PRAGMATIC ACTS USED AS CONFLICT DEPICTION MECHANISMS IN SELECTED BIODUN STEPHEN’S FILMS ON FAMILY DISCOURSE

Abstract

Conflict, one of the dominant features of family discourse, is portrayed in Nollywood films as covert and overt actions. Previous linguistic studies on family conflicts focused on gender dominance, ideological differences and spiritual issues as major causes of family conflicts with little attention paid to how pragmatic use of language triggers conflicts in the family. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate pragmatic acts used as triggers of family conflicts in selected Biodun Stephen’s films. Jacob Mey’s Pragmatic Acts Theory served as the theoretical framework. Data were garnered from two selected Biodun Stephen’s films: Ehi’s Bitters and Sista. The films, which have twenty instances of family conflicts, were purposively selected because of their high reflection of scenes depicting family conflicts. Findings reveal that four depictions of family conflict – verbal, physical, sexual and financial are predominantly foregrounded in the films. These depictions of family conflict are necessitated by six (6) pragmatic acts functioning as triggers of conflict within the Nigerian family context. These pragmatic acts are: insulting, mocking, threatening, criticising, ridiculing, and apologising. These acts constitute the linguistic elements that prompt and/or enhance family conflicts as they are embodiments of both verbal and non-verbal pragmatic cues. Embedded in the verbal cues are prosodic features (intonation and emphatic stress), reference (REF), and metaphor (MPH); the non-verbal cues are embedded by physical acts and psychological acts. Pragmatic inferences are largely realised through these (non)verbal cues premised on shared situational knowledge (SSK) between the interlocutors.

Keywords: Family conflicts, pragmatic acts, verbal cues, non-verbal cues, films