Style and Distinctive Uses of Language in Nigeria's First-Generation Private Universities' Vision and Mission Statements

Abstract

This chapter employs Systemic Functional Linguistics to account for style and distinctive language usage in the vision and mission statements of Nigeria's first-generation private universities. The objective of the chapter is to examine how certain linguistic resources in the statements reflect the intersection of language, context, and meaning, thereby creating the style or register of these institutions' vision and mission statements. The findings reveal that the configuration of linguistic resources revolves around five themes: high self-ranking, qualitative research, teaching and learning, rectitude, qualitative graduates, and positive societal impact. Additionally, at the lexicogrammatical level, there is a predominant use of the Relational Process, as well as verbal sequences involving "to be" and "be to + stem verb." The study concludes that the prominent linguistic elements and distinctive syntactic patterns in the statements not only contribute to the style or register of the private universities' vision and mission statements but also effectively convey the institutions' purpose and idealized future, thus strategically appealing to prospective clients and serving marketization objectives.