Event Models: A Socio-cognitive Study of Selected Interrogations in 2008 Quasi-judicial Public Hearing on Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Administration in Nigeria

This study carries out a socio-cognitive analysis of 2008 national quasi-judicial public hearing on Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Nigeria. Video recordings of interrogations between the public hearing panel and complainants/defendants were used as data for the study, which were taken from the 2008 national public hearings on FCT administration in Nigeria. Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive approach to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was used in the analysis of the data. Twenty randomly sampled interrogations were recorded and transcribed. The event models of the interactants featured global topics and local semantics, argumentative and rhetorical strategies. These are influenced by protective, suppressive, defensive and restorative ideologies. The study helps in the understanding of public hearing interrogations as it gives one the knowledge of how ideologies can shape linguistic and semantic patterns in a text. Key words: Critical discourse analysis; Sociocognitive; Ideologies; Event models; Quasi-judicial Public Hearing