A Stylistic Analysis of Some Linguistic Devices in Newspaper Headlines: Nigerian Newspapers as A Case Study

Abstract

Media houses have played significant roles in national development. They, among other roles, serve as the intermediary between the government and the masses. The choice they make in their reportage begins from the headlines which may or may not outrightly show the direction of the news. The study examines the linguistic features of the news headlines on fuel subsidy removal and electricity tariff hike in Nigeria. Register analysis is the theory adopted to carry out the study. This is to enable us consider the functions of the chosen linguistic items within the social setting; find out the similarities and differences that exist among the headlines in terms of how they are structured and point out the implied meaning in them. This study, among other findings, reveals that most of the newspaper headlines on fuel subsidy removal and electricity tariff hike relied heavily on positive adjectives to palatably present government policies, actions and steps to the masses. This paper suggests that researchers could adopt Speech Act Theory to analyse the newspaper headlines on fuel subsidy removal and electricity tariff hike so as to find out what journalists are doing with words.