Publications

Publication details [#71551]

Daniel, Florence and Foluke Olayinka Unuabonah. 2021. Stance and engagement in selected Nigerian Supreme Court judgments. English Text Construction 14 (2) : 231–252.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Keywords
Journal DOI
10.1075/etc

Annotation

The study investigates stance and engagement strategies of Nigerian Supreme Court judges in constructing arguments in their opinions. Fifty purposively selected judicial opinions were quantitatively and qualitatively analysed using Hyland’s stance and engagement model. The findings reveal that Nigerian Supreme Court judges used more stance than engagement features. Among the stance features found, the judges used more self-mention devices to establish authorial presence and distinguish their views from others. Prevalent among engagement markers, on the other hand, are directives, informed by the normative nature of the text and the judges’ keenness to owning such prescribed norms.