'SHOULD YOU BE UNFORTUNATE?’: EMOTIONAL IDENTITY IN NIGERIAN ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION CENTRES

Abstract

Emotional language is central to identity construction in any adjudication setting, which essentially a negotiated process compared to a courtroom is setting. Previous studies have focused on the use of lexical items to construct identity in the courtroom, neglecting the construction of emotional identity in adjudicative encounters, especially in Nigerian university law clinics, a popular site for dispute resolution. Therefore, this study investigated the construction of emotional identity and the pragmatic strategies used in adjudicative encounters, drawing on aspects of Interpersonal Pragmatics, Conversation Analysis, and Social Constructionist theories. Three universities: University of Ibadan (UI), Adekunle Ajasin University (AAU) and Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), where adjudication is practised in southwestern Nigeria, were purposively selected. Data comprised purposively selected taped hearing sessions and documented cases between 2010 and 2017: UI-20 sessions; AAU-one session and 10 documented cases; and OOU-20 documented cases. Three categories of emotional identities characterised the Southwestern Nigerian adjudicative encounter: furist, pugilist, and recalcitrant identities. Furist identity manifested as excessive anger; pugilist identity was divided into bellicosity and obstreperousness; and recalcitrant identity manifested as Obduracy and rigidity. Furist identity was created through the evocation of evidential sentiment, the evocation of experiential reality, and the construction of profanity; pugilist identity was generated through the construction of an enquiry proposition, the evocation of experiential reality, and the evocation of evidential sentiment. Recalcitrant identity was constructed through the construction of asseveration, biblical allusion and evocation of evidential sentiment. The study concludes that emotional identity negotiated through context-driven pragmatic resources characterised Nigerian adjudicative encounters. This indicates a relationship between language and identity and

establishes the impact of their discourse on the restoration of societal peace in Nigeria.