A MILITARY DISCOURSE AND STYLISTIC VARIATION: LANGUAGE USE IN ODOGBO ARMY BARRACKS IN OJOO-IBADAN NIGERIA

Abstract

Th is study examines language use among soldiers in the Odogbo army barracks in Ojoo-Ibadan during training and parade activities. A good number of scholars have investigated language use in the armed forces, and many of them adopted diff erent approaches and arrived at diff erent conclusions. However, there is a paucity of scholarship on the shared knowledge that soldiers deploy in their language during training, parades, and other special activities. Th e study adopts a qualitative method since the data involved are descriptive. Th e data used in this study was harvested through participant observations of parade activities by soldiers, as were the audio recordings of army interactions during a parade. Odogbo Army Barracks in Ojoo, Ibadan, was purposefully selected since it was the fi rst barracks in Ibadan and was saddled with the responsibility of coordinating the military activities in southwestern Nigeria. Th e collected data were analysed from sociolinguistic perspective through identifi cation and interpretation in the military context vis-à-vis the interlocutor. Th e paper concluded that soldiers’ language in parade involves an authoritative style obeyed by the parade troop as a result of shared knowledge.