Pages: (227-238 )
Abstract
The deliberate and functional use of language in the political
context to communicate ideologies, desires, goals, visions and
mobilise the citizenry was examined in this study. The primary
concern ofthis paperwasto espouse the use of political discourse
by political actorsto enact policies, persuade, motivate, mobilise
and engender requisite support for their actions and inactions.
The study embraced secondary and tertiary sources to explicate
the conceptual framework of political ideology, political
language and the citizenry who are implicated by the ideology
and language of the political actors. The Political Discourse
Analysis (PDA) methodology was adopted to examine the
language and discourse of the notable politicians using the
pragmatics speech acts theoretical framework. This framework
aided in extracting embedded meanings, the prevailing social
context responsible for the production, the semiosis and
effectiveness of the speeches. The study recommended the
effective and positive use of pragmatics speech acts in political
discourses by politicians to engender citizenry support for
progressivedevelopmentsinnationstates.
Keywords: National Speeches, Political Language, Political actors, Pragmatics Speech Acts, Citizenry,