Exploring Stance and Engagement Markers in the Discourse on Fuel Subsidy Removal in Nigeria in the Punch and Daily Trust Newspapers

Abstract

Eliminating fuel subsidies in Nigeria in 2023 has precipitated a significant transformation with far-reaching economic, social, and environmental consequences. While existing research has attempted to explore the discourse on fuel subsidy elimination from a nonlinguistic viewpoint using various theoretical insights, this study takes a different approach by examining the discourse from a linguistic perspective. Employing Hyland's (2005) stance and engagement model, the study examines the stance and engagement markers used in the discourse on fuel subsidy to interact with readers, describe how the subject has been evaluated, and determine the points of convergence and divergence in stance and engagement markers. The study's data consists of excerpts from Punch and Daily Trust newspapers. Sixteen excerpts, eight from each newspaper, were purposively sampled and analysed using a rigorous combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The findings show that both corpora employ hedges, boosters, attitude markers, self-mention, reader pronouns, shared knowledge, directives, and questions to interact with readers. These stance and engagement markers serve as linguistic means through which the authors of both corpora decrease the force of their propositions, express confidence in their arguments, indicate their attitude towards the issue evaluated, project themselves, and invite readers into the discourse. The subject of fuel subsidy in both corpora is presented badly using evaluative indicators with negative connotations. While both corpora employ a host of stance and engagement markers in structuring the discourse on fuel subsidy removal, it is noteworthy to mention that variation in frequency and percentage distribution of these linguistic elements exists.