Research
The Paradox of the Quest for Global Peace and the Linguistic Violence of some Countriesa National Anthems: A Critical Discourse Perspective
It is axiomatic that the United Nations basically symbolizes peace and unity which member states or nations are expected to epitomize. Paradoxically, the anthems of many nations exhibit linguistic violence and rationalize or encourage using arms, shedding blood, going to war and paying supreme sacrifice. For example, we have expressions like “Hurry to arms people of Boyamoâ€, “To arms citizens! Form your battalionsâ€, “War war! Soak our homeland’s flag in the wave of bloodâ€, “Let us form cohorts, we are ready to dieâ€, “we will drink from death and never be to our enemies like slavesâ€, “Our flag red with blood of victory, let us hasten to the battlefieldâ€, “Arise Togo! Let us struggle without faltering, victory or death but dignity†and “We will be risen with weapons in our hands. Death, yes death but not shame†in the national anthems of Cuba, France, Mexico, Italy, Iraq, Vietnam, Togo and Senegal respectively. This paper identifies the linguistic violence of some countries’ national anthems, attempts a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of the various forms of linguistic violence identified and suggests a linguistic overhaul of the affected countries’ anthems. This is to discourage a situation where anthems that should be instrumental to societal tranquillity and harmony now encourage violent acts and attacks.
Drummunication: The Trado-Indigenous Art of Communicating with Talking Drums in Yorubaland
The talking drums of the Yoruba people of the South West of Nigeria are like many other types of drums found in other parts of the world in that they are melody producing/enhancing musical instruments accompanying song and dance performances made of hollow round frame with tightly fixed plastic or skin membrane on the surface(s) beaten with the hand(s), stick(s) or other materials. However, the Yoruba talking drums of the South West people of Nigeria are unlike the many other types of drums found in other parts of the world in that they are not just mere melody producing/enhancing musical instruments. This is basically because they can be used to disseminate vital messages and to respond to disseminated information. This paper introduces the term drummunication to explain the use of Yoruba talking drums to send and receive messages or information. The paper attempts a taxonomy of the Yoruba drums to establish the real talking drums. It explicates the functions of effective drummunication and barriers to effective drummunication. Most importantly, it suggests steps that can be taken to enhance the effectiveness of drummunication.
Structural-Functional Classification cum Analysis of the Complete Sentences of Contemporary Nigerian Advertisement Messages
Many of the contemporary Nigerian advertisements copy messages are simply phrases and sentence fragments while many others are syntactically and semantically complete sentences. The complete sentences of contemporary Nigerian advertisement messages are usually of different structural and functional classifications. This paper therefore attempts a structural-functional classification cum analysis of one hundred and fifty (150) complete-sentence advertisement messages identified among some selected three-hundred (300) advertisement messages of products, services, ideas or organisations i.e. 50% of the total. Seventy-six (76) of the complete-sentence advertisement messages i.e. 50.7% of the total are simple sentences of different functional classifications. Forty four (44) of the complete-sentence advertisement messages i.e. 29.3% are compound sentences of different functional classifications. The remaining thirty (30) complete-sentence advertisement messages i.e. 20% are complex sentences. None of the one hundred and fifty (150) complete-sentence advertisement messages is a compound- complex sentence.
BASIC AND NON-BASIC SIMPLE SENTENCE CONSTITUENT PATTERNS OF CONTEMPORARY NIGERIAN ADVERTISEMENT MESSAGES
The advertisement messages of some products, services, ideas or organisations are phrases, dependent clauses or sentence fragments. Some are sentences that are syntactically,orthographically and semantically complete. The advertisement Messages that are complete sentences however, have different constituent patterns. This paper presents the constituent patterns of some 140 complete simple-sentence advertisement messages identified among some carefully selected 250 advertisement messages. Eighty-five (85) out of the one hundred and forty (140) complete simple-sentence advertisement messages i.e. 61% have the basic simple sentence patterns. Four (4) complete simple-sentence advertisement messages i.e. three percent (3%) have expanded basic sentence patterns making a total of eighty-nine (89) advertisement messages i.e. sixty-four percent (64%) with both the basic and modified basic simple sentence patterns. Fifty-one (51) of the whole one hundred and forty (140) complete simple-sentence advertisement messages i.e. thirty-six percent (36%) are those with the non-basic simple-sentence patterns.
