GENERAL FEATURES OF WAR SPEECHES

Abstract

Variation is an essential ingredient of all human languages. What is to be done with language determines the kind of language to be used. This study sets out to discover the linguistic items favoured by war leaders in their efforts to garner support for war from their citizens and the international community. The researcher argues that there is something in war speeches that convinces people to agree to embark on war. Using deliberate selection as the sampling technique, the researcher collected as many war speeches delivered by different war leader across the globe, as possible. The analysis reveals that war speeches share many linguistics features in common, all of which are directed towards persuading the audience to accept the awful alternative of war.