THE STUDY OF SEMANTIC AMBIGUITY IN SELECTED POLITICAL SPEECHES OF GOVERNOR MUHAMMADU INUWA YAHAYA OF GOMBE STATE

Abstract

Effective communication is a fundamental skill for academic success and personal development. In the context of speech writing, the ability to express thoughts clearly in writing is important. However, the presence of semantic ambiguities in writing poses a significant challenge to achieving this clarity. This study analyses selected political speeches of Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State. The research looks at the theory of ambiguity as an aspect of semantics that deals with meaning, which can account for the language of political speeches. The data collected for the analysis were seven speeches which were randomly selected from Gombe State Government House. These were analysed using the concept of ambiguity to determine whether or not the language used can distort the meaning of the utterances as intended by the speaker. This was based on the realisation from the reviewed literature that ambiguity used either consciously or unconsciously, can affect how the listeners interpret the messages. In this regard, the research found out that, in the data collected, the speaker made use of such ambiguous statements in different forms and types such as lexical ambiguity and structural ambiguity. This was found to affect the interpretation of meaning as stated in the speeches which, by extension, might affect comprehension of government policies and programs which the speeches delivered were meant to convey.