater rhetorical and religious powers and argues that it is indeed a carefully structured linguo-religious narrative and deliberately delivered in a religious setting by or of a witness; sometimes it comes in the form of the personal experience of the preacher as well. It is an affirmation of the intervention of God in the testifier's situation. The testimony as a piece of discourse exhibits a coherent pattern having: (a) an opening and a closure (b) plot and (c) character. Seven (7) testimonies deployed by Pastor E.A Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Lagos-Nigeria in the pre-eminent ritual event of the Church, the Holy Ghost Service, HGS, were gathered and analysed for the study. The framework adopted for this study is a blend of the rhetorical approach and discourse analytical method that involved speaker-hearer (or writerreader) orientation, topic development, topic support and meta-discourse. Study findings indicates that such a religious segment as the testimony 'Move' is shaped by a specific communicative function and is considered as a functional unit. Further, this study made attempts to clarify the functional value of the Testimony Move demonstrating that as with the hortatory and persuasive discourse, either in isolation or combined, there will obligatorily be macro-segments (Longacre: 34). The macro-segment of each type, in turn, would be constituted of two feature components: rhetorical and pragmatic in nature.
Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication No. 27 (2022) , 2022
Linguists, particularly historical and comparative linguists, and historians ought to combine for... more Linguists, particularly historical and comparative linguists, and historians ought to combine forces much more than they do now or would do (Kropp Dakubu 2006; Adeyanju 2019). As well, the historical and comparative linguist turns attention to the ways in which languages have influenced each other, particularly in the area of distribution of cultural goods. Interpretations of a historical and comparative linguist are liable to contradiction unless they know something of the historical background. And a historian’s neglect of linguistics leads to even worse results. The same may be said of even the mutual interactions between linguistics, history, and religion. History, whether relating to political or military affairs, has been significantly influenced by both linguistics and religion.
EBSU Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities Volume 14, Number 2, 2024, 2024
This study investigates the rhetorical-pragmatics of prayers usually located within the exordium/... more This study investigates the rhetorical-pragmatics of prayers usually located within the exordium/introduction of African or African-America Charismatic Christian sermons. For the study, a corpus of prayers from the Holy Ghost Service, the pre-eminent ritual event of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, Lagos-Nigeria was gathered through three main sampling methods: a) purposive (non-probability), b) stratified, and c) random sampling were employed. Through purposive sampling commencing from 2006-2012 seventy-two (72) HGS sermonswere first selected for the 6-year period. To select prospective HGS sermons from the population of HGS sermons performed over the 6-year period, using an interval of every three years, all the 2006, 2009 and 2012 HGS sermons were tabulated. Two HGS lists, one each for March and December were drawn for each selected year. Every nth HGS sermon was then selected from each list. Going by these lists, (3) March and (3) December HGS were selected for the period 2006 to 2012 to generate a sample of 6 HGS. Insofar as the present study represents a descriptive and exploratory study, this (6) HGS sermons sample is deemed appropriate to providing data that could be reasonably handled in this study. Study findings indicates prayer is an illocutionary act, one that through the force of utterance contribute to unfolding events perceived as action willed or permitted by divine beings and assented to or challenged by human beings, therefore prayer is a form of religious expression and can be considered as discourse that deserves rhetorical analysis. Also, that prayer as speech act has a defined and patterned structure codified through usage from ancient times: (a) address or invocation; (b) arguments in support of the request; and (c) the request. This is the classical structure of prayer which is found in many religious texts and practices. So, 'the three-part prayer' would equally represent the implementation of a logically constructed rhetorical structure which is executed by religious adherents in support of a request to an Unseen deity. Finally, that the purpose of prayer appears to be the development of argumentation and persuasion in support of the request by the one who prays or is praying
Onomastica desde America Latina (Onomastics from Latin America), 2024
This study is concerned with the communicative acts and rhetorical patterns analysis of Gbari Per... more This study is concerned with the communicative acts and rhetorical patterns analysis of Gbari Personal Names, henceforth GPN, of the Gbari of North Central Nigeria. Using a small-sized corpus of one hundred (100) GPNs, the study deploys a concatenated framework which adapts and tweaks elements mainly from Austin's (1962) Speech Act Theory and Bach and Harnish's (1979) Mutual Contextual Belief; in order to combine communicative and rhetorical insights on the analysis of GPNs. Data collection consists of drawing a sample from the population of the study using the quasi-formal interview method to obtain information from the respondents from the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja-Nigeria which comprises of three out of the five Area Councils where the Gbari are in the majority namely: (1) Gwagwalada, (2) Kwali and (3) Kuje. Study findings indicates that GPN system is now highly productive. New GPNs which have never been produced can be constructed especially that on the basis of current theophoric Gbari personal names, many Gbari Christians can (re)construct corresponding names either by: a recourse to the system of affixation such as Sokwo-gaa+ She-kwo-nu-che-sayi = Sokwo-nu-che-sayi/Only God gives a testimony. This name, as yet probably not an actual Gbari personal name, like many variations of personal names, are potential Gbari personal names. Also, morpho-syntactic repositioning or shifting of the subject NP (She-kwo) of many Gbari sentence names to either the middle or final positions and/or its replacement with other grammatical classes or even NPs are possible; hence many more GPNs could be generated. Consequently, study indicates there is both a resurgence as well as a decline of GPN; a resurgence due principally to Gbagyi Christians who nearly completely bear all names Gbagyi-personal as well surnames while for Gbagyi Muslims, there is an almost complete obliteration of Gbagyi names.
Choice in the Language of Advertisements: A Systemic Functional Analysis of Some Radio Advertisements Conveyed in the English Language in Nigeria
We aim in this paper to investigate both the patterns of choice made in the processing of languag... more We aim in this paper to investigate both the patterns of choice made in the processing of language. Since language is viewed as semiotic potential, the description of language is a description of choices-and to demonstrate that the language use in advertisement is motivated by such complex factors as socio-economic and psychological considerations to cause the advert-audience to respond to advertisements in a deliberately predetermined manner often to the advantage of the advertiser. Attempts were made to describe the recurring choices prevalent in such language and to correlate such with the appropriate socio-psychological and economic setting of advertisement. Study findings indicate that linguistic meaning is deliberately constructed and consciously manipulated by advertisers and tied to media effect to shape advert structure, language and style.
Errors in the Written English of Students' in Two Central Nigeria Polytechnics: An Assessment
This study investigates the errors in written English of students in two Central Nigeria higher i... more This study investigates the errors in written English of students in two Central Nigeria higher institutions. The present report of the investigation is from a much larger study which spanned a period of close to three years (May 2010 - March 2013). A sample of 400 students from Twelve (12) academic departments of two Polytechnics coded UVW and XYZ; drawn from a universe of 800 students’ was selected using random sampling technique. The population is half of the entire students’ population of the sampled schools in both Polytechnics. The instrument for the study is a 50 items multiple answer questions set for the respondents to fill-in the blank spaces with the correct options from alternatives provided. The test for the study consists of grammatical exercises designed to examine the problematic areas that English as second language learners’ often avoid in their essays as well as three essay questions. The three-essay questions were such that will allow the students write in a limi...
On Nouns, Nominals and Pronominals In English: The Systemic Functional Linguistics Perspective
Lj Four Decades of Languages & Linguistics Research & Training in Nigeria: Mastering the Probable & Managing the Unpredictable
Four decades in the study of …, 2003
Political Discourse in Emergent, Fragile, and Failed Democracies, 2000
In this chapter the aim is to analyze multimodal realisation of contemporary Nigerian politics fr... more In this chapter the aim is to analyze multimodal realisation of contemporary Nigerian politics from a critical view point by considering political party images which are constructed and exploited in Nigerian politics to guarantee sustenance of interests by party stalwarts' patronage and consequently, electoral victory. The methodology consists of, first, outlining the political images and slogans; then socio-culturally and linguistically interpreting the symbols, and finally drawing effects of imaging on the 'ideology' and affiliation of political parties in Nigeria.
Lj Four Decades of Languages & Linguistics Research & Training in Nigeria: Mastering the Probable & Managing the Unpredictable
Four decades in the study of …, 2003
Symbols and Not Manifestoes Are the Selling Point Here
Political Discourse in Emergent, Fragile, and Failed Democracies, 2000
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Papers by Adegboye Adeyanju PhD
The introduction is significant and crucial to the movement or progression of the sermon discourse. According to Cicero, the introduction must achieve three goals: it arouses interest, it secures favor, and prepares to lead. The introduction should not exceed 5 to 10% of the preaching time. A bad beginning and/or lack of greetings and appreciation mean a bad ending. We have particularly isolated for investigation 15 forms and functions of greetings and appreciations and analyzed their structures
socio-pragmatically in the sampled six (6) Holy Ghost Service, HGS, sermons Exordium/opening/introduction data of 2006, 2009, and 2012 collected to demonstrate the (frequent or non-frequent)occurrences of speech acts types and/or their relationships as closely reflected in the selected corpus. Study findings indicate that Adeboye, the preacher, carefully focuses on his introduction and further
that he does not begin speaking until he is in the pulpit and has established eye contact with the audience. The introduction of his HGS sermons is always subdued. It grips the heart of his audience and molds their mood. While the HGS sermon in general combines both inductive and deductive elements, the introduction is always inductive, starting significantly with greetings and appreciation perhaps, with contemporary contacts as much as possible.
Keywords: Greetings, Pragma-discourse features, Exordium, The holy ghost service, Pastor E.A. Adeboye