Grounding Mechanisms in Selected Interviews of President Muhammadu Buhari

Abstract Presidential interviews carry significant socio-political weight. Despite this, there is a dearth of research on Nigerian political interviews from the vantage of common ground. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the grounding techniques in two interviews of President Muhammadu Buhari and identify the pragmatic relevance of these strategies in accessing, building, and maintaining common ground. Using the theory of grounding as a theoretical basis, the top-down analysis revealed that the interviewer and interviewee utilised three main grounding techniques: alternative descriptions, referential instalments, and instalments. These three techniques were established by the use of proper nouns, appositives, relative clauses, and brief explanations. The study also demonstrated that the techniques (i) help to institute contexts to enable interlocutors and their audience to infer meaning appropriately, and (ii) indicate presuppositions and implicatures. The study concludes that grounding is a joint activity through which communication sails smoothly.