A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF THE DEBATE AMONG THE GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATES IN ANAMBRA STATE 2017 ELECTION

Abstract

This study examines a Critical Discourse Analysis of the debate among the gubernatorial candidates in Anambra state 2017 election. The role of language in creating and sustaining power relations as well as ideological structures in Anambra State, Nigeria is also being examined. These power relations are formed, enacted and legitimated by the application of certain linguistic devices. The researcher attempts to disentangle hidden meanings and connotations of power in gubernatorial debate speeches in Anambra state. Five aspirants are involved in the debate. The study adopts Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Halliday’s Systemic Functional Theory. The choice of the above is as a result of the researcher’s observation that CDA does not have a unitary theoretical framework. The researcher hopes that the contribution made to scholarship in CDA will help to create awareness on the power of words and utterances in political debate discourse. The study, thus, concludes that in real sense, the texts produced, disseminated and expended in the 2017 gubernatorial electioneering debate in Anambra state of Nigeria did not only promote unequal power relations, rather they also produced, reproduced, legitimized and maintained social structures that sustain domination.