Syntactic Structures in Political Discourse: A Government and Binding Analysis of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 65th Independence Anniversary Speech
Keywords:
Syntax, Government and Binding Theory, political discourse, African linguistics, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, noun phrase analysisAbstract
This study examines the syntactic architecture of African political discourse through the analytical framework of Government and Binding (GB) Theory as developed by Chomsky (1981, 1986). The main objective is to explore how syntactic principles underlie the construction of political meaning, authority, and persuasion, an area often overshadowed by pragmatic, stylistic, and critical discourse approaches. Methodologically, the study employs purposive sampling to select excerpts from African political speeches, with particular focus on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 65th Independence Anniversary address. Clauses rich in noun phrase (NP) structures and clause relations are extracted and presented in interlinear gloss format for syntactic clarity and precision. The analysis applies the major submodules of GB, Case Theory, Theta Theory, Binding Theory, Government, Bounding, and Control, to reveal how political discourse is governed by systematic syntactic configurations rather than random grammatical choices. Findings indicate that declarative structures assigning thematic roles to political actors, as well as governed subject-predicate relations, serve to legitimate authority and encode ideological stance. The study concludes that syntax functions not merely as a grammatical framework but as a strategic instrument in political rhetoric, shaping the persuasive force and ideological framing of discourse. It recommends greater integration of syntactic analysis into political linguistics to uncover how language structure contributes to the production and maintenance of power in African political communication.
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