A LEXICO-SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF ELLA FORTE'S SPOKEN WORD IN THE 2023 NIGERIA’S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIO

Abstract

This work, a lexico-semantic analysis of Ella Forte's spoken word in the 2023 Nigeria’s Presidential Election, examined the lexical and semantic elements of Forte’s performance, focusing on how her choices of words, literary devices, and semantic features contribute to the overall meaning and impact of her message. Scholars have devoted efforts to the study of words and their deployment in several contexts to achieve certain aims. In continuation with the existing scholarship, this research explored the manner of words deployment as well as the meaning(s) generated from such usage in the data under study. Data for this study comprised of both media and transcripted content of Ella Forte's spoken word in the 2023 Nigeria’s Presidential Election. Lexico-semantic, with focused on Alan Cruse’s (2000) Approach, which stipulates that words play a significant role in the interpretation of meaning of utterances and provide credence for the nuances and refinement that accompany language use, served as the theoretical framework for this study. The paper discovered that through the artist’s conceptual framework, the deployment of context-informed lexical choices and lexico-semantic features, like idiomatic expressions, allusions, personification, oxymoron, metaphors, alliteration and assonance, code mixing and switching, the artist passed her message with botemotional connection and a thought provoking tempo. The paper concluded that these lexical choices and semantic features together form a formula which offers her the line of least resistance in communicating specifically with the Nigerian audience on such a peculiar socio-political issue, yet also addressing the societal concerns of the people.