A Lexical Stylistics Analysis of Declaration Speech · speech play a general influencing role in the way the presentation goes while the sub-divisions of topics also have a bearing

International Journal of Art, Language & Linguistics ISSN: 2653-6676, Volume 1, Issue 2, page 85 - 96

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Mwinwelle, P. & Adukpo, J. 2019. A Lexical Stylistics Analysis of Declaration Speech (Nkrumah’s

1957 Independence Declaration ............

85

A Lexical Stylistics Analysis of

Declaration Speech

(Nkrumah’s 1957 Independence Declaration Speech)

Mwinwelle, Peter1 & Adukpo, John

2

1Mwinwelle, Peter &

2Adukpo, John

1Department of Languages, E. P. College of Education, Amedzofe

2Department of Languages, Dambai College of Education

Ghana

1. INTRODUCTION

Sharndama and Mgbemena (2015:19) define a Speech as a ‘formal talk that a person gives before

an audience’. Every speech is delivered for a purpose and language serves as the primary tool of

expression. Political speeches are very powerful and influential in nature. Aspects of political

communication include but are not limited to only political speeches delivered by politicians but also

writings of politicians, election campaigns, parliamentary debates, political interviews. Political

speeches may range from campaigns, manifestoes, speeches at rallies, other election messages,

inaugural speeches, victory speeches, Independence Day speeches, May Day speeches and many other

Abstract: Previous studies on Kwame Nkrumah’s Speeches look at the rhetorical features

and their effect on the speeches. However, such studies pay little attention to the role

lexical items play in the speech and the significance of the cognitive ties among these

lexical items. This paper, therefore takes a different analytical perspective by looking at

the stylistic value of the use of the lexical items, the cognitive relation among these lexical

items and how they reveal the meaning and effectiveness of Nkrumah’s 1957

Independence Declaration speech. The study employs the linguistic and stylistic checklist

by Leech and Short (2007) which stratifies lexical items into verbs, nouns, adjectives and

adverbs in order to reveal their stylistic value and the ideational meta-function by

Halliday and Matthiessen (2014) which presents the various cognitive domains in order

to reveal the thoughts of Nkrumah as frameworks for the analysis. The analysis reveals

Nkrumah’s use of nouns dominates other lexical items and this indicates that his speech is

more referential to the events that lead to Ghana’s independence and the events that he

expects will follow. The analysis identifies lexical categories and cognitive domains which

indicate the wide scope of the speech. The cognitive analysis reveals the cognitive ties

among the lexical items and their meaning and implications on the speech. The study

demonstrates that, the cognitive relationship among lexical items can reveal the meaning

of a text. The study therefore, enhances the understanding and interpretation of Kwame

Nkrumah’s speech in particular, and political discourse in general.

Keywords: Stylistics, Lexical items, Cognitive analysis & Domains.

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speeches depending on the situation. Political discourse is becoming a popular concept especially in the

area of linguistic research.

Kwame Nkrumah’s 1957 Independence declaration speech was a powerful extemporaneous

oration that declared the independence of the Gold Coast. Mensah (2014:78) says that ‘independence

declaration is a momentous political and a psychological activity in the life of any nation’. He

continues to say that within a period of twenty–four hours, three momentous speeches had marked the

oration of Nkrumah on the birth of the new nation Ghana. This paper seeks to look at of the second

speech which declares Ghana’s independence a few minute before mid-night at the Old Polo Grounds,

across the street from the Assembly building.

Winding back the clock, this paper seeks to conduct a lexical stylistic analysis of the extempore

rhetorical 1957 Independence Declaration speech by Nkrumah using the linguistic and stylistic

checklist by Leech and Short (2007) and the ideational meta-function by Halliday and Matthiessen

(2014) as frameworks for the analysis.

Taiwo (2009:192) describes politics as ‘the struggle for and control of resources, values, norms

and behavior of a social group’. It is very obvious that one needs language as a powerful tool to attain

political power. It is true that the politicians’ targeted struggle and control of whatever resources,

values and norms will be a fiasco without the use of language. Ayeomoni & Akinkuolere (2012:462)

say that ‘language has been a powerful tool in the hands of political leaders; they manipulate the tool to

suit their purposes’. Since politics is basically about struggling to control power, it is only through

language that such could be accomplished, thereby making language a very strong political weapon.

Taiwo (2007) extends the notion about language in political speeches by saying that language is a

heavily loaded vehicle. According to him, words are never neutral, transparent or innocent. They

always carry the power and ideologies that reflect the interests of those who speak or write them. This

implies that the choice of certain words over others may reflect conscious and unconscious ideologies

held by those who produce them. In simple terms the language reveals who we are and what we think

about and wish to pass on to others.

Language is essential to politicians. Most, if not all, activities performed by the politicians are

done through the avenue created by language. Fairclough (1992), Van Dijk (1996), Obeng (2002),

Adjei-Fobi (2011) and Anderson (2014) all attest to the fact that political speeches are ornamented and

foregrounded with a particular style which helps in conveying the intended message.

Fordjour (2012), highlighting the role of political speeches in Ghana, asserts that even though the

country has enjoyed a stable democracy since the re-introduction of constitutional democracy in 1992,

the only thing that could derail this current democratic gain is hate speech, especially, by political

actors. This gives credence to the crucial role language plays in the practice of politics in Ghana.

2. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Some scholars have worked on political speeches from different perspectives. In order to

establish the empirical significance of the present study, the study first has to be properly situated in the

extant literature through a review of studies that examine various political speeches from the linguistic

perspective of stylistics. Stylistic analyses of political speeches have been conducted by (Adjei-Fobi

2011; Balogun 2011; Djabatey 2013; Anderson 2014; Mensah 2014; Quinto 2014; Adjei & Ewusi-

Mensah 2016).

The foregoing reviews highlight few political speeches whose meanings and effects have been

fleshed out through stylistic analyses. In the extant literature only Adjei-Fobi (2011) and Djabatey

(2013) conduct a rhetorical analysis of selected speeches of Nkrumah from the rhetorical perspective.

This paper therefore takes a different analytical perspective by looking at the stylistically significant

lexical features and the cognitive relationship and their meaning among the lexical features in the

overall comprehension of Nkrumah’s 1957 independence declaration speech.

3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS

In the bid to identify and describe the problem, the following questions arose to serve as a guide

to prevent a deviation from the purpose of the study. The paper seeks to answer these three questions.

a. What are the lexical stylistic features in Kwame Nkrumah’s 1957 independence declaration speech?


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b. What cognitive relationships exist among the lexical stylistic features in Kwame Nkrumah’s 1957

independence declaration speech?

c. How do the lexical stylistic features employed contribute to the effectiveness of Kwame Nkrumah’s

1957 independence declaration speech?

5. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Some stylistic analyses have been conducted on Ghanaian presidential political speeches. Adjei-

Fobi (2011) investigates the role of metaphor in selected political speeches by Nkrumah and Rawlings.

His study revealed that Nkrumah uses militant and confrontational metaphors whereas Rawlings opts

for violent and militaristic ones.

Mensah (2014) conducts a rhetorical analysis of Kwame Nkrumah’s political speeches. The

findings of his study show that Nkrumah employs a nonviolent protest rhetoric which forms a

necessary ingredient to break through, if not entirely, the formidable walls of colonialism in the Gold

Coast. Anim-Ayeko (2012) probes the use of metaphor in the politics of Ghana with emphasis on

verbal and nonverbal selected political advertisement in the print media.

Djabatey (2013) undertakes a critical discourse analysis of selected political speeches by John

Dramani Mahama and Nana Akufo Addo. The findings of his study reveal that the contexts of the

speech play a general influencing role in the way the presentation goes while the sub-divisions of topics

also have a bearing on the presentation. Anderson (2014) carries out a stylistic analysis of some

selected political speeches by John Evans Atta Mills. He looks at the stylistic features in Mills’

speeches and how they reveal Mills as the man of peace using the systematic functional linguistics

framework. The findings reveal that Mills employed stylistic features such as positive self-projection,

repetition, code switching, biblical allusions, historical allusions, a fatherly imagery and the imagery of

a preacher in his speeches. Adjei and Ewusi-Mensah (2016) conduct a transitivity analysis of the 2009

state of the nation address by Atta mills which confirms that material, relational and mental processes

are the three primary processes that language often uses.

This paper, therefore takes a different analytical perspective by looking at the stylistic value of

the use of the lexical items, the cognitive relation among these lexical items and how they reveal the

meaning and effectiveness of Nkrumah’s 1957 Independence Declaration speech in order to contribute

significantly to literature.

6. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS

The study employs two frameworks for its analysis. These frameworks are the Linguistic and

stylistic categories framework by Leech and Short (2007) and Halliday and Matthiessen Functional

Grammar framework (2014).

6.1 LINGUISTIC AND STYLISTIC CATEGORIES FRAMEWORK BY LEECH AND SHORT

(2007)

The study adopts the lexical category in the Linguistic and stylistic categories framework to

identify the lexical items in the speech. The framework postulates that the lexical items in a text form a

unit of analysis in stylistics. The framework explicates that the presence or absence of a particular

feature serves a stylistic purpose. Nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives form the lexical categories in

the framework. These categories present various aspects of the meaning of a text. The framework also

posits that the relationship between lexical items in a text reveal the message in a text. The framework

further aids to reveal the relation among these lexical items to show their stylistic value to the speech in

general.

6.2 FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR FRAMEWORK BY HALLIDAY AND MATTHIESSEN (2014)

The study also uses the ideational meta-function in the functional grammar framework to classify

various lexical items into various cognitive domains which reveal the thoughts of Nkrumah in his

speech. The ideational meta-function posits that people present their experiences through their

utterances. The study considers these experiences from the lexical level of analysis. This framework


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helps stratify the various lexical items their cognitive domain in order to reveal the thoughts and

experiences of Nkrumah through his speech.

7. METHODOLOGY

The researcher begins the study by conducting a thorough or close reading of the speech. The

researcher then sets out to conduct a lexical stylistic analysis of Nkrumah’s 1957 independence

declaration speech. The study through the linguistic and stylistic categories framework identifies four

lexical categories in the speech. The study identifies the various lexical items in the speech and groups

them under these four lexical categories which are nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. The study

employs the manual coding approach to code the lexical items into their respective category due to

small corpus size of the speech. The study analyses the lexical items in their respective categories and

after which conducts an inter-category analysis of these lexical items. This reveal the significant

stylistic features present in the speech and their contribution to the general comprehension of the

speech.

The study also adopts the ideational meta-function in the functional grammar framework to

classify various lexical items into various cognitive domains within their respective categories. The

study progresses to look at the relationship between the various domains which reveal the thoughts of

the political actor

8. ANALYSIS

The analysis identifies lexical item into their respective categories below

LEXICAL CATEGORY FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE

NOUNS

Battle, country, opportunity, chiefs, people, youth,

farmers, women, men, imperialism, attitudes, minds,

rule, colonial, work, destiny, millions, nation,

nations, world, beginnings, support, purport, work,

eyes, warning, man, affairs, identity, assembly, man,

foundation, minutes, personality, nothing,

Ghanaians, independence, God, Ghana, liberation,

blessing, second, thousand, minutes, thanks,

difficulties, African, Africa. imprisonments,

hardships, suffering, end, trouble, anthem, silence,

chance

56 39.2

VERBS

Ended, fought, won, co-operated, pointed, made,

prepared, respected, said, done, led, linked, brought,

given, awaken, had, Has, is, want, take, thank, have,

fight, change, entails, let, realise, am, lay, pick,

make, see, goes, call, remember, give, ask, play,

stand, matter, re-dedicate, sleep, create, Freeing,

reshaping, going, relying, seeing, having, managing,

Must, will, can, show, pause

55 38.5

ADVERBS

Nobly, here, Now, today, forever, Anymore.

6 4.2

ADJECTIVES

Last, two, only, one, Beloved, difficult, valiant,

foreign, mighty, almighty, meaningless, hard, long,

new, national, free, own, independent, ex-service,

clear, quite, total, fellow, Black, capable, great

26 18.1


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The table above presents Nkrumah’s use of lexical items. The table shows Nkrumah’s dominant

use of nouns and verbs which indicate the events that lead to independence and the role the Gold

Coasters play in these events in the attainment of independence.

Nkrumah uses formal vocabulary in his speech which shows the kind of attention he commits to

the speech due its pivotal role it plays. He uses simple vocabulary in order to reach his immediate as

well as his extended audience since the speech was broadcasted on an international radio station. His

use of simple and general vocabulary served the stylistic purpose of his message reaching people from

different backgrounds and levels.

Throughout Nkrumah’s speech, he never mentions the name ‘Gold Coast’ instead he mentions

the name ‘Ghana’ in replacement of ‘Gold Coast’. This serves an effective stylistic purpose of

Nkrumah’s sense of the nation’s independence and therefore must not addressed by its colonial name

which is Gold Coast.

ANALYSIS OF NOUNS

PROPER COMMON ABSTRACT CONCRETE

Ghana,

Africa,

African,

Ghanaians,

God

Battle, country, opportunity,

chiefs, people, youth, farmers,

women, men, imperialism,

attitudes, minds, rule, work,

colonial, destiny, millions,

nation, nations, world,

beginnings, support, purport,

work, eyes, warning, man,

affairs, identity, assembly,

man, foundation, minutes,

personality, nothing,

independence, liberation,

blessing, second, thousand,

minutes, thanks, difficulties,

imprisonments, hardships,

suffering, end, trouble,

anthem, silence, chance

Battle, country, opportunity,

imperialism, attitudes,

minds, rule, colonial, work,

destiny, beginnings, purport,

support, work, warning,

affairs, identity, assembly,

foundation, minute,

personality, nothing,

independence, liberation,

blessing, second, , minutes,

thanks, difficulties,

imprisonments, hardships,

suffering, end, trouble,

anthem, silence, chance.

chiefs, people,

youth, farmers,

women, men,

eyes, man,

Ghana, Africa,

African, God,

Ghanaians,

millions,

thousand,

nation, nations,

world

Nkrumah used fifty-six (56) nouns in his speech. Out of the fifty-six (56) nouns used, only five

are proper and the remaining fifty (51) are common nouns.

PROPER NOUNS

He uses the five (5) proper nouns to refer to the groups of people he directs his speech to. The

five proper nouns he used basically refer to Ghanaians, Africans and God. He uses the proper nouns

Ghana-Ghanaians, Africa-African and God. His use of Ghana and Ghanaians indicates that his speech

was directed to the citizens of the new country called Ghana and not the colonial nation called Gold

Cost. His use of Africa and Africans points to Africans in general as the extended audience of his

speech. He uses the proper noun God to acknowledge the presence of God, his believe in God and the

help of God in the attainment of independence.

COMMON NOUNS

He uses fifty (50) commons nouns to refer to a wide range of abstract and concrete qualities and

events. This indicates the events that lead to the attainment of independence.

ABSTRACT NOUNS

Nkrumah uses thirty-seven (38) abstract nouns. He uses these abstract nouns to refer to qualities,

entities, human acts and time.


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CONCRETE NOUNS

Nkrumah uses the concrete nouns chiefs, people, youth, farmers, women, men, eyes, man, Ghana,

Africa, African, Ghanaians, God, millions, thousand, nation, nations and world to refer to diverse

people and places in his speech.

COGNITIVE DOMAIN ANALYSIS OF NOUNS

The table below presents the respective cognitive domains in the nominal category.

AUDIENCE HUMANS NUMBER TIME EFFORT VISION OBSTACLES OUTCOME QUALITY

Ghanaians

Africans

world

chiefsfar

mers men

women

youth

people

thousands

millions seconds

minutes

rule

work

battle

support

purport

eyes

minds

imprisonments

difficultieshar

dships

suffering

trouble

imperialism

independence

liberationfou

ndationoppor

tunity chance

blessing

identity

attitude

personality

DOMAIN OF AUDIENCE

Nkrumah uses the nouns in this domain to represent the various locations of people to whom he

directs his message to. He uses the nouns Ghanaians, Africans and world. Nkrumah’s use of these

nouns cognitively reveals that the message basically was directed Ghanaians who are the immediate

audience, then extends to Africans and finally to the world. This indicates the universal nature of the

message and the hierarchy of its targeted audience.

HUMANS DOMAIN

This domain reveals Nkrumah’s use of specific and general recipients of his message. Nkrumah

crafts this domain to achieve a multi-layered effect on both his immediate and remote audiences. This

domain cognitively shows role God, chiefs, farmers, men, women, youth and the people in general play

in the attainment of independence. Each of these groups plays a vital role in the attainment of

independence.

DOMAIN OF NUMBER

Nkrumah uses two numerical nouns which he associates with his immediate and extended

audience respectively. He uses the noun thousands to refer to his immediate audience and millions to

refer to his extended audience. This indicates that Ghanaians and Africans must unite in numbers.

DOMAIN OF TIME

The domain of time also presents time intervals and specific points in time through the use of the

nouns seconds, minutes, end and beginning. The domain presents the two generic time intervals which

are beginning and end. Within the general frame of time, presents specific points in time which are

seconds and minutes. This indicates the attainment of independence through working every second and

minute as well as from beginning to end by the Gold Coasters.

EFFORT DOMAIN

This domain presents the efforts the colonial people exert in order to attain independence. These

efforts are captured in the effort domain made up of the words rule, work, battle, support and purport.

DOMAIN OF VISION

He uses the words eyes and minds to capture the cognitive domain of vision. He uses the word

minds to capture the domain of psychological vision and eyes for physical vision. He uses the words

minds to indicate the fact that Ghanaian need to use their minds to perceive psychological issues and

the word eyes to indicate the fact that Ghanaians need to use their eyes to see physical things and issues

around them.


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DOMAIN OF OBSTACLES

Nkrumah presents some obstacles that hinders the attainment of independence. These obstacles

are captured by the use of the noun imprisonments, difficulties, hardships, suffering, trouble, and

imperialism.

DOMAIN OF OUTCOMES

This domain presents the nouns independence, liberation, foundation, opportunity, chance and

blessing that capture the outcome of the peoples’ independence. These words are cognitively

intertwined in a horizontal relationship. Cognitively, the attainment of independence brings forth

liberation which establishes the foundation on which the Ghanaians gain the chance and opportunities

to rule themselves which is a blessing. This reveals the relevance and the benefits of the attainment of

Ghana’s independence.

DOMAIN OF QUALITY

He uses the words identity, attitude and personality to present the domain of Ghanaian or African

qualities. This indicates that Ghanaian must show forth their qualities through their attitude, identity

and personality.

INTER-COGNITIVE DOMAIN ANALYSIS OF NOUNS

The inter-cognitive domain analysis of the nominal category reveals Nkrumah’s reference to the

stages of development that lead to the attainment of independence.

ANALYSIS OF VERBS

The table below presents the various category of verbs Nkrumah uses in his speech.

PAST TENSE

VERBS

PRESENT TENSE

VERBS

PROGRESSIVE

VERBS

MODALS

AUXILIARIES

Ended, fought, won,

co-operated, pointed,

made, prepared,

respected, said, done,

led, linked, brought,

given, awaken, had.

Has, is, want, take,

thank, have, fight,

change, entails, let,

realise, am, lay, pick,

make, see, goes, call,

remember, give, ask,

play, stand, matter,

re-dedicate, sleep,

create, show, pause.

Freeing,

reshapinggoing

relying

seeing

having

managing

Must

Will

can

He uses the past tense verbs to refer to the actions put up by the Gold Coasters in the attainment

of independence and the use of the present tense verbs to indicate the present state of the country as an

independent country now called Ghana. The use of the present tense verbs also indicate actions

Nkrumah expects the people to carry out at the time of the delivery of the speech. He used the

progressive verbs to capture the actions he expects the people to exhibit after the attainment of

independence.

He also uses the modals Must, will and can to express the passion and the ability of the people

and the progressive verbs to indicate that the nation should keep moving forward.


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COGNITIVE ANALYSIS OF VERBS

POSSESSION PASSION SPEECH ACTION MOVEMENT STATE PROGRESS

had,

has,

have

having

will, can,

must,

remember

and want

call, ask,

said,

thank

fight, lay, led

pick, make

made, give,

take, fought,

won, play,

stand,

change

pointed,

prepared,

respected,

brought,

ended

Goes, going is,

am,

are

freeing,

relying,

managing,

reshaping

The cognitive analysis of Nkrumah’s use of verbs revealed that, he used only verbs related to

human actions and states. This revealed the fact that his speech was centred on humans, primarily,

Ghanaians and the actions they employ to attain independence. The verbs he uses in the speech are in

seven cognitive domains.

DOMAIN OF SPEECH

He uses the words call, ask, said and thank to represent the domain of speech. This domain

captures various stages of verbal activities.

DOMAIN OF PHYSICAL ACTS

This domain constitutes the verbs fight, lay, pick, made, make, give, take, fought, won, play,

stand, make, change, pointed, prepared, respected, brought, led and ended. These verbs fall into the

cognitive domain of human action. This domain of human actions indicates the various forms of

actions the Gold Coasters employ in the attainment of independence.

DOMAIN OF POSSESSION

This domain makes use of the four possessive verbs in English. These possessive verbs are the

verbs had, has, have and having. These verbs indicate what the people possess in relation to time.

Nkrumah considers the people’s possession from the past, present and future. This shows the effect of

his on speech on the three aspects of time.

DOMAIN OF MOVEMENT

In this domain, Nkrumah uses the verbs that denote movement. He uses the verbs pause, goes and

going. The verb pause indicates a state of reflection over the struggles that lead to the attainment of

independence and the verb goes indicates that Ghanaians must be resilient after the attainment of

independence by making consistent efforts to move on.

DOMAIN OF THE PEOPLES’ STATE OF BEING

He only used the present forms of the verb be in the state of being domain. He used the verbs is,

am and are. He used these verbs to express the peoples’ state of being. The relevance of the use of

these present forms of the verb be reveals Nkrumah’s great deal of interest in the current state of the

nation and the people.

DOMAIN OF PASSION

This domain expresses the inner passion of the people through the use of the modal auxiliaries

will, can, must, and the verbs remember and want. This cognitive groups of verbs incite the passion of

obligatory ability in the people to still fight on remembering and using the colonial struggle as an

antecedent.


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DOMAIN OF PROGRESS

This domain presents what Nkrumah expects from the people after their attainment of

independence. All the verbs in this domain are in the progressive aspect. The domain contains the verbs

freeing, relying, managing and reshaping.

INTER-COGNITIVE DOMAIN ANALYSIS OF VERBS

The inter-domain analysis reveals the procedure in the attainment of independence. The inter-

cognitive domain analysis for the verbs reveal Nkrumah as an action driven person through his

dominant use of action verbs. He wants the people to speak less and act more.

ANALYSIS OF ADVERBS

The adverbs used by Nkrumah are be grouped into four categories

MANNER PLACE TIME QUANTITY

Nobly Here Now, today, forever Anymore

From the categorisation, it is evident that Nkrumah used more adverbs of time since he considers

the time of the delivered of the speech as very crucial in the life of the new nation, Ghana.

ADVERB OF MANNER

Nkrumah used one adverb of manner in his speech. He uses the adverb nobly. He uses the adverb

nobly to indicate that the people must do things in a noble way. The use of the adverb nobly also

presents Nkrumah as a man of decorum.

ADVERB OF PLACE

Nkrumah makes use of one adverb of place. He uses the adverb here to refer to the place where

the speech is delivered. This reveals the importance Nkrumah attaches to the place where the speech is

delivered. This place now serves as an important landmark in Ghana called the independence square

where all the Independence Day celebrations and other national programmes go on.

ADVERBS OF TIME

Nkrumah uses three adverbs of time in his speech to refer to the time of the delivery of the speech

as well as the times ahead. He uses the adverbs now and today to refer to the specific time of the

delivery of the speech. This reveals Nkrumah recognition of the time of the delivery of the speech

which has now become a memorable time in history of Ghana. He also uses the adverb forever to refer

to the perpetual state of the independence attained. To Nkrumah, the present is very important that it

affects the future forever.

ADVERB OF QUANTITY

He uses the adverb anymore to indicate the end of imperialism and the obstacles hindering the

progress of the country. This shows that the country went through enough oppression and is not ready

to receive any further form of oppression.

ANALYSIS OF ADJECTIVES

The table below presents the adjectives in Nkrumah’ speech in their various categories

ADJECTIVES OF

NUMBER

ADJECTIVES OF

QUALITY

ADJECTIVE OF COLOUR

Last, two, only, one Beloved, difficult, valiant,

foreign, mighty, almighty,

meaningless, hard, long, new,

national, free, own,

independent, ex-service, clear,

quite, total, fellow

black


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ADJECTIVES OF NUMBER

Nkrumah uses four adjectives of quality in his speech. These are the adjectives last, one, two and

only. He uses the adjective last to indicate the end of the colonial masters’ oppression. The use of one,

two and only reveal the contributions by individual citizens in nation and the use of two represents the

collective contributions of all and sundry.

ADJECTIVES OF QUALITY

Nkrumah uses adjectives of diverse qualities. He uses nineteen adjectives of quality to describe

the events and the people who contribute to the attainment of independence.

ADJECTIVES OF COLOUR

Nkrumah uses one adjective of colour which reveals his recognition of the African represented by

the adjective black.

COGNITIVE DOMAIN ANALYSIS OF ADJECTIVES

GOD GHANAIANS OBSTACLES TIME OUTCOMES

Might, mighty beloved, fellow,

black, national

Difficult, hard Last, long Independence,

own, freedom

DOMAIN OF GOD

The cognitive domain of God is made up of the adjectives mighty and almighty. Nkrumah uses

these adjectives to refer to God as the only mighty one who saw the country through its problems to

attain independence. This reveals Nkrumah’s dependence and belief in God.

DOMAIN OF GHANAIANS

Nkrumah uses the adjectives beloved, fellow, black and national to cognitively establish

solidarity with Ghanaians. He uses the adjective beloved, fellow, black and national cognitively to

indicate good qualities of Ghanaians in general. He also used the adjectives ex-service and gallant to

refer to the soldiers in particular who helped in the fight for independence and have by then retired

from service. Nkrumah stylistically uses these adjectives to portray the good qualities of the people in

the country and by so doing, establishes a strong bond of solidarity between himself and the nation.

DOMAIN OF TIME

He uses the adjectives long and last to represent time in his speech. His use of long reveals the

extent of the time of imperialism in the country. His use of last also reveals the end of imperialism in

the country. Nkrumah’s use of time reveals the time span colonialism covers in the country and the end

of colonialism in the country.

DOMAIN OF OBSTACLES

This domain presents the adjectives difficult and hard which reveal the obstacles the people had

to face before gaining independence.

DOMAIN OF OUTCOMES

This domain presents the outcomes of the peoples’ ability to conquer the obstacles of

imperialism. This results in the people’s attainment of independence, their own nation and freedom.

This reveals the benefits derived by the people from the attainment of independence.

INTER COGNITVE DOMAIN ANALYSIS OF ADJECTIVES

The inter-cognitive domain analysis of his use of adjectives reveal God as the source of all might

who helps the people battle with the obstacles of colonialism for a long time and at last conquer these

obstacles and have now gain independence and freedom.


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9. RESULTS

The lexical analysis of Nkrumah’s 1957 independence declaration speech generally reveals the

struggles that the nation goes through before gaining independence. In doing this, Nkrumah establishes

solidarity with the chiefs, farmers, women, ex-service men and the entire people by recounting and

appreciating their respective contributions to the attainment of independence.

In addition, the analysis revealed Nkrumah’s use of diverse lexical items. He uses nouns, verbs

and adjectives to recount the struggles that the colonial people had to go through in order to attain

independence and adverbs to reveal the relevance and the time and venue where the speech was

delivered. True to Nkrumah’s desire, the venue and time of the speech has become a historically

recognised landmark in the country.

Again, the analysis also reveals that Nkrumah directs his speech to an immediate audience as well

as an extended audience. The immediate audience are Ghanaians while the extended audience represent

Africans and the entire world. Due to the wide range of audience, Nkrumah stylistically uses simple

and general vocabulary in order reach his respective audience.

Also, the analysis reveals Nkrumah’s sense of Ghana as a new nation which is indicated by

absence of the word Gold Coast in the speech but the presence of the use of Ghana since the speech

marks the birth of the new nation he calls Ghana. The speech declares the new name of the nation as

Ghana.

Further, the analysis reveals Nkrumah’s belief in God through his attribution of the attainment of

independence to the help of God and his wish for Ghana and Africa to press on even after the

attainment of independence in order to attain total independence. He uses civil religion as a counter

hegemonic tool to colonialism thereby presenting the colonial master as not been religious.

Moreover, Nkrumah’s dominant use of action verbs presents him as an action driven man. He

wants the people to speak less and act more in their quest to progress.

Last but not least, the analysis reveals that the speech marks the end of imperialism and the

beginning of independence.

10. CONCLUSION

The paper analyses Nkrumah’s 1957 Independence Declaration Speech from the lexical stylistic

point of view. The study identifies the lexical features in the speech using the checklist for linguistic

and stylistic analysis by leech and short (2007) and the cognitive domains using the ideational function

in Halliday and Matthiessen’s functional grammar theory. The analysis brings forth very interesting

revelations on the hidden message in the speech. The study demonstrates that, the cognitive

relationship among lexical items can reveal the meaning of a text. The study therefore, enhances the

understanding and interpretation of Kwame Nkrumah’s speech in particular and political discourse in

general.

The study recommends that other researches can be carried out on a comparative analysis of

Nkrumah’s 1957 independence declaration speech and other Independence Day speeches in the 4th

republic of Ghana.

11. REFERENCES

Adjei, A. A. & Ewusi-Mensah, L. (2016). Transitivity in Kufour’s 2008 farewell speech to the

Ghanaian parliament. British Journal of English Linguistics. 4(1), 36-49.

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use of Metaphor in the Speeches of Nkrumah and Rawlings. (M. Phil Thesis) University of

Ghana, Legon, Ghana.

Anderson, J. (2014). A stylistic analysis of some selected political speeches by John Evans Atta Mills.

(M. Phil. Thesis). University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana.

Anim-Ayeko, J. (2012). Metaphor in Politics: A verbal and nonverbal analysis of selected political

advertisements in the Ghanaian print media. (M.Phil. Thesis). University of Ghana, Legon,

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Ayeomoni, O.M., & Akinkuolere, O.S. (2012). A pragmatic analysis of victory and inaugural speeches

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