Speech Acts in Selected Divorce Court Proceedings in Ogbomoso, Oyo State

Abstract

This study examines the types and functions of speech acts employed in divorce court proceedings, with a focus on how language serves both as a legal instrument and a social practice in the resolution of matrimonial disputes. Drawing on Austin (1962) and Searle's (1969) Speech Act Theory, and informed by contemporary scholarship in legal pragmatics, a qualitative case study design was employed. Data were obtained through direct non-participant observation and audio recording of two divorce court sessions at the State High Court, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, spanning a total recording duration of approximately four hours and thirty minutes and generating over 9,000 words. Participants comprising judges, counsel, petitioners, and respondents were observed across the selected proceedings. While prior studies on Nigerian legal discourse have mostly addressed criminal courts, the specific communicative dynamics of divorce proceedings remain underexplored. This study addresses this gap by providing a systematic, multi-category speech act analysis of divorce discourse in this context. Findings reveal that locutionary acts serve primarily to establish the factual and procedural basis of cases, while illocutionary acts, including directives, assertives, commissives, expressives, and declaratives, are deployed in role-specific patterns that reflect and reinforce the institutional hierarchy of the court. The study underscores how the adversarial yet emotionally charged nature of divorce proceedings creates a distinctive communicative environment in which legal norms and power relations intersect.