Address Terms and Power Play in Police-Suspect Interactions in Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract

The usage of address terms by police and suspects significantly impacts police-suspect discourse. Previous linguistic studies on police-suspect interaction focused on roles, contexts, concealments, contradictions and pragmatic strategies, paying sparse attention to the (mis)use of address terms by interactants during interrogation. This study examines the various uses of address terms in police-suspect interrogations, their discourse functions, and the implications of their usage in interrogative contexts. van Djik’s approach to Critical Discourse Analysis served as the theoretical framework for the data of this study. Fifteen interactions were purposively selected from the data gathered at the Oyo State Criminal Investigation Department, Iyaganku, Ibadan, Nigeria. The findings revealed Minor Form of Address/ Hierarchical Titles, Bare Titles (BT), Hierachical Titles (HT), Titles + First Name (TFN), Generic First Name (GFN), Criminal Nickname (CN), Terms of Criminal Abuse (TCA) as the classified address terms used to establish relationship, signal and reinforce social status/power, reflect cultural values, construct and negotiate identity, and redirect discourse. The study revealed that address terms have social, pragmatic, cultural, linguistic and psychological implications on the interrogations. The study concludes that address term usage in police-suspect interrogations has socio-cultural significance and invariably impacts the flow of interrogations.