Construing political history: transitivity analyses of the process types in selected Ghanaian presidential independence anniversary speeches under the fourth republic

Abstract

This study affirms the contention that language is a tool that politicians use to construe their experiences of the world. Hence, Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics, with focus on ideational meta function as a framework, is used to carry out transitivity analyses of the process types in four purposefully selected Ghanaian Presidential Independence Day Anniversary Speeches: the 2020 Independence Day Anniversary Speech delivered by Nana Akufo-Addo; the 2016 Independence Day Anniversary Speech delivered by John Dramani Mahama, the 2012 Independence Day Anniversary Speech delivered by John Evans Attah Mills and the 2007 Independence Day Anniversary Speech delivered by John Agyekum Kufuor. Halliday (1994:23) asserts that language is “functional and systemic” and is used to make meaning. Therefore, the study concentrated on the processes and participants that were dominant and helped to bring out the meanings of the selected Presidential Independence Day Anniversary Speeches. Qualitative research design was used to study which transitivity patterns dominate the data and how they help contribute to the meanings of the speeches. The study discovered that the material process dominated the speeches, followed by the relational process, mental process and verbal process. This pattern suggests that all four of these Presidents used these process types to help them communicate to Ghanaians how the founding fathers struggled to gain independence for the country. The study also revealed that they cast the speeches more in the material, relational and mental processes, making the forefathers prominent in the struggles for Ghana’s independence. They described the events that happened and drew the minds of Ghanaians to the events that surrounded the country’s independence. Further, the study revealed that these presidents employed the universal or the inclusive “we” as an actor, senser and sayer to spread the load of responsibility and to inform the audience that actions taken were not fully the responsibility of one individual but rather the outcome of collective work of members of the Government. The study recommends that future research on Ghanaian Presidential Independence Day Anniversary Speeches should focus on the other two strands of Halliday’s meta functions (i.e., Interpersonal and Textual meta functions)