Language Of Persuasion: An Analysis Of The Inaugural Speeches Of Presidents Jonathan And Buhari

This research studied the language of persuasion of inaugural speeches in Nigeria to find out their use of rhetorical appeals. It investigated certain linguistic features in the speeches that were employed to appeal to the sense of emotion of the listeners, to ethics (speaker’s credibility) and logic alongside the use of unethical or illogical appeals to persuade the listeners. The three variables of ethos, pathos and logos of the aristotelean model of rhetoric were used to analyse 75 sentences (37 and 38 sentences respectively) which were selected from the inaugural speeches of two democratic…