Vague references in Nigerian newspaper editorials

Abstract

Humans make references to things, people, places and ideas in communication through language, generally. While referencing, they are often specific. Instances also abound where they use nonspecific linguistic elements, intentionally. The use of these elements could be either of want of specific details, conveyance of tentativeness or even for the purpose of suspense. This study argues that vague reference elements as the natural properties of the human language may be explored as a useful device for human communication. For various reasons, being vague may not be limited to informal communication alone. The corpus linguistics approach is adopted to provide a strong empirical basis for the analysis of vague references. Data was obtained from three purposively selected Nigerian newspaper editorials (three consecutive months issues of their editorials) using AntConc Concordance Tool. The study discovered preponderant use of downtoners, vague category identifiers, approximation of quantities, frequency, likelihood, and time as well as the representations of people, places and ideas, all vague reference elements, in the corpus. Its most significant finding is that the vague reference is productively explored as a discourse device by the newspapers to achieve tentativeness or/and suspense. This may be seen as a strategy deployed by the papers to avoid political or legal jeopardy or resultant litigations from their writings.

Keywords: human communication, Nigerian newspaper, editorials, corpus, vague references