Linguistic Aggression and Impoliteness Strategies in the #Endsars Discourses on the Social Media

Conflicts in human interaction ignite due to differentials regarding ideology, class, power, religion and politics. Language use during such conflicts tends to become aggressive and impolite. In October 2020, a hashtag protest, #EndSARS, rocked Nigeria as the youths protested, demanding the immediate scrapping of the controversial police unit, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), as well as registering other social grievances. To this effect, communication in the social media became laced with derogatory lexicon. It is against this backdrop that this research investigates linguistic aggression and impoliteness strategies in the #EndSARS discourses. A total of 500 excerpts were collected through the Opera Mini News App (https://www.opera.com/mini) using the purposive sampling technique. These included reactions and counter-reactions in the news within the two weeks of the protest. Out of these, 50 excerpts were further sampled using the simple random technique. The sourced data were analysed using Culpeper’s Model of Impoliteness (1996) and Conventionalised Impoliteness Formulae (2010). Amongst other things, the findings revealed various impoliteness strategies such as bald on record and mock impoliteness, as well as personalised negative vocatives and threats. These findings are affirmations that the interactants did not mitigate the face of the addressees. This research concludes, therefore, that the #EndSARS discourses were filled with impolite acts which are capable of igniting conflict in the nation.