The Speech Acts of Requests in Cameroon Francophone English (Published)
Cameroon Francophone English (CamFE) is a fast-growing sub-variety of English in Cameroon. The field of pragmatics and especially the speech acts of requests remain unexplored in this sub-variety of English. This paper aims to investigate the types of requests in CamFE, their structure, as well as the lexical and syntactic features. Data were collected through Discourse Completion Test (DCT) administered from some 40 students in the Department of English Language and Literature of the University of Maroua. The DCT was made up of six described situations, and 240 request utterances were elicited. The data were analysed through the coding scheme of the Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realisation Patterns propounded by Blum-Kulka and Olshtain (1984). The results of the study show that CamFE speakers have six types of request content structures established as S1, S2, S3, S4, S5 and S6. The most preferred request strategy is the reference to preparatory conditions technique (81.67%) followed by the mood derivable technique (10%). In addition to this, the analysis further reveals that CamFE requests display some specific lexical and syntactic features.
Keywords: Cameroon Francophone English, Pragmatics, Requests, Speech Acts., varieties of English
Speech Acts and Welfarist Ideology in Governor Aregbesola’s May 1, 2013 address (Published)
Politicians make use of language for the purpose of achieving desired goals. In political utterances, many acts are performed as politicians through their speeches try to manipulate the listeners by the way they use language. This study investigates the deployment of speech acts and welfarist ideology in Governor Aregbesola’s address to the Osun State workers in commemoration of year 2013 “Workers’ Day”. The speech is selected for analysis to bring out Aregbesola’s language use and to highlight the welfarist ideology of the government of Osun State of Nigeria. The speech titled “Productivity is the key to Wealth” is analysed within the framework of J.R. Searle’s Speech Acts to bring out the illocutionary force in it. The analysis reveals Aregbesola’s language use in performing certain actions with a view to changing the attitudes of workers and also to project the government as welfarist in its programmes.
Keywords: Labour, Language, Politics, Rauf Aregbesola., Speech Acts., Welfarist Ideology