Modal auxiliaries as linguistic tools in Insecurity Discourse: A study of some Nigerian Newspaper Editorials

Abstract

The choices of certain lexical items and syntactic patterns have functional roles in relating the editorial writers' intentions to their target audience or readers. The linguist, however, interprets the language use by these writers based on ways the writer packages his opinion according to the situation. This study, analyses the use of modal auxiliaries in three Nigerian newspapers; Guardian, Vanguard and Punch editorials on insecurity situations in Nigeria from April 2021 till July 2022. The aim is to see how these editorials discussed the issues of insecurity currently destabilising the Nigerian polity and see the writers' opinions on the issues. It adopted Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics for the theoretical framework; it also adopts qualitative and descriptive methods of data analysis. The study found that the editorial writers used modal auxiliaries as linguistic tools to express different opinions and attitudes towards the state of insecurity in the country. The study recommends comparative studies of the selected editorials and studies of this kind on other related issues in other Nigerian newspapers.