LANGUAGE AND IDEOLOGY IN LECTURE/SEMINAR INTERACTION IN THE NIGERIAN ARMY

Abstract

Lecture/Seminar Interaction in the Nigerian Army is often being organised for soldiers, both Officers and Men, to upgrade their knowledge in the act of security and defense, locally and internationally. Despite the numerous of studies on army discourses, those that directly address lecture/seminar interactions and their associated hidden ideologies cum linguistic forms that index them are scanty, thus, preventing access to full information and understanding of ideological leaning of the Army. This, therefore, constitutes the gap that the present study attempts to fill. The Theoretical Frameworks adopted for the study are Van Dijk’s (1998) Social Cognitive model of Critical Discourse Analysis and Systemic Functional Grammar of M.A.K Halliday (1961, 1994). The data, which were collected through Audio Tape Recorder and Video Clips, comprise oral communication of soldiers of the Nigerian Army during lecture/seminar interaction, held at the Central Auditorium of 2 Division Nigerian Army, Ibadan. The data, which were subjected to descriptive/qualitative analytical method, reveal one main ideology; professional ideology, which has two categories: leadership and regimentation driven professional ideology. These are indexed with linguistic forms such as transitivity (material, mental and relational types) and some antonymous words. Thus, there is a nexus between the ideologies revealed in the lecture/seminar interaction and the linguistic forms that characterise them, the attendant consequence of which could promote effective dissemination and comprehension of commands/orders by officers and men of the Nigerian Army, respectively, necessary to enhance their effectiveness on duty, locally and globally.