Forum for Linguistic Studies 2023; 5(3): 1761. Original Article 1 Officers and men, and fallen heroes: The discursive construction of regimented masculinity in the Nigerian Army God’sgift Ogban Uwen * , Anthony Ebebe Eyang Department of English and Literary Studies, University of Calabar, Calabar 540004, Cross River State, Nigeria * Corresponding author: God’sgift Ogban Uwen, godsgiftuwen18@gmail.com ABSTRACT: This paper examines the use of gendered language in the Nigerian Army’s community of practice through the application of insights from language ideology and theory of masculinity. Data were generated by means of participant observation and semi-structured interviews in a one-year fieldwork involving representative sample of 18 personnel of the 6 Battalion, Ibawa and 2 Brigade, Uyo, both in Akwa Ibom State in South-eastern Nigeria. The findings show that the Nigerian Army maintains institutional gendered language practices used among its personnel in regimented functions and social events. The gendered registers occur in the soldiers’ generic use of male address terms, adaptation to male-coded voice pattern in parades, masculinisation of Army’s workout songs, and the subordination of femininity in institutional associations, all combined to construct the regimented and performative masculinisation of the profession. This practice is observed to be informed by the numerical domination of men in the profession that was originally perceived as males’; a conception that has shaped the linguistic ideology and performance of the Nigerian Army to rehearse masculine orientations. It is however recommended that the Army’s language practices should capture modern ideals of a gender sensitive world that connect to the clamour for gender equality and equal social belonging through the inclusion of feminine linguistic markers in workplaces. KEYWORDS: regimented masculinity; masculine language practices; language ideology; theory of masculinity; Nigerian Army 1. Introduction The Nigerian military appears to be traditionally conceptualised in regimented masculinity in its practices, ideologies, operations, and language use. Generally, masculinity denotes ruggedness, perseverance, muscular manliness, forcefulness, and self-discipline; it reinforces the plurality of how men perceive the world to maintain power and domination (Lowe, 2019). The notion of masculinity is therefore coded and rehearsed in male-dominated organisations where cohesive ideals are propagated. Masculinity is constructed through attitudes, ideologies, interests, goals, and language practices that define the pattern of masculinity. Hegemonic masculinity is weaved in fluidity, it is conventionally used to describe the various forms men devise to initiate, maintain, and sustain the practice of hegemonic power (Cornell, 1987, 1995), that is, the exercise of diverse dominations embedded in the organic ideologies of social groups (Gramsci, 1971). The practices, in some instances, are shown in the pursuit of identities not clearly connected with the dominant forms (Anderson, 2007; Swain, 2006). These, and ARTICLE INFO Received: 29 May 2023 Accepted: 24 July 2023 Available online: 28 September 2023 doi: 10.59400/fls.v5i3.1761 Copyright © 2023 Author(s). Forum for Linguistic Studies is published by Academic Publishing Pte. Ltd. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/