MOOD ANALYSIS OF UNIONISTS’ DISCOURSE: CASE STUDY OF NIGERIAN LABOUR CONGRESS (NLC)

Drawing on Hallidayan Systemic Functional Linguistics, this paper examines the mood patterns of unionists’ discourse in order to find out the inner force of unionists as far as the persuasion and mobilisation of workers are concerned. In other words, it aims to describe linguistic mood choices in unionists’ discourse especially the case of Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) to show how unionists use language to persuade and mobilise their comrades for their legitimate rights claim. Basing on the sampling method, two excerpts have been selected from the welcome addresses by Mrs Ladi Iliya chair of the NLC’s National Women’s Commission and Comrade Abdulwahed Omar President of Nigeria Labour Congress, at the NLC’s National Women Conference held on March 10, 2008 Kaduna, Nigeria. The results show that suitable linguistic mood choices highly strengthen unionists in their capacities of persuasion and mobilisation of their comrades.