Appraising Environmental Action in Political Discourse: A Nigerian Gubernatorial Example

Abstract

While research has been growing in the linguistic analysis of environmental discourse in Euro-American and other international contexts, this paper focuses on the communication of an ecological vision by the governor of a Nigerian state, Lagos. Combining Appraisal Theory with Eco-Critical Discourse Analysis, the study aims to determine to what extent the government portrayed its actions as contributing to salvaging the environment. Drawing from data collected for a broader study, the paper isolates textlets (clauses and clause-complexes) from a corpus of 100 speeches spanning 29 May 2007 and 29 May 2015. While adopting an essentially qualitative approach under the framework of environmental humanities, the study supports its analysis with a bit of software overview and presents appraisal tables that illustrate the deployment of intentional ecocentric languaging in the speeches. Findings support the positive evaluation of the administration’s initiatives and interventions on the environment, based on the appraisal categories of attitude, engagement and graduation.