[1] Senior Lecturer in the Department of Languages, Mountain Top University, Ogun, State, Nigeria, ORCID: 0000-0002-7484-7103, email: meanana@mtu.edu.ng
Abstract
This research examined the language and discourse of the returnees from seven West African countries during covid-19 pandemic. Data were obtained from online News Agency Agence France-Presse (AFP), International Organisation for Migrants (IOM), Reliefweb, etc. Data were selected using simple random sampling technique and the descriptive design was applied. Austin’s (1962) The Speech Act Theory was adopted. One of the major findings revealed that the language and the discourse of the returnees were replete with behabitives, commissives, and expositives. Also, the choice of lexical items by the returnees was occasioned by their changing moods caused by environmental and situational shifts. It is therefore recommended that linguists and other language experts should investigate the comparative and contrastive analysis of the language of the returnees and other groups of displaced people with a view to finding out their areas of divergence and convergence.
Keywords: Language, discourse, speech acts, declaratives, returnees.
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