A Stylistic Analysis of Selected Speeches of Prominent Politicians in Adamawa State of Nigeria

This is a corpus-based study which is focused on the stylistic analysis of selected political speeches of prominent politicians of Adamawa State. The researcher deliberately presents two speeches of His Excellency Murtala Nyako the then governor of Adamawa State and Dr. Jonathan Silas Zwingina, Deputy Senate Leader and Senator representing Adamawa South Senatorial District respectively. The corpus was analysed based on Leech and Short’s (1981), checklist and stylistic categories: graphology, lexical, syntactic and rhetorical features. The lexical features of the speeches show that, the politicians used the lexical items for self-identification and to show that the context of the speeches center on politics. It was also discovered that the politicians used rhetorical devices to capture the minds of the audience. However, the tone and texture of the two speakers slightly vary. This was speculated through the lexical items used by the two speakers. It was also identified that compound complex sentences were used in their speeches, in order to compress more information to their audience. This study recommends the use of simple sentences by the politicians as this will enhance more comprehension by their targeted audience. It was also recommended that the politicians should be objective and shun their personal sentiments in public speeches.