Generic Structure Potential (GSP) and Discourse Features in Selected Banking Discourses in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria (Published)
This paper examines the Generic Structure Potential and Discourse Features in selected banking discourses in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria. The data, which comprised the recorded interactions between the customer service officer and the customers in the selected banks were transcribed, categorized and analysed based on the Generic Structure Potential model by Halliday and Hasan and the Metadiscourse Model by Hyland and Tse. The findings indicate that the Generic Structure Potential deployed five obligatory elements which are Greeting Initiation (GI), Customer Complaint (CC), Question and Response (QR), Proffering of solution (PoS) and Close (Cls) and four optional elements which are Request for Customer’s Complaint (RCC), Request for Account Details (RAD), Confirmation of Customer Details (CCD) and Apologies for Delay (AD). The Discourse Features include Opening, Closing, Questioning, Turn and Turn taking while the markers deployed by the CSO and customers include transitional markers, frame markers, hedges, attitude markers, self-mention, engagement markers and boosters. The paper concludes that GSP shows the structure of conversations, while Discourse Features help to aid better understanding between CSO and customers in banking discourse.
Keywords: Discourse Features, Generic Structure Potential (GSP), Ibadan, Nigeria, Oyo State, banking discourses