MOOD AND MODALITY IN NIGERIA’S PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI’S INAUGURAL SPEECH: A STYLISTIC STUDY

Linguistic scholars have subjected Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari's inaugural speech of May 29, 2015 to grammatical, socio-pragmatic, semantic, and critical discourse analysis. However, none has given attention to the stylistics of the speech as regards choice of mood and modality. This paper, therefore, examined choice of mood and modality in President Buhari's inaugural speech with a view to determining their functional significance. The researchers based their analysis of the data drawn from the inaugural on M.A.K. Halliday's systemic functional linguistics, because of its emphasis on form-function correlation in language use. Analysis revealed the predominant use of statements and modal auxiliaries expressing intention and obligation. The paper concluded that the choice of these linguistic forms was functionally significant, as it underlined the informative nature of the inaugural and the president's strong commitment to fulfilling his promises.