Author(s)

Ojo George Adekunle, Omotunde Samuel Adebayo

Department of English and Literary Studies, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria.

The paper analyzes and presents how the phenomenon of linguistic politeness is exhibited in eight selected Independence Day Anniversary Speeches delivered by Nigerian Heads of Government between 1960 and 2011. The speeches were got from both the internet (http://www.dawodu.com.htm) and the national dailies like “The Punch” and “The Guardian” recovered from Archives, University Libraries and Tribune House in Ibadan. Using insights from Leech’s Politeness Maxims and Brown and Levinson’s theory of “face”, it is discovered that either consciously or unconsciously, the speech encoders make use of tact maxim to achieve oneness, intimacy and solidarity with Nigerians but most importantly as a face saving act, Pollyanna maxim to conceal the true extent of an unpalatable event and also to make the decoders feel happy and optimistic, modesty maxim to signify that Nigerian Heads of Government are not arrogant and pompous and equally does not claim that they can achieve anything without the support of Nigerians; and lastly approbation maxim to praise, eulogize and acknowledge some selected people in some cases and all Nigerians in others.

Linguistic Politeness, Independence Day Anniversary Speeches, Politeness Maxims, Face

Adekunle, O. and Adebayo, O. (2017) Politeness in Selected Independence Anniversary Speeches of Nigerian Heads of Government. Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 7, 290-310. doi: 10.4236/ojml.2017.76021.