Analyzing Discourse Particles in the Text of the 7-Point Agenda

This paper examines how discourse particles have been used as communicative strategy to ensure the effective use of language in the text of the 7-Point Agenda of Nigeria's current administration. By using appropriate discourse mapping of cohesion, the paper investigates the strategy of how language is effectively used to communicate information to Nigerians on the message and import of the 7-Point Agenda. The varied cohesive strategies employed in the construction of the 7-Point Agenda as exemplified in this study include the strategies of reiteration/repetition, exophora, and the twin types of endophoric referencing, namely, anaphora and cataphora. The study investigated these techniques of communication through a discourse perspective in order to explore one of the numerous linguistic resources at the disposal of interlocutors. The picture that emerges shows that discourse strategies like reiteration/repetition and endophora are the various ways used to achieve textual cohesion thereby encoding meaning in the text of the 7-Point Agenda. As effective communication strategies, they are seen to help in determining meaning that are not directly obvious in the vocabulary contents of the texts but rather on the meaning that impinge on social context of the text.