A Discourse-Stylistic Study of Selected Online Crime-Related News Stories in Nairal and Nigerian Forum
AKINWANDE, Bankole Idowu

Abstract
The study examines the thematic foci of selected online crime-related news stories in Nairaland Nigerian Forum. It identifies and analyses the lexico-semantic and discourse features of the news stories. The study relates the identified lexico-semantic and discourse features to the situational context of the news stories. This is done with a view to examining the conundrum of crime as an impediment to national development in the post independence Nigerian nation. Data are analysed using the principles of Opara’s model of Discourse Stylistics (2005). Four online news stories which were published in October, 2015 are purposively sampled for analysis. The paper reveals that lexico-semantic and syntactic features such as synonyms, antonyms and hyponyms are devices that account for meanings (i.e. interpersonal, affective, expressive attitudinal and ideational meaning, among others) in the data. The study further shows that discourse features for achieving cohesion and coherence such as reference, conjunction, repetition, collocation and substitution are devices that account for unity, sense and aesthetics/texturing of the selected news stories, as some of these devices delight the senses by producing auditory impacts on readers, while some generate strong linkage qualities which qualify the selected data as high discourses. The paper concludes that the language of online crime-related discourses is not only packed with meanings (i.e. attitudinal, affective and interpersonal) but aesthetics, which enhance the texturing of the discourses.

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