Vague references in Nigerian newspaper editorials

Abstract
Humans make references to things, people, places and ideas in communication through
language, generally. While referencing, they are often specific. Instances also abound where
they use nonspecific linguistic elements, intentionally. The use of these elements could be
either of want of specific details, conveyance of tentativeness or even for the purpose of
suspense. This study argues that vague reference elements as the natural properties of the
human language may be explored as a useful device for human communication. For various
reasons, being vague may not be limited to informal communication alone. The corpus
linguistics approach is adopted to provide a strong empirical basis for the analysis of vague
references. Data was obtained from three purposively selected Nigerian newspaper editorials
(three consecutive months issues of their editorials) using AntConc Concordance Tool. The
study discovered preponderant use of downtoners, vague category identifiers, approximation
of quantities, frequency, likelihood, and time as well as the representations of people, places
and ideas, all vague reference elements, in the corpus. Its most significant finding is that the
vague reference is productively explored as a discourse device by the newspapers to achieve
tentativeness or/and suspense. This may be seen as a strategy deployed by the papers to avoid
political or legal jeopardy or resultant litigations from their writings.
Keywords: human communication, Nigerian newspaper, editorials, corpus, vague references