A Stylistic Analysis of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of … · 2018-11-07 · Key...

Journal of English and Communication in Africa Vol. 1, No. 2, 2018

A Stylistic Analysis of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

Emmanuel C. Sharndama

Department of English and Literary Studies, Federal University Wukari

Abstract This study investigates the stylistic features in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in order to determine the stylistically significant features and discuss to what extent they affect the target audience. The analysis was carried out at the graphological, lexical and syntactic levels using qualitative and descriptive approaches. The result of the analysis revealed some stylistically significant features at all the three levels. At the lexical level, archaic words and expressions, such as prepositional adverbs, technical vocabularies, and modal auxiliary verbs were identified as stylistically significant features. The analysis of the syntactic features showed the prevalent occurrence of lengthy and complex sentences, complex prepositional phrases, nominalisations, conditional sentences and the active and passive voice. Based on the findings, conclusion was drawn that the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has distinctive linguistic features, which can be utilised in curriculum design and material production for the teaching of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Key words: Style, stylistics, Legal language, lexis, typology and

syntax Introduction Legal language is one of the Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP) that has attracted the attention of linguists, especially those working in the field of applied linguistics especially those working on the field of ESP. Legal language is a style of language used by lawyers and other legal practitioners in different legal

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Journal of English and Communication in Africa Vol. 1, No. 2, 2018 contexts for different purposes such laying the law, and defending or interpreting it. Many studies have shown that legal language is marked by complex grammatical structures, technical terms, archaic expressions, and limited punctuations which make it different from other varieties (Crystal and Davy, 1985, Thorne 1997, Tiersma 1999, Willaims 2004, Stanojevic 2011 etc). These researchers have identified many linguistic features which make legal documents difficult to comprehend or understand by the laypersons.

Legal language is used for different purposes such as authorizing, prohibiting or permitting action, conferring rights, or creating obligation (Essays UK 2013). All these are integral purposes of drawing a constitution of any type. The constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is, supreme and its provisions have binding force on the authorities and persons throughout the Federal Republic. (1(1)).

The constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria can be considered as the brain child of the Constitutions developed by the colonial administrators, which began with Fredrick Lord Lugard’s 1914 constitution. Lord Lugard’s 1914 constitution amalgamated the colony and the protectorate of Southern and the northern protectorates. From that time, the use of English as the language of the law in Nigeria began. Generally, the nature of legal language as highlighted in the first paragraph of this section hinders the laypersons from understanding or comprehending the documents. According to Chauhaan (2013), comprehension and interpretation are the immediate problems of drafting public statutory laws in English. Chauhaan asserts that some of the critics of legal language offer the argument that due to its technicality, law legal language is different from the ordinary plain language. In a similar vein, Menon (1993) cited in Chauhaan (2013) asserts that the language of the law is not just English as ordinarily understood, but a varietal system of technical terms, situational meanings, complicated procedural arrangements etc., which communicates, at least among the law


Journal of English and Communication in Africa Vol. 1, No. 2, 2018 men, in a unique style, imperceptibility intervened with certain juristic traits and judicial qualities.

This study undertakes stylistic analysis of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria with the view to identify the stylistically significant features, discuss to what extent the stylistically significant features impact or affect the populace and then highlight their pedagogical implications. Theoretical underpinnings of the Study i. Legal Language Legal language is one of the Languages for Specific Purposes(LSP) that have drawn the attention of linguists, especially those working on the field of Applied Linguistics. Segovia (2013) defines legal language as the type of language used by lawyers and other legal professionals in the course of their work. The use of language is very crucial to any legal system, not only in the same way that it is crucial to politics in general, but also in two special respects. Lawmakers use language to make law, and must provide for the authoritative resolution of disputes over the effects of that use of language (Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy 2016).

Crystal and Davy (1985) trace the development of the language of the law to Latin and Greek. They maintain that during its development, the language of the law rubbed shoulders with and sometimes gave way to both Latin and French. Also, they assert that legal language is the domain of specialized occupation, and the intended audience is the experts in the field. It is a specialized language used by experts in discharging their duties. Similarly, Philip (1998) observes that legal profession, like others has linguistic features that occur regularly. Legal language has peculiar features that make it different from every day or other varieties of language. Smejkalova (2009) also argues that legal language is not a language of everyday use by a population. Its distinctiveness may be seen in a number of characteristics that differentiate it from the language of ordinary use.



Legal language is a variety of language used in legal contexts for discussing legal matters. The foregoing views have shown that it is quite different from everyday language and difficult to comprehend by the populace. It is a specialised language used by legal specialists in legal contexts. ii. Style The concept “style” means different things in different contexts because it pertains to different ways of doing something or saying something. Ellis (2015) claims that the meaning of style in ordinary language can be found in the dictionary. Common to the dictionary definitions is an explanation that style refers to a way, manner, or form of doing or saying something. It is primarily a dualistic concept which distinguishes two elements in a piece of language. In this sense, style refers to the act of selecting linguistic resources from as a system of code familiar to layman in the society and using them in unfamiliar way to create effect. In literature for example, everyday language is selected and used aesthetically to influence the reader or hearer.

Crystal and Davy (1985) distinguish four commonly occurring senses of the term style within the preview of stylistics. Style may refer to some or all the language habits of one person. They assert that style in this sense can be confused and identified with an individual’s personality, which could refer to selection habits, the occasional linguistic idiosyncrasies characterising an individual’s uniqueness. Secondly, style may refer to some or all the language habits shared by a group of people at one time or over a period of time. Thirdly, style is given a more restricted meaning when it is used in an evaluative sense, referring to the effectiveness of the mode of expression, which is implied by such popular definition of style as saying the right thing in the most effective way or as good manners. The fourth which overlaps with the three is the wide spread use of the word ‘style’ to refer solely to literary language, because style has long been associated primarily or exclusively with literature or characteristics of ‘good’, ‘effective’ or beautiful writing.


Journal of English and Communication in Africa Vol. 1, No. 2, 2018 Leech and Short (2007) observe that in its most general interpretation, the word style has a fairly uncontroversial meaning. It refers to the way in which language is used in a given context, by a given person, for a given purpose, and so on. Leech and Short clarify this definition by adopting Ferdinand de Saussure’s distinction between langue and parole, langue being the code or system or system of rules common to speakers of a language and parole being the particular uses of this system, or selection from this system, that speakers or writers make on this or that occasion. Leech and Short conclude that style pertains to parole: it is selection from a total linguistic repertoire that constitutes a style. Style as a linguistic concept refers to the use of Language to achieve the goal or purpose of communication. It involves selection of words and patterning them into larger grammatical units to convey thoughts or ideas or to influence the thoughts of the target audience. In summary, style is the way language is purposefully selected in a given communication context for one to achieve desired communication goal. In the context of this study, style pertains to the use of language in a particular context for a given purpose. It this sense, it is how language is used in legal context, particularly in laying down laws in a constitution. iii. Stylistics Stylistics is an academic discipline which studies style in language. Leech and Short (2007) define it as the linguistic study of style, which is rarely undertaken for its own sake, or simply as an exercise in describing what use is made of language. Elaborating this definition, Leech and Short explain that we normally study style because we want to explain something, and in general, literary stylistics has implicitly or explicitly, the goal of explaining the relation between language and artistic function. They also point out that the motivating questions in stylistics are not so much what, as why and how. Why and how are explained from different angles. From the linguist’s angle, it is why does the


Journal of English and Communication in Africa Vol. 1, No. 2, 2018 author here chose to express himself in this particular way?’ From the critic’s view point, it is “How is such-and-such an aesthetic effect achieved from language. It could be drawn from these views that stylistics pertains to both linguistics and literature.

Stylistics is also defined as a tool used for identifying distinctive or stylistically significant features from a text. Crystal and Davy (1985) are of the opinion that the aim of stylistics is to analyse language habits with the main purpose of identifying from the general mass of linguistic features common to English as used on every conceivable occasion, those features which are restricted to certain kinds of social context, to explain, where possible, why such features have been used, as opposed to other alternatives; and to classify these features into categories based upon a view of their function in social context. Features in the words of Crystal and Davy refer to any bit of speech which a person can single out from the general flow of language and discuss- a particular word, part of a word, sequence of words or way or uttering a word.

In a similar vein, Alfadil (2013) attributes the variation in stylistics to the influences of linguistics and literary criticism. He asserts that the goal of stylistic studies is not simply to describe the formal features of a texts for their own sake, but in order to show their functional significance for the interpretation of the text, or in order to relate literary facts to linguistic causes where these are felt to be relevant. Murtaza & Osami(2013) also believe that stylistics defines, studies, and analyses style objectively and technically, applying methodology of linguistics. They claim that literature was traditionally appreciated non-technically and the critic depended on his superior vision and arbitrary good text of the reader

From a different perspective to the foregoing. Norgaard, Montoro and Busse (2010) define stylistics as the study of the different ways of creating meaning through the use of language. It is the study of the ways in which meaning is created through language in literature as well as in other types of texts. They


Journal of English and Communication in Africa Vol. 1, No. 2, 2018 further assert that to this end, stylisticians use linguistic models, theories and frameworks as their tools in order to describe and explain how and why a text works as it does, and how we come from the words on the page to its meaning.

A text, whether spoken or written is the object of study in stylistics. Halliday and Hasan (1976) define a text as any instance of language, in any medium, that makes sense to someone who knows the language. According to Halliday and Matthiessen (2004), a text to a grammarian is a rich, many -faceted phenomenon that ‘means’ in many different ways. It can be explored from many different points of view. This means that a text can be examined from different angles. Karlgren (n.d) observes that authors make choices when they write a text: they decide how to organize the material they have planned to introduce; they select amongst available synonyms and syntactic constructions; they target an audience for the text. Authors will make their choices in various ways and for various reasons: based on personal preferences, on their view of the reader, and what they know and like about other similar texts. These choices are observable to the reader in the form of stylistic variation, as the differences between two ways of saying the same thing.

Stylistics is, therefore a discipline, which uses linguistic methods to explicate and bring to limelight, the significant features of language used in a given context. Linguistic features depicting the author’s goal of communication are isolated and their functions discussed. The application of linguistic methods in stylistic investigation enhances objectivity, as against impressionist in traditional approach to style. Therefore, style and stylistics can be regarded as twin concepts. While style deals with selection and use of language to achieve desired communication goal in a given context, stylistics is a tool for investigating way meanings are created in a text. iv. Approaches to Stylistic Analysis There are many approaches to stylistic analysis. The adoption of anyone depends on a large extent to the nature of a text and


Journal of English and Communication in Africa Vol. 1, No. 2, 2018 levels dictated by the convenience of the job at hand (Crystal and Davy 1985). For the purpose of this study, Linguistic description proposed by Crystal and Davy (1985) and Checklist of linguistic and stylistic categories proposed by Leech and Short (1985) were adopted. Crystal and Davy’s Linguistic description model involves taking the object of study – a particular piece of language, or text- and discussing it in terms of a number of interrelated levels of description. At each of the levels, which include phonetic/graphitic, phonological/graphological, grammatical, lexical, and semantics, the way in which language is organized is studied. Crystal and Davy advise that the order in which the levels are studied is not significant. One may start with syntactic rules as in generative grammar, phonological and semantic information being built in as interpretive components of the grammar. Alternatively, one may start with phonetics and phonological information as do scholars using a more traditional linguistic model, proceeding to grammar and vocabulary and thence to semantics; or one might begin with semantics, and proceed in the opposite direction.

In Leech and Short’s (2007) checklist of linguistic and stylistic categories, the categories are placed under four general headings: lexical categories, grammatical categories, figures of speech, cohesion and context. In the course of analysis in this study, Synthesis were made based on the prevalence of the distinctive or stylistically significant features identified. This means the levels or categories at which stylistically significant features have not been identified are ignored. Methodology The Corpus for this study is the entire 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended, 2011). Purposive sampling was used to select only the document because it consists of different chapters, sections, subsections, paragraphs and sub paragraphs which are large enough for analysis. It is deemed large enough because linguistic analysis does not necessarily depend on a large body of data but on the


Journal of English and Communication in Africa Vol. 1, No. 2, 2018 authenticity and purpose of the study. Descriptive qualitative approach was used in order to explain the stylistically significant linguistic features of the document under investigation. According to Elliott and Timulak (2005), qualitative research relies on linguistic description rather than numerical data, and employs meaning based rather than statistical forms of data analysis. The identified stylistically significant features were therefore discussed with reference to their socio-cultural, situational or linguistic contexts. Excerpts from the text were used to support claims in the course of data analysis and discussion. Data Analysis and Discussion of Findings The analysis of the data was done under three main headings which are the graphological, lexical and syntactic level. Excerpts from the texts were drawn to support claims in the course the analysis. Graphological Features Graphological features refers to the s physical organisation and typology of the text which may include chapters, paragraphs, as well as variation in typeface, such as capitalisation, italicisation, underlining, punctuation etc. (Khan & khan 2015). According to Thorne (1997), typographical features are purposely designed to draw the attention of the readers to the elements of a text. The analysis of the document revealed that it is divided into eight chapters, with sections numbered in Arabic numerals (1-320); subsections are numbered in Arabic numerals also but are enclosed in brackets to set them apart from the main sections. Paragraphs are numbered in letters, while the sub-paragraphs are in Roman numerals. These are all done to draw the readers’ attention, ease reference, above all, to achieve all-inclusiveness, reduce or eradicate ambiguity. The following excerpt contains examples of these graphological features:



CHAPTER IV FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS 33-(1) Every person has a right to life, and no one shall be deprived intentionally of his life, save in execution of the sentence of a court in respect of a criminal offence of which he has been found guilty in Nigeria (p.29) (2) A person shall not be regarded as having been deprived of his life contravention of this section; if he dies as a result of the use, to such extent in such circumstances as are permitted by the law, of such force as is reasonably necessary:

(a) for the defense of any person from unlawful violence of for defense of property;

(b) in order to effect a lawful arrest or to prevent the escape of a person lawful detained; or

(c) for the purpose of suppressing a riot, insurrection or mutiny (p.30)

The excerpt above is section 33 of the constitution. The title of the chapter is presented in capital letter for the purposes drawing the attention of the readers and making the surveying and reading of the title easy. It consists of 2 subsections numbered in Arabic numerals. Subsection 2 begins with short introductory phrase and then expands to three paragraphs. The paragraphs are lettered (a)-(c). Each of the paragraphs is devoted to explaining the necessities raised in the introductory clause.

The analysis also revealed that in some situations, a paragraph of in a sub section may begin with introductory clause and expands to subparagraphs as in paragraph (a) of section 119. Each of the subparagraphs is devoted to explaining the possible determining questions by a person who may apply to an election tribunal.

119. The National Assembly shall make provisions as respects



(a) persons who may apply to an election tribunal for the determination of any question as to whether (i) any person has been validly elected as a

member of a House of Assembly; (ii) the term of office of any person has ceased;

or (iii) the seat in a House of Assembly of a member

of that House has become vacant. (b) circumstances and manner in which, and the conditions upon which, such application may be made; and (c) powers, practice and procedure of the election tribunal in relation to such application.

Section 119 of the constitution above consists of three paragraphs explaining the Provisions that the National Assembly shall make in respect of persons who may apply to an election tribunal. Paragraph (a) consists of three subsections numbered in Roman numerals (i-iii) explaining the conditions for the application.Lawyers in the course of performing their duties often make reference to the above divisions to support their claims or arguments. It can be drawn from the foregoing that these divisions are determined by the complexity of information which the draftsmen break to ease reference and comprehension. In addition to the layout, the typeface shows that the document conforms to everyday writing style. Punctuation is used extensively than the rare cases in traditional legal documents. Section 15(2) below contains the use of comma as in other documents.

(2) Accordingly, national integration shall be actively encouraged, whilst discrimination on the grounds of place of origin, sex, religion, status, ethnic linguistics associations, or ties shall be prohibited



The use of comma, full stop and colons makes the text different from the traditional legal document. Information in traditional legal documents according to Crystal and Davy (1985) is conveyed in a solid single block. In 15(2) above, comma is used to separate the list of acts that amount to discrimination, which are prohibitions.

In 15(3) subsection, semi-colons are used in listing the paragraphs. At the end of the introductory clause of the paragraphs, a hyphen is use to-introduce the list of the paragraphs.

(3) For the purpose of promoting national integration, it shall be the duty of the state to- (a) provide adequate facilities for and encourage free

mobility of people, goods and services throughout the Federation.

(b) secure full residence rights for every citizen in all parts of the Federation.

(c) encourage intermarriage among persons from different places of origin, or of different religious or ethnic or linguistic association or ties; and

(d) promote or encourage the formation of associations that cut across ethnic, linguistic, religious or other sectional barriers.

(a)–(d) above are paragraphs specifying the political objectives of promoting national integration.

Lexical Features Thorne (1997) points out that the lexical features of a legal language is distinctive and consists of a mixture of subject specific jargons or terms of arts. The use of archaic words and expressions as well as technical terms usually add formality to legal language. Archaism in general sense refers to the use of old- fashioned language or antiquated style. Khan &Khan (2015) describe it as the use of old or antique words which are rarely


Journal of English and Communication in Africa Vol. 1, No. 2, 2018 used in common and everyday conversation. The use of archaic expressions identified in the document include: (i) Prepositional adverbs A prepositional adverb consists of an adverb and a preposition used as a single word, such as herein, therein, hereafter, thereto, therefrom, etc. The following excerpts contain some examples of prepositional adverbs in the document:

4 (2) The National Assembly shall have power to make laws for the pea order and good government of the Federation or any part thereof with respect to any matter included in the Executive Legislative List set out in part 1 of second schedule to this constitution.

28(1) Subject to the other provisions of this section, a person forfeits forthwith his Nigerian citizenship if, not being a citizen of Nigeria at birth, he acquires or retains the citizenship or nationality of a country, other than Nigeria, of which he is not a citizen by birth (p.27).

41(1) every citizen of Nigeria is entitled to move freely throughout Nigeria and to reside in any part thereof, and no citizen of Nigeria shall be expelled from Nigeria or refused entry thereto or exit therefrom (P.38).

Prepositional adverbs are used to make reference to parts of a text or what has been earlier stated in order to avoid ambiguity. They are also used to make concise and exact reference to a particular document, part of a document or to some parties in it. All the prepositional adverbs in italics in the above excerpts are used as referential devises. Thereof in excerpt one means of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; while forthwith in excerpt two means the citizenship of Nigeria; thereof in the third excerpt refers to any part of Nigeria; thereto, means to any part of


Journal of English and Communication in Africa Vol. 1, No. 2, 2018 Nigeria and therefrom means from any part of Nigeria. Exact reference is achieved through the use adverbial preposition without repeating the referent. (ii) Modal auxiliary verbs Modal auxiliary verbs usually precede the main verb in a verb phrase. They are finite verb forms that do not accept inflection for tense, that is, -ed or -ing tense markers. Each modal verb has specific meaning which dictates the way in which a statute is interpreted and enforced (Thorne 1997). The most commonly used modal verbs found in the document are shall and may. Shall is used in legal documents for expressing obligation, issuing order or instruction. May on the other hand, denotes possibility, that is, what can be done. Modal verbs are mostly used to express declarative mood. The declarative mood has subject and verb as basic elements (Thorne 1997). The modal verbs in italics in the following excerpts are examples:

231(1) The appointment of a person to the office of Chief Justice of Nigeria shall be made by the President on the recommendation of the National Judicial Council subject to confirmation of such appointment by the Senate (p. 147)

291(1) A Judicial officer appointed to the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeal may retire when he attains the age of sixty-five years and he shall cease to hold office when attains the age of seventy years (p.176)

The modal verb shall in the first excerpt express

obligation and confers right on the president to appoint a person to the office of the chief justice of the federation. The phrase “on recommendation of the National Judicial Council subject to confirmation of such appointment by the Senate”, however delimits the power of the president. In other words, it specifies the conditions for the appointment. In the second excerpt, the modal auxiliary verb may express possibility. It


Journal of English and Communication in Africa Vol. 1, No. 2, 2018 means that a judicial officer that attains the age of 65 sixty-five may decide to retire or continue to serve for five years more. The second part of the clause express obligation and necessity. It means that seventy years is the maximum age for retirement, while the minimum is sixty-five years. The two modal auxiliary verbs direct or dictate conditions for interpretation of statutory law. (iii) Technical terms These are terms prevalently used in the field of law, or in the discussion of legal matters. They are familiar to the legal specialists, especially the lawyers, but lay audience may find difficulties in understanding them. Examples of technical vocabularies identified from the document are:

6-(2) The Judicial powers of the State shall be vested in the court to which this section relates, being courts established, subject as provided by constitution for State (p. 6)

36-(3) The proceedings of Court or Proceedings of any tribunal relating to the matters mentioned in subsection (1) of this section, (including the announcement of the decisions of the court or tribunal shall be held in public (p.34).

5 Every person who is charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed to be innocent until he is proved guilty, (p.35)

The words court, judicial, constitution, proceedings, tribunal, criminal, and guilty are associated with the legal profession. These are terms that the lawyers and other legal practitioners use frequently in the field of law, but are used less or often in other fields of human endeavor.


Journal of English and Communication in Africa Vol. 1, No. 2, 2018 Nominalisation Nominalisations are nouns derived from verbs. They function like the passive voice to obscure the actor and focus on the action. One of the basic functions of nominalisation is to state the law as generally and objectively as possible. Nominalsation tends to present actions, procedures, and objects as activities or concepts, thus forming the subject of most of their sentences (Nwogu 1990). The nouns in boldface in the following excerpts are examples of nouns derived from verbs.

Except on the recommendation of the National Judicial Council, an appointment pursuant to the provisions of subsection (3) of this section, shall cease to have effect after the expiration of three months from the date of such appointment and, the president shall not re-appoint a person whose appointment has lapsed.

The nouns in bold face in the excerpt above are derived from the verbs recommend, appoint, provide, and expire. The presentation of these actions as activities makes the information conveyed more precise, because a noun derived from a verb normally functions as the subject or part of the subject of a sentence that it occurs in. Despite the fact that lawyers use nominalisation frequently, it has been observed that it contributes to making a sentence complex. Chiriac (2012) for instance observes that nominalization is a morphological process that is to be avoided because it makes the text long and non-dynamic. Binomials Binomials are usually pairs of nouns coordinated syntactically and are related semantically. Carballo (2006) observes that a binomial is a sequence of two or more words or phrases belonging to the same grammatical category joined by syntactic devices such as and or or Binomials can be classified as synonymous, antonymous or complementary. in a similar vein,


Journal of English and Communication in Africa Vol. 1, No. 2, 2018 Chiriac (2012) asserts that they have similar or the same conceptual meanings, one of them is redundant and does little to the meaning itself. The use binomial words add formal tone to legal language. Examples identified from the text are:

i. The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government (complementary).

ii. Sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from which government through this constitution derives all its power and Authority(synonymous)

iii. Every person elected to a House of Assembly shall, before taking his seat in that House, declare his assets and liabilities in the manner prescribed in this Constitution and subsequently take and subscribe ……...(complementary)

iv. The registration of voters and the conduct of the elections subject to the direction and supervision of the independent National Electoral Commission (synonymous).

Each of the pairs in the above examples tend to collocate (appear in the same environment). Security in example (i) connotes the activities of protecting a country, persons or building against attack or danger, while welfare connotes similar things, the health, safety and happiness of a person or group of persons. In example (ii), power means the ability to control people or things, and similarly authority refers to the power to give orders to people. Assets and liabilities in example iii are complementary, while asset is a person or thing valuable to somebody, liabilities implies what somebody is legal responsible for. Direction and supervision are synonymous because while direction pertains to instruction of doing something, supervision implies being in charge of something.


Journal of English and Communication in Africa Vol. 1, No. 2, 2018 Syntactic Features Syntax refers to the way words are combined to form larger grammatical units such as phrases clauses and sentences. Studies on legal document such as Crystal and Davy (1985), Tiersma (1999), and William 2004 have shown that legal documents contain distinctive syntactic features such as lengthy and complex sentences, complex noun phrases, conditional sentences, active and passive voices among others. The Analysis of the syntactic features of the document revealed the following distinctive syntactic features: (i) Lengthy and complex sentences One of the distinctive syntactic features of the document identified is lengthy and complex sentences. The sentences are long because legal draftsmen attempt to include all relevant information or points in a single statement, which often result to complex, compound or compound complex sentences. (Thorne 1997). The following excerpt is an example.

52(1) Every member of the Senate or the House of Representatives shall, before taking his seat, declare assets and liabilities as prescribed in this constitution and subsequently take and subscribe the oath of Allegiance and the Oath of membership as prescribed in the seventh schedule to the constitution, before the President of the Senate or, as the case may Speaker of the House of Representatives, but a member may before taking oaths take part in the election of a president and a Deputy President Senate, as the case may be, or a speaker and a deputy Speaker of the House of Representative.

The sentence above is an example of a complex compound sentence. The subject of the sentence “Every member of the Senate or the House of Representative” is a coordinated structure. In everyday or conversational English, the subject is followed by a main verb or an auxiliary verb and a main verb.


Journal of English and Communication in Africa Vol. 1, No. 2, 2018 The insertion of the adverbial phrase “before taking his seat” between the auxiliary verb shall and the main verb declare adds formality to the tone of the sentence and thereby expresses a strong obligation. The verbal phrase declares his assets and liabilities convey the main information about the subject.

Secondly, a member is required to subscribe to the oath of Allegiance and the Oath of membership. The third part of the sentence is introduced by the contrastive coordinating conjunction but, indicating that the idea or information which follows is in contrast with the preceding one. In this context, it means that a member has the right to take part in the election of the Senate president and the deputy or the Speaker and the deputy prior to declaration of assets and liability and oath of membership and Allegiance. The use of lengthy and complex sentences in constitution laws enables the legal draftsmen to achieve all-inclusiveness and reduce ambiguity. One of its disadvantages is that the lay audience may find difficulties in explicating and comprehending the information contained in the different units or parts of the sentence. Active and Passive Voice Voice refers to the relationship between an action verb in a sentence and its subject. A voice is referred to as active, if the subject of the sentence is the performer or doer of the action expressed by the verb. On the other hand, a voice is referred to as passive, if the subject is acted upon by the verb (Stoker 2011). Passive voice is normally preferred when the action is considered more important than the actor, or when the writer does not know who the actor is. The analysis of the document revealed predominant use of active voice and sparse occurrence of the passive voice. The following excerpts are examples of the use of active voice:

30 – (1) The president may deprive a person, other than a person who is a citizen of Nigeria by birth or by registration, of his citizenship, if he is that such a



person has, within a period of seven years after becoming naturalised been sentence to imprisonment for a term of not less than three years.

94(2) The speaker and Deputy Speaker of a House of Assembly shall declare their assets and liabilities in the manner prescribed by this constitution and consequently take and subscribe to the Oath of Alliance and the oath of membership prescribed as aforesaid before the clear of the House of Assembly.

In both excerpts above, the subject of the sentence is the actor or doer of the action expressed by the verbs “may deprived” and “shall declare” respectively). The emphasis in this case is not on the action but the executors of the actions. According to Stoker (2011), active voice is concise and easy to understand because the readers do not have to wait until the end of the sentence to understand, “who did what to whom). The following excerpts are examples of the use of passive voice.

276-(1) The appointment of a person to the office of the grand Kadi of the Sharia Court of Appeal of a State shall be made by the Governor of the State on the recommendation of the National Judicial Council subject to the confirmation of such appointment by the House of Assembly of the State.

33(-1) Every person has a right to life and no one shall be deprived intentionally of his life, save in execution of the sentence of a court in respect of a criminal offence of which he has been found guilty in Nigeria.

In section (276) above, the action is brought to the front of the sentence for the sake of focus and emphasis, while the actor in the subject position is moved to the end. One of the criticisms of


Journal of English and Communication in Africa Vol. 1, No. 2, 2018 the use of this form of passive voice is that it is not easy to understand like the active voice because the reader is delay till the end of the sentence before the actor or the agent is known. In section 33 (1), the passive voice used is the truncated form, which obscures the actor (Stoker 2011). The reader is left to the understand the actor from the context. This form of passive is preferred when the information is more important than the actor or when the actor is not known. In the case of legal document, it makes the generic and objective. Conditional sentences These are sentences that are based on facts, which are used to make statements about events, a phenomena or a particular situation. According to English Grammar Online, conditional sentences are known as conditional clauses or if Clauses. They are used to express that the action in the main clause, that is, the clause without if, can only take place if a certain condition in the clause with if is fulfilled. The following excerpts contain examples:

122.If the appropriation Bill in respect of any financial year has not been passed into law by the beginning of the financial year, the Governor may authorize the withdrawal of monies from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the state for the purpose of meeting expenditure necessary for carrying on the services of Government for a period not exceeding six months or until the coming into operation of law, whichever is the easier:

135-(3) If the Federation is at war in which the territory of Nigeria physically involved and the president considers that it is not practicable to hold elections, the National Assembly may by resolution extend the period off our years mention in subsection (2) of this section from time to time, but no such



extension shall exceed a period of six months at any one time.

Each of the conditional sentences above consists of a subordinate clause and a main clause. The subordinate clause is introduced by the subordinating conjunction if. The condition in the subordinate clause must be fulfilled before the action in the main clause can take place or be carried out. The subordinate clause in the first sentence states the condition that warrants the Governor to authorize withdrawal of moneys from the State Consolidated Revenue Fund, while the subordinating clause in the second excerpt states the condition for extending election period. Focus/Fronting Focus is made in a text when some elements of a clause other the subject is moved or served to the front of a sentence. In a typical declarative sentence, the subject of a sentence comes first, to be followed by the predicator. In linguistics, whatever comes first is called theme; usually the subject. The style of placing a clause element other than the subject in the front of a sentence is called fronting or foregrounding. The clause element that has replaced the subject in the front position is labelled a marked theme. In legal discourse, marked themes are elements brought to the front to draw the attention of the reader to the information that is more important in interpreting the legal conditions (Thorne 1997). The analysis of the document revealed occurrences of marked themes or foregrounded clause elements for the purposes of making emphasis. The following excerpts are examples:

157-(1) subject to the provisions of section (3) of the constitution, a person holding any of the office to which this section applies may only be removed from that office by the president acting on an address supported by two-thirds majority of the



Senate praying that he be so removed for inability to discharge the functions of the office (whether arising from infirmity of mind or any other cause) or for misconduct.

78(4) For the purpose of an election under this section, a State shall be regarded as one constituency.

Marked themes as shown in italics in the two excerpts are usually subordinate clauses which are purposely fronted to draw the reader’s attention to the information deemed more important. The main clause which comes after the marked themes is give less emphasis in the interpretation of legal conditions. Complex noun phrase Complex noun phrases consist of a head noun which may be preceded or followed by some modifying elements. The preceding elements are known as pre-modifiers, while the following elements are called post-modifiers. These two categories of modifiers provide more information about the head noun but make a sentence lengthy and complex. The following excerpts contain examples of the complex noun phrases:

14(3) The composition of the government of the federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote unity, and also to command national loyalty thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few States or from a few ethnic, or other sectional groups in that Government in any of its agencies.

52-(2) The president and Deputy president of the

Senate and the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of



the House of Representatives Shall declare their assets and liabilities as prescribed in this constitution and subsequent and subscribe the Oath of Allegiance and the Oath of Membership prescribed as aforesaid before the clerk of the National Assembly.

Each of the two sentences in 14(3) and 35(2) contains

complex noun phrases in the subject position as indicated in italics. The head nouns in both excerpts are indicate in boldface. In 14(3), they are preceded by modifying elements a, the, and no. The verb phrase consists of three elements: the modal auxiliary verb shall, be, and the phrasal verb carried out which are followed by complementary elements. In 52(2), the noun heads are also indicated in boldface which are preceded by the determiner ‘the’ the adjective ‘deputy’, and post modified by the prepositional phrase of…. The verb phrase consists of the modal auxiliary verb shall and the main verb declare express directive which the parties in the complex phrase are expected to comply with. The last complex phrase after the verb subscribe function as complement, which specifies also the actions that the parties are expected to preform before becoming bona-fide member of the National Assembly.

The use of complex noun phrases as exemplified in the two excerpts enhances comprehensive descriptions of parties affected by the law under discussion as well as unambiguous statement of the law. The laypersons may, however encounter difficulties in explicating the bits of information in the complex phrases. Findings and Discussion The identified graphological features of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which includes chapters, sections, subsections, and paragraphs are chronological divisions made to ease surveying, reading and referencing easy. Also, the typeface which include capitalisation and punctuations are stylistically


Journal of English and Communication in Africa Vol. 1, No. 2, 2018 significant features. While capitalisation enhances easy reading and drawing attention to importance items, punctuations make the text clear. These features make the document modern, when compared with the traditional legal documents which used to contain sparse punctuation marks.

The lexical features consist of archaic words and expressions and technical words. The use of these lexical features adds formality to the tone of the document. However, the laypersons may find difficulties in reading and comprehending them, especially the prepositional adverbs which are used to make reference to part of the document without repeating it. The use of modal auxiliary verbs as depicted by the analysis adds formality to the tone of the document. In addition, it specifies how the laws are interpreted and enforced. The prevalent ones (shall and will) express declarative mood.

The result of the analysis at the syntactic level revealed that the sentences are lengthy and complex. The complexity is attributed to the attempt by the legal drafts men to capture everything amounting to law in a given context. This also enhances all-inclusiveness and reduces ambiguity. The passive voice is used in order to make the law sound objective and generic. The truncated/agentless passive especially detaches or obscures the actor, thereby making the law sound generic. Some laws that are only enforced or become binding based on pre-existing conditions are laid in conditional sentences. Another important syntactic feature identified is fronting and focusing or thematic structure. Marked themes are used to put emphasis on part of a sentence other than the subject. Subordinating conjunctions are therefore fronted or served to the beginning of the sentence to achieve emphases. Conclusion The study has revealed that the constitution the Federal Republic of Nigeria has distinctive graphological features. It can be concluded that these graphological features help the reader to locate or make reference to an item or information easily. At


Journal of English and Communication in Africa Vol. 1, No. 2, 2018 the lexical level, archaic vocabularies such as the use of prepositional adverbs, technical terms, modal auxiliary verbs and binomial words were identified as distinctive. Conclusion can be drawn from these that although the add formality to the tone of the document, they hinder the laypersons and non-specialists from understanding the documents.

The syntactic analysis of the document revealed some syntactic features that are common in other legal documents such as lengthy and complex sentences, complex prepositional phrases, nominalisation, conditional sentences and the use of active and passive. Based on these, it can be concluded that the complexity of the syntactic features is one of the problems that the laypersons and non-legal specialists encounter in interpreting the document. The study has generally shown that the constitutional law of the Republic of Nigeria shares common characteristics with other legal documents especially statutory laws. The archaic lexis and complex syntactic features are the most shared characteristics. What distinguishes it from other legal documents is the context (Nigeria and the physical and socio cultural contexts)

The identified stylistically distinctive features have some pedagogical implications. The identified linguistic features can serve as a guide for the teaching of academic writing in legal institutions or departments in the faculty of law, especially in Nigerian Universities. The features can also be used by ESP practitioners to prepare questionnaire for needs analysis of the students of law. The result of the need analysis will form bases for designing curriculum and producing materials for the teaching of legal English, especially for Learners of English as a Second Language. References Alfadil, A.A (2013). An Introduction to English Stylistics. Accessed

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