CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Globalization has made the English language a language of the

world. English language as a result of this, became a language used by

many countries of the world as a second language or as an official

language. However, the founding of the American colonies in the 17 th

century helped in the spread and boom of trade and politics. Also, in the

19th century, the British Empire consolidated English language as a world

language. Thus, in the new colonies, varieties of English language

emerged as it came into contact with the native languages.

The English language in Nigeria is a case in point. Udofot (2007:58)

observed that the English language usage in Nigeria over the last three

decades is that the professional and middle class who are bilinguals as well

as couples of inter-ethnic marriages adopt English as the language of the

home with the result that the children speak English as their first language

ever before learning their parents’ mother tongue for those who bother to

do so.

Language is an aspect of people’s culture and they are closely

interrelated. Mike (2010) writes that language and culture are closely

1
knitted together. They relate and depend on each other. Language is

formed by culture while culture is influenced and impacted by language.

Leveridge (2011) in providing more impetus for this, said that language is

used for the expression of and display of cultural heritage and history. It is

a component of culture which makes it unique.

Language is a vehicle of thought. Language provides a capturing role

bringing out the breadth of human thought and endeavour. One is marveled

by the variety of several languages and dialects expressing multiplicity of

world views, literatures and ways of life of the people. Onwukwe (2012:4)

writes that expressive function of language is the emotional use of

language and it is also one of the commonest uses to which language is

put. When people want to express their feelings, whether in anger or in

pleasure, they are said to use language expressively or emotively.

Supporting this perception, Opara (2019:1) observes that language

like literature is poetic and that it could be used to create aesthetic pleasure

through, for instance, a combination of musical patterns; it could be used to

foreground the features of a text and reveal implied meanings and context

in a text.

Concurring Onwukwe (2012:5), writes that the use of language is to

create pleasant sounds – using language because of the sheer delight one

2
derives in the sounds of the words – is the sonic function of language.

Continuing, she observed that language is used for entertainment which is

found in the entertainment industry and the sole aim is to make viewers

laugh and happy.

Asadu (2017) opines that languages as an element of literature

comprises of many things such as diction – characteristics choice of words;

sentence structure (syntax) – the arrangement of words in the sentence;

occupational registers, usage or words in connection with a particular

discourse or human activity; imagery – mental impressions evoked by

words that appeal to the five senses; symbolism, imagery loaded with

different levels of meaning, things that have meaning beyond themselves.

Explaining, the tone of the writer, as a means of expression of

thought, he writes, that tone determines the attitude of the author towards

his subject matter, his audience and life in general. In written literature, we

do not hear the author speak, we hear him through the written medium and

the hearing is through the mind’s ear. Depending on what he is saying and

to whom he is speaking to. His tone may be seen as soft, harsh, humorous,

anxious, sad, frightening, joyous, angry, sarcastic, forceful, skeptical and

moralizing.

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 Whenever, we engage in different activities of life either in spoken or

written forms, we often use devices of thought and the rules of language.

And there are variations to say same thing in different ways – this is style.

According to Obadan (2017:276) style is based upon: “the use of

language in different ways, all for the purpose of achieving a common goal

– to negotiate meanings”. For Onwukwe (2012:11), style pertains to parole

and so it is essentially the way a speaker or writer selects and employs his

words, phrases and sentences to achieve his desired effect in any give

context. And Opara (2019:3) is of the opinion that style is generally the

manner of forms of doing or saying something. It is “the way in which

language is used in a given context”. Again, that style is an intentional

deviation from the rules of language… that literature and poetry in

particular are made up of languages that are grammatically and

semantically deviant. However, stylistics is said to be the study of style. For

Chapman (1973) stylistics is a study of language in literature, it seeks to

account for the interpretative effects of a text through a close study of its

linguistic details, semantic deviation, deixis, modality, working through

inferred interpretative conclusion of fore grounded features.

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1.2 Statement of the Problem

In linguistics, there are many ways to show means by which

utterances are fore grounded. They are expressive devices and figures of

speech. It is factual that stylistics examines, analyzes and classifies various

aspects of the vocabulary, grammar and phonetics of language from the

point of view of stylistic function. It is important to note that some

stylisticians may not agree on a particular pattern of analysis. This means

that there must be more than one interpretation of a text of a particular

stylistic approach. For instance, lexical stylistics deals with various aspects

of style and peculiarities of vocabulary, grammar, semantics and syntax of

the language.

For Thornnborrow and Wareing (1998:5) in Alowonle (2011), not all

linguistic items in text are significant for meaning. And Haynes (1995:48) in

Alowonle (2011) supports, that another aspect of style is a selection of

significant details. It necessarily means that the analysis must be based on

only the important details that are of meaningful contributions to the text.

Alowonle (2011) warms that “the significant features identified at one level

of analysis have the potential of reinforcing features at other levels and the

meaning they suggest”. Furthermore, the way an individual uses language

differs from another even when they are saying the same thing. So it is

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pertinent that the analyst be interested in language since stylistic enterprise

has the capacity to make prominence the systematic interpretations of

literary texts. So, to appraise the language of a text, one should proffer

possible reasons why the writers’ choice of words or language variety were

used and try and read the mind of the writer so as to decode exactly the

message conveyed. Again, the analyst sometimes forgets that there can be

no literature at all. I mean that there is no analysis of language of literature

without taking cognizance of the levels of language. Again, stylistic analysis

is different from literary analysis but they complement each other. Ejele

(1992) opines that the literary or traditional approach (the two words are

used synonymously) regard style in evaluative term as ‘good’ or ‘bad’; that

the ‘good’ style (regarded as an equivalent to style) was used to describe

writing that was praise worthy, skillful or elegant.

Yankson (1987:11) in Onwukwe (2009) has lamented that literary the

teacher will not reveal to his students the peculiar nature of a literary work

without constant reference to language use. By implication, it means that

there is need for a stylistic analysis of a work of art. Any analysis that is

devoid of subjective and dogmatic evaluation of any style is not educative.

Furthermore, language is closely related with nationality. Ones

nationality comes to play when speaking or writing even if it is in a foreign

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or second language. However, language is dynamic and changes with time

and environment. Hence, it can be socially (with the culture of the people

who use it) and internally and these changes remain in the language.

Although stylistic analysis deals with problems treated in lexicology (the

study of lexis) whereas lexis according to Derbyshire (1967:139), is the

branch of linguistics which deals with the major units of language that carry

the burden of referential meaning. In fact, problems of meaning,

connotations, synonyms, functional differentiation of vocabulary according

to the sphere of communication and some other issues. It poses a problem

if the researcher is not aware or granded in the connotations and history of

words, the images hidden in their root and their stylistic properties, the

important aspect or part of the meaning of a literary text, whether prosaic or

poetic may be lost. An awareness of all the characteristic features of words

is not only rewarded because of the awareness of the hidden connotations

and imagery one feels but because of the understanding of the message as

conveyed by the writer. Again by using conventional and seemingly

appropriate language within a particular context, there is this possibility that

the language used may lack exact meaning and fail to convey the actual

message, in effect, rendering the language obsolete. Therefore, any writer

wishing to convey the intended message from writer to reader in a variety

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of language that he feels is appropriate to the context could be unwittingly

conforming to a particular style. And this overlaps the context of writing.

Certainly, the style is a pattern of linguistic features distinguishing one act

of writing from another and a writer’s style often varies from work to work.

As it is obvious, stylistic analysis is closely linked to sciences and other

linguistic disciplines. Semantics is widely used in linguistics in relation to

verbal meanings and meaning is not attached to words only but correlates

with all of them. Hence, the researcher faces this challenge as practically

all stylistic effects have the interplay between different kinds of meaning on

different levels. This means that there are many types of linguistic

meanings attached to linguistic units such as lexical, grammatical, logical,

emotive denotative, connotative, evaluative, stylistic and expressive. More

so, stylistic analysis is practiced as part of understanding the meaning in a

text. The fact that stylistic analysis can be applied to a variety of texts

makes it important and useful. In other words, the researcher must have

knowledge or known every field in linguistics. Hence, Onwukwe (2012:39)

writes, linguistic items are meant to function in their categories in a

sentence. When a noun begins to function as a pronoun or a verb as a

noun, the linguistic code is broken and this gives rise to category rule

violation. This is called “Foreground Irregularity”.

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1.3 Scope of the Study

Since linguistic stylistics is the study of style using linguistic method

and the scope of this work is the lexical stylistic approach, it is pertinent to

state the concept as observed by linguistics. Hence, Obadan (2017) writes

that linguistic stylistics has to do with a stylistic study that relies heavily on

the scientific rules of language in its analysis. Such rules embrace the

lexical grammatical, figures of speech, context and conclusion categories.

For Onwukwe (2012:38), stylistic analysis aims at identifying the linguistic

features of a particular style (language use) and their effects.

Leech (1976) in Onwukwe (2012:28) writes, “stylistic analysis when

properly done has as its end the clarification of the full meaning and

potential of language in use”. For Widdowson (1992) we engage in stylistic

analysis for three reasons namely:

(a) To establish discourse peculiarities.

(b) To induce appreciation of discourse.

(c) To ascertain linguistic habit.

And this is why Chapman (1971) has opined that, every analysis of

style can be seen as an attempt to discover the artistic principles that

underpin the choice a writer has made. Agreeing, Obadan (2017) writes

that, as a useful tool in the interpretation of a text, stylistics serves as a

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mode of analysis for learning language and developing awareness for the

workings of language and the development of confidence to work

systematically towards effective interpretation of a text. Opara (2019:4) is of

the view that there are principles and approaches for the study of stylistics.

For her, the stylistician uses the principles of general linguistics to find out

the distinctive features in an author’s work. She/he uses these principles to

identify the features of language, which are restricted to particular social

contexts and to account for the reasons why such features are used and

when and where they are used.

On the other hand, lexical stylistics studies the choice of words and

its relation in the context of the text. Lexical analysis account for the

register, structure words, functions, figurative meanings and contextual

meaning, lexical relation or semantic relations, syntagmatic and

paradigmatic relationships.

According to Onwukwe (2012:50), a discussion of the structure of

words in terms of the root, prefix and suffix is necessary. Distinctiveness in

word usage would be seen in frequent compound, simple words, complex

affixation and portmanteau words like nonce formations. The distribution of

words in relation to one another and their meanings is looked at by the

analyst. In other words, regular patterns of lexical co-occurrence are noted

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and discussed as stylistically significant features. According to Opara

(2019), lexical stylistics studies functions and figurative meanings and how

the contextual meaning of a word is realized in a text. It deals with various

types of connotation, expressive means, neologism, dialectal words and

their behaviour in the text. Confirming the fact, Obadan (2017) writes that

the lexico – semantic level of which a stylistician looks at the author’s

development of words and meaning in a text is of paramount importance to

the researcher. The study of lexis is the study of the vocabulary of a

language in all aspects and relation to the drama texts of Tony Duruaku’s

works has been selected for this study namely: A Question of Choice,

Silhouette, Cash Price, A Matter of Identity and A Mirage for a Dream.

Again, in relation to these texts, these are the focus;

(1) The stock of words used by the writer in text i.e. vocabulary.

(2) Expressive means with particular reference to grammatical structures

and idiomatic expressions.

(3) Find out if there are lexical deviations and to what extent.

(4) If there are functional conversions or zero affixation.

(5) Find out semantic deviation because context and meaning are

interrelated.

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(6) Writer’s competence in managing the syntagmatic relations of lexical

units with emphasis on collocation.

(7) Finding out the effect of influence of domestication and nativization of

English words on the author.

1.4 Research Questions

These are research questions according to the scope and limitation of

the work, serving also as guide to the study;

(1) What is lexical stylistics?

(2) What is the impact of stylistics in literary appreciation?

(3) What extent does the writer use Nigerian English lexical items,

expressions, loan words from indigenous languages?

(4) What lexical variants or loan words are incorporated through

borrowing into another language without any change in form?

(5) What relevant lexical items are in the text and how are they used?

(6) What are the lexical innovations and creativity that can be identified

through the use of affixation and conversion?

(7) What aesthetical stylistic is infused in the setting to add cultural flavor

to the text?

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(8) Have loan words from the local languages been applied, especially

when they do not have direct lexical substitutes in English language?

(9) What are the lexical items with their conventional and extended

meanings?

(10) What extent have these lexical items reflected the Nigerianness in the

text?

(11) What challenges face the researcher in this field of study?

(12) What measures can be taken to ensure a credible creativity and

appropriate use of language?

(13) What challenges exist for attaining the desired goal?

(14) What contributions can be made to enhance the field of study?

1.5 Significance of Study

It is important to note that at the end of this study, the analysis will

bring to limelight and project the extent of improvement in the field of study

and how it cuts across all levels of language study. Subsequently,

researchers can benefit in the following ways:

(1) The findings of this study will serve as useful instrument in the

teaching and learning of English language as a second language.

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(2) It will enlighten the reader and make one appreciate the level of

proficiency attained by African writers.

(3) These findings will project the remarkable progress in literature in

English language by Nigerian writers who use English language as

their medium of expression.

1.6 Summary

The lexical stylistic approach is basically a two – fold approach that

has lexis and stylistics into analysis. Although lexis deals with the various

types of connotation, expressive means, neologism, dialectal words and

their behaviour, lexical stylistics analyzes their functions, meanings and

context of use. Hence, the study discusses literary discourse from a

linguistic orientation.

More so, style from which stylistic is derived is the way in which

language is used in a given context by a writer. This study captures the use

of the native language of a writer to highlight the linguistic and situational

context of a text and the proficiency in the choice of words, phrases,

clauses and sentences in relation to the meaning of the subject matter of

the work. Lawal (1997) fully captures the meaning of style as concerns this

study as he writes that, style is an aspect of language that deals with

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choices of words, phrases sentences and linguistic materials in relation to

the subject matter and the sociolinguistic context of a literary text.

For Polikarpov and Kurlov (1994), there are three basic factors that

form the basis for the fundamental stylistic qualification of vocabulary units;

these include social – functional, temporal and territorial factors.

Thus, the linguistic choices made by writers are of importance and

the choices contribute immensely to the success of their writing or work of

art and this cannot be over – emphasized because their creative ability is

put to task.

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 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

Linguistic stylistics involves style and linguistics. This discipline can

be approached from different perspectives. Whenever we say or write

something, we often use our imagination, thought and language but there

are variations so as to change meanings or say the same thing in many

ways. This is style. And Obadan (2017) writes, the concept of style is

based upon the use of language in different ways, all for the purpose of

achieving a common goal – to negotiate meanings.

However, many definitions of style abound, ranging from general

view, literary view to linguistic view as the case may be. Whereas some

use it as synonymous with stylistics, others differentiate them. Opara

(2019) clearly distinguishes style from stylistics. She writes, style is

generally the manner or form of doing or saying something. It is “the way in

which language is used in a given context”. Continuing, she quotes Leech

and Short (1985:11), it is relatively transparent or opaque: transparency

implies paraphrasability; opacity implies that a text cannot be adequately

paraphrased and that interpretation of the text depends greatly on the

creative imagination of the reader (p. 38). Concluding, she opined that the

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current view of style is that it is seen as a deviation, coherence and as

possibilities.

For Opara (2019), stylistics examines peculiar use of features in all

language levels to find out what is implied by the speaker as being different

from what the hearer may conclude. Again, she writes that “style is distinct

in that it is a language usage that stands out within the text”, whereas

stylistics is a distinctive term too because it is used to determine form and

effect within a particular variety of language. Furthermore, style and

stylistics in linguistics have been studied by many experts of linguistics and

addressed in many terms. However, linguistics like Graham Hough (1969)

holds that style has often grown from linguistics and sometimes from other

starting point. For him, stylistics is inevitably a study of language and is

very important because the study of language and literature has a common

frontier. His own difference lies in ancient and modern linguistics.

According to him, ancient linguists use the term style while the modern

linguists use stylistics.

2.2 Features of Lexical Stylistics

The goal of stylistic analysis is to identify clearly the linguistic features

of a particular style of a writer. It is discourse – centered stylistic according

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to Opara (2019) with great potentials. Continuing, she writes, it is also

discourse – oriented approach to textual analysis which describes texts in

context and allows for multiple simultaneous relations between the parts of

discourse. In effect, it studies principles and effect of choice and use lexical

and grammatical language means as vehicle of thoughts, emotions, ideas

and attitudes in various situations of communication.

Explaining the features of lexical stylistics, Opara (2019:22) writes,

lexical stylistics studies functions and figurative meaning and how the

contextual meaning of a word is realized in a text and it deals with types of

connotation, expressive means, neologism, dialectal words and their

behaviour in the text. Agreeing Onwukwe (2012:71), writes that the

distribution of words in relation to one another and their meaning is looked

at by the analyst and he tries to see if a word was being used uniquely by

an author or was being related to other words in a consistent and

stylistically interesting way. In other words, regular patterns of lexical co-

occurrence are noted and discussed as stylistically significant features.

In life, style has broad definitions. Style in general is a way of

expressing, doing, or presenting something. So as in language, the

language user has his/her style of language to express. In language, style

is also a way to write or use words beautifully. Since language and style

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can be combined, then the study of both fields called stylistics appeared.

Basically, stylistics is the study that investigates language and style.

Verdonk (2002: 3) implicitly states that stylistics is a linguistic description on

a language style study. Since the main study of stylistics is language, then

stylistics is the study under linguistics although on its investigation, it can

use literature perspective. On its development, stylistics had an extension

on its objects of study. At first, stylistics is used to investigate literary works.

It occurs because on its application, stylistics is the study with linguistic

analysis and literary criticism. Objects which are investigated are prose and

poetry. However, in this era, stylistics can be applied in non-literary works.

Simpson (2004: 2-3) states that the preferred study in stylistics is literary

text, but many forms of discourse (advertising, journalism, popular music–

even casual conversation) often display a high degree of stylistics scope.

Now, the study of stylistics can be used by more circles and it is being

more flexible and applicable.

Leech and Short (2007: 11) state that the study of stylistics aims to

give an explanation of the language use and artistic function. They also

affirm that every analysis of style is an attempt to find the artistic principles

underlying a writer’s choice (2007: 60). Moreover, the essential purpose of

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stylistics is to explore language and creativity in language use (Simpson,

2004: 3).

Stylistics mostly uses particular stylistic categories than language

categories. Nevertheless, stylistics whose main object of study is language

will not be apart from linguistic aspects. Leech and Short in their book—

Style in Fiction (2007: 61) mention that stylistics has four categories of

study. The first is lexical categories. Lexical categories focus on lexical

items contained in the text. In the text, lexical items have many types, i.e.

nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. The second is grammatical

categories. Grammatical categories focus on the structure of the sentence.

To produce a sentence, the writer or the speaker certainly considers many

things such as the use of tenses, complexity level of sentence, active-

passive of a sentence, word choice in sentence, and so on (Leech and

Short, 2007: 62). The third is cohesion and context. Cohesion and context

also have a significant role that can be analyzed in the study of language

style. Cohesion is a correlation among words and sentences in the text,

while context is a place where the text stands. In language, a text becomes

a discourse when there are cohesion and coherence in it. The fourth is

figures of speech. Figures of speech are the forms of speech which are

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different from common speech in use. By the use of figures of speech,

language becomes figurative.

2.2.1 Contextual Meaning of Words

This is the level of which an analyst considers the author’s use of

words and meanings in the text. According to semantics, meaning resides

in words and structures. And so, the writer uses language to communicate

his message and writers employ each level of linguistic organization to

communicate meaning. According to Onwukwe (2012:59) the sounds and

letters used to represent them, the words and the syntax all play a role in

the message of any literary work. The choice of words and their distribution

in relation to one another is of importance. Continuing she writes, that as

the analyst focuses on the various ways of communicating meaning… to

see if there is a consistent use of a particular device for communicating

meaning; this is a stylistical tool.

For Saeed (2007), the meaning of a word is defined in part by its

relation with other words in the language. By implication, it is how

meanings are realized in texts through the appropriate lexical choices. For

Ogunsiji (2000), stylistic meaning is relative to contextual variables. Hence,

stylistic analysis applies the principles of general linguistics to the

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examination of graphological, phonological, syntactic, lexical and semantic

features of a text. It explains that functional stylistic feature carries

particular meaning, effect or value. According to Anagbogu, Mbah and Eme

(2010:222), the conceptual or denotative meaning of a word is its ordinary

meaning. It is the meaning which the mention of that name calls up in the

mind of the hearer.

Onoh (1994) in Opara (2016) captures contextual meaning as

describing language context as the linguistic representation of what human

beings have known about “the world of objects, event and relations”.

Supporting Opara (2016) who opines that, context is the substance, the

outline, summary, points raised, knowledge or information communicated in

a text or painting as distinguished from its style or form.

What the writer is doing, the environment, audience and language of

use influences the meaning of the message of a text. This is style. Opara

(2019:23) writes, Register connects language and context. It indicates

patterns of language use in situation by describing the choices made by the

language user which depends on the three variables of context; Field,

mode and tenor, in the lexico-grammatical system of the systemic

functional grammar. In other words, determiners, articles, conjunctions and

prepositions are grammatical words and lexical words are concrete words

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that have inherent contextual meaning. They carry the lexical property of

the context which comprises the meaning of words. Sometimes, they can

change their meaning by assuming new meanings unlike the grammatical

categories. Again some semantics describe sentence meaning as

compositional since a writer’s work of art is understood literally by obeying

the semantic rules of the language. For John Saeed (2007), composition as

sentence meaning means the meaning of an expression as determined by

the meaning of its component part and the way in which they are

combined. Hence, we have two levels of meaning so to speak, that is word

meaning and sentence meaning.

For Omegoe M. (2015), conceptual meaning is denotative, logical,

primary and cognitive. It is the ordinary meaning that a lexical item

possesses. It has universal implication, because every speaker of a

language knows it. Conceptual meaning can be expressed in terms of

contrastive meaning which is devoid of any emotional attachment. There is

an assumed shared conceptual meaning of every word of the language.

And it is possible to express conceptual meaning of a word using

contrastive semantic features. They include attributes present and those

that are absent.

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2.2.2 Figurative Meaning of Words

At first, figures of speech exist as the devices to compare or find

similarities referring to the features. In figurative language, figures of

speech are linguistic elements that have non-literal meaning. Traditional

figures of speech include schemes and tropes. According to Leech and

Short (2007: 66), schemes are defined as ‘foregrounded repetitions of

expressions’, and tropes as ‘foregrounded irregularities of content’. There

are some categories of schemes, i.e. phonological schemes, grammatical

schemes, and lexical schemes (Leech and Short, 2007: 63). Phonological

schemes contain phonological patterns of rhyme, alliteration and

assonance while grammatical and lexical schemes contain formal and

structural repetition (such as anaphora and parallelism) and mirror-image

patterns (chiasmus). In addition, tropes also contain traditional poetic

figures of speech and their special interpretation.

This is a language that is not intended to be interpreted in a literal

sense. According to ABC Duruaku (2007:7), it is saying one thing and

meaning another; but there must be a relationship between what is said

and what is meant. He said that figurative language surprises the reader

because the statement or idea expressed does not make sense on the

surface level, and since literal meaning is denied, the imagination is

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required before the intended meaning becomes clear. The emphasis is

placed on the relationship which existed between the images involved or

the qualities which they have or do not have generally. From Wikipedia,

figurative language is created by presenting words in such a way that they

are equated, compared or associated with normally unrelated meanings. It

the use of words or phrases that implies a non – literal meaning which does

make sense or that could also be true. Also it is the use words in a way that

deviates from their conventionally accepted definitions in order to convey a

more complicated meaning or heightened effect. It has the same view with

Duruaku.

For John Saeed (2007), non – literal uses of language are

traditionally called figurative and are described by a host of rhetorical terms

including metaphor, irony, metonymy, synecdoche, hyperbole and litotes.

Continuing, he said that it is sometimes difficult to draw a firm line between

literal or non – literal uses of language, arguing that speakers shift the

meaning of words to fit or achieve special effects. Again, distinguishing

between a literal speaker who is factual and natural and a speaker who

deliberately deviates from normal way of saying something to achieve his

goal is difficult. For instance;

(a) I am hungry.

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 (b) I am starving.

(c) I could eat a horse.

(d) My stomach thinks my throat’s cut.

These sentences mean the same thing used in different forms

showing literal and non – literal use of words. The author’s style can also

be seen from the use of figurative language in the literary work. According

to Leech and Short (1981: 78) the analysis of figurative language in

stylistics may cover the choice of figurative language, the meaning of

figurative language, and the specific meaning or purpose of using the

figurative language as employed by the author. Figurative language should

not be taken by its denotative meaning because it has something more to

say rather than just the meaning seen in the surface.

Holman (1986: 202) defines figurative language as an international

departure from the normal order, construction or meaning of the words in

order to gain strength and freshness of expression to create an effect,

described by analogy or discover and illustrate similarities or otherwise

dissimilar things. Then, according to Wales (2001: 176) figurative language

or figure of speech is the device to create the imagination by comparing

two or more different things and it violates the rules of linguistics.

Furthermore, Shaw (1985: 251) states figurative language is often vivid and

26
imaginative, so it can add color and clarity, vigor and effectiveness to

writing.

Then, Thomas R. Arp (in Perrine, 1984: 62) states that figurative

language is the way of expressing something by means not ordinarily used

to speak of the object. It is used to give emphasis on the real meaning of

the word to have extra dimensions. He also states that figurative language

in a literary work has function to force the readers to do an act of imagining

since the word used in figurative language itself does not give sensible

meaning on its own. The readers have to explore the interconnection

between words to words or sentence by sentence to fully understand the

essence of the expression. Richard Gill in Mastering English Literature

(1995: 24) states that figurative language consists of Simile, Metaphor,

Personification, Apostrophe, Metonymy, Symbol, Allegory, Paradox,

Oxymoron, Hyperbole, Overstatement, Understatement, Synecdoche, and

Irony. To limit the analysis of the speech, this thesis focuses on the

figurative language in the forms of Simile, Metaphor, Personification,

Metonymy, Paradox, Hyperbole, and Synecdoche.

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The Functions of Figures of Speech

Perrine (1969: 71) classifies the functions of figures of speech into

four, i.e. to afford imaginative pleasure, to bring an additional imagery, to

add emotional intensity, and to say much in a brief compass.

1) To afford imaginative pleasure: Through the text, figures of speech

can make human feel pleasure with imagination, which means that

human have imagination and pleasure at once. Therefore, figures of

speech are significant in giving pleasure in the form of imagination.

For example, the expression I paddle my canoe in the river that flows

slowly, in a sunny day, under a cloudy sky, with a wind blowing slowly

contains symbolism in which the words paddle, my canoe, river, and

the situation in a sunny day, under a cloudy sky, with a wind blowing

slowly mean more than what they are. Besides, this sentence can

afford imaginative.

2) To bring an additional imagery: Figures of speech also function in

bringing an additional imagery. By additional imagery, an abstract

thing becomes concrete. In poetical form, imagery can be defined as

the figurative description. It experiences reader’s mind to create such

imagination through the text. For example, in the sentences

28
 Someday, my plane will fly high. With these two firm wings, with this

great and sturdy body, the words plane and fly high implied

symbolism by using the expression ‘plane will fly high' to represent a

moment when someone's dreams will come true. In addition, this

sentence implies to give an additional imagery that is more affecting

the humans’ sense in visual term by imagining the parts of the plane;

the strength of each parts of the plane which visualize how strong the

speaker’s dream is.

3) To add emotional intensity: Figures of speech can be used to

convey an abstract thing in creating emotional sense. For example,

the expression The world wants you to speak, right now!!! Implies

synecdoche since there is an association between the world and the

people. Furthermore, it implies the function of adding emotional

intensity by forcing the subject you to speak, to take an action, or to

make a decision exactly at that time like there is no more time, like

there is no more chance. Moreover, the use of exclamation marks

emphasizes the expression and makes the situation become full of

tension.

29
 4) To say much in a brief compass: Figures of speech are also the

way of saying something much in a brief form. Through figures of

speech, the writer or the speaker can communicate his or her idea

without detail explanation. In this way, the reader pictures the

intended meaning through the text in a brief way. A particular

example can be seen in a quote Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep

your balance, you must keep moving (Albert Einstein). The first

sentence contains simile through the word like to make a comparison

between life and riding a bicycle. Moreover, this simile is used to say

much in a brief way. In riding a bicycle, the more people slow down

their bicycle, the more people will be difficult to remain standing. And

if they stop, they will fall. They need to keep riding their bicycle

straight and forward to stay balance. The speaker’s metaphorical

description of life as riding a bicycle proposes particular truths about

life that would need many words to state in common language.

2.2.3 Connotation

Connotative meaning has elements of conceptual meaning of words

and the comprehension of the underlined message of the text. The

decoding of the message of the text based on the personal experiences of

30
the decoder. This means that connotative meaning differs with the

experiences of people in communication. It also carries semantic features

or properties. Thus, idiomatic and figurative expressions derive their

meaning through connotation. And symbols in literature, have different

connotation culturally.

According to Anagbogu & Co (2010:222), connotative meaning is

usually the meaning which derives from the semantic extension or change

in the original meaning of some words and it is figurative in intent.

2.2.3.1 Lexical Sets and Fields

For Ebi, Y. (2011), “language is usually explained at different levels

that is phonology (sound), morphology (internal structure of words), words

and semantics (meaning). Lexis or words is, thus, one of the levels of

language study. The term originated from Greek and came into prominence

in linguistic circles in the 1960’s. It is particularly used by British linguists for

the vocabulary of a language or sub-language, especially of its stock of

lexemes. The term became popular because it is unambiguous, unlike its

synonym “lexicon””. Supporting Alo (1995:18) defined lexis as, “…the level

of linguistic analysis and description concerned with the way in which the

vocabulary of a language is organized”. In linguistics, lexis describes the

31
storage of language in our mental lexicon as prefabricated patterns that

can be recalled and sorted into meaningful speech and writing. Thus, lexis,

as a concept, has a distinct identity from other traditional levels of linguistic

study or interpretation, as it refers specifically to the word-stock of a

language from which writers and speakers make choices for self-

expression according to their purpose or intended meaning. The areas lexis

covers include synonyms and antonyms, collocations, common idioms, and

figurative language, proverbs and phrasal verbs, registers, homonyms and

homophones, prefix and suffix, general knowledge of words, special loan

words, neologism, adjectives and prepositions, etc. The point is that the

rationale for studying the nature and functioning of the vocabulary of a text

is to decode the meaning of the text (i.e. lexis as semantic markers or

signifiers). This notion is echoed by McCarthy and Carter (1988) when they

averred that, most scholarly works on lexis over the years have discussed

the term within semantics. For, as Socrates put it, “words have the power to

reveal…, conceal and signify all things; they… also turn things this way and

that” (See Eyoh, 1997:90). Alo (1998) shares a similar viewpoint viz: “As a

level of language study, lexis seeks to elucidate how words mean and how

they interact with one another meaningfully…”

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 Fundamentally, a writer taps from and exploits the vast resources of

language for his imaginative creations. Lexical items help the writer to

crystallize his thoughts, express certain emotions and create images all of

which give literature its peculiar expressive beauty. In this regard, writers

depend on lexical items and their connotative implications, to convey their

intended meanings. Therefore, the writer must choose the appropriate

words to effectively convey the intended meaning and also achieve

aesthetic beauty. This is inevitable because a writer must use linguistic

resources imaginatively to have the desired effect on the reader or

audience. This explains why writers, particularly poets, make lexical

choices with great care to achieve the delicate target of conveying meaning

in the best way possible. In fact, an artistic effort must achieve a fusion of

meaning and imaginativeness in language use. Language is a product of

man’s need for self-expression and communication, as a social animal.

Basically, therefore, language is a social and functional phenomenon; a

tool of social engineering in our day-to-day existence as human beings.

Fundamentally, human beings function in myriads of social situations and

language serves as the instrument of expression in all of these situations.

Hence various scholars have defined the term in terms of its social

function. Language function refers to the purpose or goal of language use

33
in any given context. The functions of language cover six basic

communicative and social areas viz: informational, expressive, phatic,

directive, ideational and performative (Ndimele, 2005). According to Alo

(1998:5), the term function has two meanings: Firstly, it refers to the

specific uses to which the writer or speaker puts the language (e.g.

description, explanation, argument, persuasion, humour, etc). The term

‘function’ is also used in the context of stylistic description to refer to the

communicative value or role of specific language categories (sentence,

clause, word group, collocation, word and morpheme). Language function,

therefore, implies varieties of language that are defined according to use.

This means that the context of use determines the meaning of the word or

phrase. Thus, a word or phrase could have a particular meaning in one

context, and another in another context. This view tallies with Halliday’s

view of language and grammar in particular, as a whole system of choice or

option with complex relations between them. Hence the definition of

language according to function focuses on language use in contexts of

situation and postulates that meaning is multi-layered and can be

interpreted at various levels. Stylistic function is an aspect of language

function. The critical point is that the specific communicative or social

function that a speaker or writer deploys language to perform has the

34
potentials to shape its use. Halliday (1978) labeled language as a ‘social

semiotic’ in the sense that it evolves in a context and the environment in

which people deploy language to serve communicative needs can shape its

form and meaning. According to Ogunsiji (2000:53), the “social

circumstances” of language use are pertinent in determining stylistic

meaning because, “… language is not a monolithic entity – it varies

according to some factors like geographical location, subject matter,

medium (spoken or written), sex, age, role relations etc.”

The arrangement of lexical items or words into different groups to

show their relationship as regard meaning is called Lexical Field Analysis.

Sometimes, lexical field and semantic field mean the same for some

linguistics, Siegfried Wyler differentiated the two items as, “a lexical field is

a structure formed by lexeme” while a semantic field is the underlying

meaning which finds expression in lexemes” (Colour and Language: Colour

Terms in English, 1992). By implication, lexical field is at the level of words

whereas semantic field is at the level of meaning. A lexical field shows a

segment of related words and these words are in a semantic field having a

semantic property. These words invariably are mutual, marking the area

within the semantic area. In order to mark the semantic domain or area,

35
unmarked words maybe marked and marked words maybe unmarked,

posing an overlap in meaning within a domain.

However, the unmarked words are usually frequent, basic, easier to

comprehend and more accessible while the marked words are made up of

many lexica words and sometimes show subtype of the unmarked one.

Often, lexical fields are explained by theme or subject matter like

landforms, colours, foods, body parts and kinship relations. Opara, S.C.

quoting Zequan (2002) states that “meaning support themes and indicate

registers of particular fields”. Register or Contest of Situation (COS)

represents meanings, semantic pattern placed in special environments with

words and structures “that are used in the realization of these meanings”.

Continuing, she said that in the domain of context of situation, there exists

different types of register and they are found in all the dimension of

organization of the language. They also have rank, axis and delicacy as

concepts in their semantic area (Opara, S.C. 2012:70).

Again, “registers of activities, subject matters, professions, disciplines

and occupations indicate field” (Opara, S.C. 2012:70). And she further

differentiates the difference between lexical field and set as she writes that

‘the super – ordinate or general concepts denote field whereas specific

concepts denote lexical sets (Opara, 2017:70). Register can also consists

36
of the nature of topic discourse in the environment by which the language is

activity is centered. It is of note that members in a particular domain can

overlap and it is possible for an individual to switch from one register to

another eve in mid – sentence. This switch is usually brought about by the

changes that come from vocabulary, structure and intonation as the case

maybe.

Defining lexica sets, ‘A set is a formal term for a group of words

possessing specified characteristics indicating membership of a special

kind’ (Opara, 2012 quoting Trail, 2005:170). There is a relationship

between them, that is, there exists between lexical fields and sets a bond

involving an addition into a group of lexical set in lexical fields. The items in

a particular lexical set belong to the same semantic field because they

belong to the same lexical field.

For example, parts of the face, parts within the field include nose,

eyelid, mouth and so on and lexical sets like, nose or eyelid or mouth have

the same semantic domain. The meaning of these lexical sets is deduced

from the semantic field in which they occur. Each lexical set has its

meaning or referent as well as the meaning of the lexical field in the same

semantic field.

37
2.2.4 Expressive Means

If one describes something expressively, it means that what is being

described is clearly stated or the intents of the person or thing is clearly

explained. Expressive means of a language is a term used to show the

linguistic forms and features that the capacity to make a speech emphatic.

The expressive property of language can be seen in phonetics, grammar

and morphology.

Stylistic tools and expressive means of language are related. This is

because all stylistic tools belong to expressive means of language and not

all expressive means belong to stylistic tools. Phonetic concepts like, vocal

pitch, pauses, logical stress and pronunciation can be expressive and not

stylistic tools. Morphological items or words that are suffixes may have

expressive property. For instance, “piggy” or “doggy”. Also, words that

retain their logical meaning when used as intensifiers showing emphasis is

expressive. For example, “terribly”, “absolutely” or “awfully” and so on. This

is lexical expressive means. Some special grammatical and syntactical

forms showing expressiveness can be regarded as expressive means. For

example;

(a) I do know you!

(b) If only I could help you!

38
 However, according to classical scholars, expressive means is

divided into three: tropes, figure of speech and parts of speech. According

to Chris Potts (2005), expressive means has two dimensional semantic

framework which uses semantic composition special rule that demarcates

descriptive and expressive meaning of a text. Both this argument was

deficit to fully explain the concept.

Furthermore, expressive means grammatical words can serve as

parts of speech such as nouns, adjectives verbs etc. Their function is to

express strong emotion, negative attitude towards situations or trigger

emotional state. This accounts for the semantic property of expressive

means of language.

2.2.5 Neologism

Neologism is a new phrase or word not in use or familiar by speakers

and writers. These words are invented as a result of the morphological

processes that occur in existing morphemes or created new ones. The

word or phrase maybe sometimes in the process of entering into general

use and have not fully accepted as vocabulary of language. They are often

necessitated by change in technology and culture and maybe attributive to

a particular event, programme, period or person. Some linguistics

39
describes neologism as descriptive coinage and these are lexical

inventions. However, descriptive neologisms are lexical words or phrases

constructed to describe certain socio – cultural elements that are not found

in Standard English used by original users but found in their target country

such as found in Nigerian English vocabulary. For example, “Go slow”. This

means a kind of traffic jam.

Again, they are constructed by bringing together suffixes and prefixes

of existing morphemes or words and sometimes blends too. For example,

the word, “brunch” which is got from breakfast and lunch. Words can be

formed also through abbreviations or acronyms or through rhyming with

existing sounds or words. It is clear that these words or phrases undergo

morphological processes through affixations of derivational morphemes.

According to Ayoola (2012), “the flexibility of English lexis can

accommodate new ideas and notions in particular contexts”. Semantic

extensions or semantic loans are those words whose meanings have been

extended beyond those which are conventionally or generally recognized

either ‘as a result of association with the meaning of a partly synonymous

word in another language’ or non – linguistic influence (e.g. cultural) in the

development of a new semantic sense (Igboanusi 2001; Durkin 2009:136).

40
 These words can be accepted or made prominent or popular through

literature, mass media, internet and constant usage and they may

disappear as they appear because of unpopularity. This is dependent on

the word being generally acceptable by users, gained popularity and

suitability. These words or phrases have automatically gained new

meaning hence the new status and neologism is different from a person’s

idiolect. They exist when there is specific need to express a term to

represent meaning in a particular situation and there is no term to represent

it or when the existing term lacks detail or not suitable or explanatory or

when the user is not aware of the right word or term to use.

Neological words are motivational as this can be noticed in the

vocabulary or register of academics, law, literature, government, science

and technology which show high frequency of acquiring words or coinages

to suit their field of study. Neologism can be as a result of disambiguating

words or terms that have numerous meanings. They can easily become

popular especially through mass media and literature. Furthermore, the

nature of neological words or phrases makes translation between two

languages to be difficult and sometimes impossible. And in English

language to translate neological word or phrase, the four translation

method is used namely; transcription, transliteration, the use of analogues

41
and loan translation. Usually, when translating a neological word or phrase

from English language to any other language, naturalization is used.

Professional translators use the method of ‘Think Aloud Protocol (TAP)’

which is most apt for translation of neological words.

Meanwhile, inaccurate translation of nelogical words or phrases can

cause ambiguity and miscommunication which is called “Translation

Asymmetry”.

2.2.5.1 Types of Neologism

(1) Scientific: These are words or phrases constructed to demote

scientific discoveries, researches and findings.

(2) Political: These are coinage created to denote political terms or

points which are mostly negative in nature.

(3) Pop – Culture: These are words/phrases from mass media which

are created to describe a socio – cultural feature of a particular group.

(4) Imported: These are words or phrases from a language used to

express an idea in another language that have no equivalent term in

the original language.

(5) Trademarks: These are words or phrases to ensure that there is a

distinction as a legal mark from other brands.

42
(6) Nonce Words: These are words or phrases created to designate

particular events or occasion especially to achieve literary effect.

(7) Inverted: As the name implies, these are neological words or phrase

created as a result of inverting the original word or phrase backward.

(8) Paleologism: These are neological words or phrases that are

obscure but are used ironically. Neological words or phrases may

take long years to be obscure but the length of obscurity differs from

person to persons.

2.2.6 Dialectal Words

The word ‘dialect’ came from the Latin word dialectus which in turn

came from the Greek word dialektos meaning ‘discourse’.

The word is defined as a variety of language shared by a group of

speakers. A dialect includes elements used to produce speech:

pronunciation, grammar and interactive features (Opara, 2016:22). Norman

(1988) in Opara (2016:22) concurring, writes that ‘dialect speech creates

local colour, social contrast and distinguishes language of intimacy from

formal or common place relationship’.

However, this word dialect can be used in two different ways by

linguistics. It is used as a variety of language that is used by a particular

43
group of people occupying a particular linguistic entity. The varieties in this

linguistic entity are closely related and are mutually accepted. Apart from

having regional speech pattern, a dialect can be described or identified by

social class, ethnicity and region. If it is associated with social class we call

it, sociolect, with ethnicity we have ethnolect and regiolect when it is

associated with region. Sometimes it could be used as non – standard

variety of a particular speech entity.

The other use of dialect is that which regards it as a separate and

independently evolved language. These dialects within the main dialect

cannot evolve closely with the main dialect within the same linguistic entity.

Instead it represents a minor group, unintelligible and sub – standard. The

distinction between these types of dialects can be found in their vocabulary,

grammar and pronunciation. In some cases, the two can be differentiated

by using the terms, ‘standard and non – standard dialect’. Two dialects

from can be distinguished as two languages although there is no general

acceptance through exposure to mutual intelligibility and socio linguistic

notion. By mutual intelligibility, I mean if the speaker of one dialect helps in

the comprehension of the other dialect, otherwise there exist two different

languages. In socio linguistic notion, the dialects are of the same language

when they defer to an authority within the speech entity.

44
 A dialect is a different way of interaction within a speech community

and it is more than ordinary pronunciation as some linguists argue.

Different dialects emerge in any speech community because it is inevitable.

In literature, dialects can exist as the literary artists create different

speaking situations for his characters. To achieve this, the writer will use

specific dialogue suitable for that particular character. The characters are

created to be genuine, original and natural in speech community to

represent class, education and status.

Also, dialectal words can be used in an emotive prose than in any

type of prose. This is used to show the status and personality of a

character in the same speech community. The use of these dialectal words

is done differently by writers according to the writer’s choice or style. Some

writers use them as slang, jargons or register in their narrative technique

not only in characterization.

However, linguists argue that an unrestrained or uncontrolled use of

dialectal words in prose can cause ambiguity in non – literary words,

understanding difficult and sometimes deviant. Some writers sparingly use

these words, instead words that convey intelligence to readers or show

standard form of English in their works.

45
 In conclusion, Osuagwu & Co. (2007:99) opine that, ‘nevertheless,

there may be a more or less clear dialect boundary, where the occurrence

of a bundle of ISSOGLOSSES (Lines separating a regional dialect from

another) indicates that there are a number of features in which the dialects

on either side differ from each other: however, the continuum is not entirely

broken’.

2.3 Lexical Relations

Lexical relations or semantic relations include synonyms, autonyms,

collocation and sets, lexical fields, neologism, lexico – semantic

intensification, semantics of names, terms of address and kinship terms

and connotative meanings or implied meanings (Opara, 2019:22).

It is a relation connecting words and when they occur, there is a

significant relationship existing between them. This can be noticed

semantically, syntactically, phonetically and morphologically. Through

association and combination lexical words are joined to convey meaning as

in lexical relation. Thus, the idea known about a word can help in finding

the meaning that exists in the other. And the meaning of the lexical words

correlates with components of the language. In short, it simply means how

meanings exist between words in language. This has in its content

46
information about category, form and meaning of lexical items. The

meaning of these lexical items can be identified based on their singular unit

meaning or meaning as a result of context of use – that is in isolation or

context.

However, some words have similar meaning while others are in

opposite relation and some are distinctly different. Upon these similarities

and differences, words are sorted out using these semantic relations or

lexical relations basic concepts: synonyms, antonyms, homonyms,

hyponyms and polysemy.

2.3.1 Synonymy

These are words that have similar meaning and it is one of the most

popular and commonly used or known sense relation or semantic relation.

The irony in this assertion is that some words in this relationship cannot

replace each other in some sentence construction without damage in

meaning. But however, when they have the same meaning, they can

replace each other. Words in similar meaning relationship have denotative

and connotative meaning as argued. And this pose a problem in replace of

a word in a sentence (Opara, 2017:60). For example;

(a) Die and pass on.

47
 (b) Work and duty.

Words that are in similar meaning that are replaceable – quick – fast

– speedy.

2.3.2 Antonym

These are words in opposite relationship. They can be sometimes

completely different in form and in some cases partially different. These

opposite meanings has two forms namely; categorical and continuous

meanings.

Categorical Meaning:

This means that words in this distinction have contrasting value that

is words contrast each other. For instance, fire/water. The word ‘fire and

water’ are in contrast because less fire does not indicate more water or vice

versa. There is no continuum between the two words.

Continuous Meaning:

Opposite words that have construction value are continuous and this

is because of the relative nature of these words. For instance, words like

‘big and small’. When one calls an elephant is small, it is relative to another

48
elephant and when it is further compared, it may be big. Thus, the meaning

existing between the two words are on a continuum value.

Types of Antonyms

They are non – gradable and gradable opposites;

(1) Non – Gradable Opposites: These are absolute opposites without

sense of gradation. They include complementary, relational and

directional opposites.

(i) Complementary Opposites: They are in complementary relation

when their pairs show absolute opposite. It simply means the call

for one necessitates the other. For example;

(a) Present – Absent

(b) Open – Closed

(c) Lost – Found

(d) Male – Female

(e) Alive – Dead (Omorodion 2011: 119)

(ii) Relational Opposites: There exists in these opposites a converse

relationship or a reciprocal role. For example;

(a) Push – Pull

49
 (b) Teacher – Pupil

(c) Give – Take

(d) Teach – Learn

(e) Borrowed – Lent

(f) Sold – Bought

(iii) These are opposites that denote the notion of motion in words that

express directions. A contrast that exists in words that represent

diametrical positions. For example;

(a) South – North

(b) Down – Up

(c) Go – Come

(d) Arrive – Depart

(e) Front – Back

(2) Gradable Opposites: These are opposites that have intermediary

between them. It means that there is a stage or ground between the

opposites. For example;

(a) Bad – Good

(b) Love – Hate

50
 (c) Cold – Hot

(d) Friend – Enemy

(e) Happy – Sad

(f) Young – Old

(g) High – Low

In conclusion, in these opposites, the denial of one does not imply the

assertion of the other. Generally, antonyms when they are used literally in a

discourse can work differently.

2.3.3 Hyponymy

Opara (2017:57) quoting Palmer writes that hyponymy involves

inclusion. And that inclusion indicates class membership. Continuing the

meaning of a member in this class can be ascertained by the meaning of

another form that shares the same semantic features. For example; words

like cow, goat, sheep, monkey, elephant which have the same semantic

feature of animal have animal as their hyponymy. Also words like slap,

beat, injure, stab have wound as their hyponymy. Hyponymy has hierarchy

and embeddedness or inclusion as used by Palmer. This means that the

semantic feature of an object can be embedded in a word that shares the

same semantic feature and a represented hierarchically in contrast with

51
another. For example, animals classified in contrast with vegetables to

include birds, fishers, insects, animals and human beings (Opara,

2017:57).

However, there are technical words that are used to designate the

relationship in these hierarchical presentations. That is super ordinates and

co – hyponymy. For example, words like ‘dog and cat’ are called co –

hyponymy and their ‘super ordinate’ is ‘pet’.

Therefore, the lexical meaning of words in this relationship can be

deduced by the individual meanings that exist in members of a particular

semantic class in a hierarchical order.

2.3.4 Homonyms

The words in this semantic relationship have the same spelling and

sound but different in meaning and origin. For Opara (2017:59),

‘homonyms create problems in the identification of morphemes, they are

sources of many lexical ambiguities in language’. For her, homonyms

words mean the same with homophonous words. For Omorodion

(2011:125) they are different as he defines homophones as ‘pair of words

that sound the same but different in form (spelling), meaning and origin’.

For example, words like;

52
 (a) Knew – New

(b) Right – Write

(c) Fare – Fair

(d) Know – No

(e) Court – Caught

(f) Peace – Piece

Examples of homonymous words are;

(a) Bank (money) – Bank (river)

(b) Fair (of beauty) – Fair (of market)

(c) Pupil (at school) – Pupil (of the eye)

(d) Bark (dog) – Bark (tree)

(Opara, 2017:59)

Actually, these are ambiguous words whose meanings are deduced

from the context of use – contextual meaning. This classification

sometimes is not true because words have related meaning in a context

which differs slightly. For example, words like ‘address’, ‘and’ and ‘back’.

53
2.3.5 Polysemy

Defining, Omorodion (2011:128) writes that, these are words that

have one form (written or spoken) having many meanings which are all

related by extension. Continuing, polysemous words have central idea or

meaning with many figurative or metaphorical meaning of the central idea

or meaning. For example, a word like ‘fool’ having a central idea or

meaning as part of the body with these metaphorical meanings as foot of

mountain, bridge, bed and tree.

Again, polysemous words are different from homonymous words

which have similar semantic meaning, however, homonymy is a mere

linguistic coincidence whereas polysemy is not. Omorodion (2011:128)

states the difference as he writes, ‘if a word has multiple meanings

(polysemic), then there wil be a single entry with a numbered list of the

different meanings of the word. If two words are treated as homonyms, they

will typically have two separate entries’… ‘the several meanings of a

polysemous word must be related while the meaning of homonyms are

never related in any way’.

Example of polysemous words;

(a)Head – Part of the body, leader of a group, part of a coin

54
(b)Mouth – Part of the body, where river flows into the sea, entrance of a

cave

(c)Run - Person does, water does, colours do

Omorodion (2011:128)

2.4 Forms of Address

This is a style of office or a form of address by a literary artist which is

legally accepted as a form of address or style to express his intuitive

thoughts formally. It is usually in conjunction with an official title. A form of

address could denote an elected or appointed official of an institution, firm,

organization, group and offices that engage in creativity, implementation or

interpretation of policies or principles of the establishment. Style can also

be acquired through marriage and this favours women traditionally. This

can charge when the people involved are divorced.

However, sometimes an honourific award could be given to an

individual for a personal recognition. Such honours are given to monarchies

or presidents or members of legislative bodies or high ranking officers of

government, law and religion. Although, it can be informal and in this case

it is characterized with contracted words or abbreviations, ellipsis, colloquial

or friendly words used in an informal environment for communication. For

55
literary artist, if it is for a poem, the artist uses such deep structural devices

like images, figurative languages and emotional choice of language words,

rhyme, registers of grammar, idioms and proverbs to express inner

meaning or thought.

For a Novelist, the artist uses cohesion, speech presentation, style

and language of prose. For a Dramatist, monologues, dialogues and

pragmatics of conversation is used to convey meaning and to communicate

(Opara, 2019:28).

Concluding Opara (2019:27) opined that ‘individual style aims at

finding out the author’s style; it looks for relationship between the author

style and the language of the work. A writer adapts text to the style as

failure to do this many result in laughter and awkwardness’.

Onwukwe in Ike (2005), states that ‘style of discourse therefore

demands that we observe formal norms or use of words in formal

situations’. Continuing, he observed that “every language that has a written

form has a standard in both spoken and written modes. When we talk of

formal language, we simple are referring to the standard forms as opposed

to the non – standard form”.

The meaning of forms of address, which are part of linguistic

repertoire used to express politeness and rudeness should be regarded as

56
an important area of research, which is due to the increasing importance of

intercultural communication, expansion of international cooperation, and

the emergence of new norms of interpersonal communication focused on

achieving a mutual agreement without violence (Marshall B. Rosenberg,

2003). Thus, the research on the forms of address in Polish and Russian in

a contrastive aspect has become a significant contribution to the

development of research work and computer dictionaries as well as to the

practice of teaching foreign languages. This research has been based on

the examples heard and recorded in a written form. They used parallel

corpora including texts the 20th and 21st century as well as existing paper

and computer dictionaries for further research work.

Expressing politeness and rudeness in a natural language is not only

a subject of linguistics research. Various scientific disciplines such as

philosophy, pragmatics, psychology, cultural studies, ethnography, and

other sciences have taken politeness and rudeness as a subject of

research as well. The German linguist Klaus Vorderwulbeck emphasizes

that “the expressions of politeness belong to language, whereas politeness

itself is not a linguistic phenomenon and lies beyond language” (Tomiczek,

1992).

57
2.5 Sociocultural Meaning of Language

Culture and society are very important tools in language study. A

language of a people determines to a great extent the lives of reliability of

kinds of languages used by a particular people for specific purposes. This

explains the social situation around the content of use of a language.

Sociocultural linguistics is a study of language in its sociocultural

context. So, sociocultural meaning of language means the study of the

meaning of language used for a particular social situation with a society.

Language as part of human behaviour in the society can be a facilitating

factor to a second language learner as he learns the social implications of

the target language. Then, appropriate language is used for an occasion in

discourse whether in spoken or written form.

The sociocultural theory of Vygotsky explains the meaning that exists

in the interaction among people in a speech community in which the live

and this is a motivating agent of human development and learning.

Meaning and mediation are two important concepts in this theory.

2.5.1 Mediation:

Mediation is the process by which impulsive, unmediated and natural

behaviour are transformed into socially meaningful activities into higher

58
mental principles through the use of tools skills (Minick, 1987). Vygotsky

explained further through his theory that what this means is that children

who poorly remembered list of some words before were able to remember

fully these lists of words through the use of picture cards to facilitate the

mental process. It simply means being internalized as a second language

learner of language as one progress in human development and learning

processes. Adults can use mental pictures or images in the brain and

associate them with words to make them remember. Contributing Kozulin

(1990, 2003) founded three forms of mediation namely; material tools

involving pictures cards to help mental process, symbolic systems involving

rehearsal of words to be remembered quietly and through an instructor who

will guide and support the children in remembering of all the forms symbolic

systems was favoured and used for literary works.

2.5.2 Meaning:

In his theory, he found out that apart from mediation, that human

speech carries generalized meaning. That is a meaning that is capable of

allowing social interaction across context use. And humans are given by

nature the ability as a pure human phenomenon to acquire meaningful

speech and they use it for communication among themselves. As they

59
communicate in various settings, they are able to generalize and remember

words in the language. Therefore, these words achieve importance in the

mind and generalized meaning is attained. The understanding of meaning

mutually is contained in the interlocutor’s main source of linguistic

development in man. In other words, linguistic development can occur

through interactions with people within a speech community. This is made

possible through language and linguistic mediation when they interact with

each other for the basis of internalization and development.

Hence, the fact that human behaviour is mediated by language gives

rise to the phenomenon that all human action is subject to multiple

interpretations (Vygotsky, 1987). “This is why Vygotsky was preoccupied

with semantic level analysis as well as being fascinated with the theoretical

techniques and stage directions that gave emphasis to interpreting and

expressing multiple meanings inherent in the speech of actors” (Kozulin,

1990).

The proficiency in language use of a language user is by exposure to

the varied types of social speech interaction verbally.

60
2.6 Informal Language

Informal language learning was first introduced and popularized by

Knowles (1950). Rogers (2004) suggests that informal language learning is

unstructured, unpurposeful but is the most extensive and most important

part of all the learning that all of us do every day of our lives. On the

contrary, formal language learning is structured, purposeful, and school

based. Other researchers (Lightbown & Spada, 2001; Marsick & Watkins,

1990) have also described formal and informal language learning in the

same way.

Whether language acquisition is to take place in formal or informal

language learning settings in English as a second language context (ESL)

or English as a foreign language (EFL) context, language learners need to

have exposure and access to a sort of language input. In fact, language

acquisition simply cannot take place in a vacuum without considering

having exposure to some sort of language input (Gass, 1997). Needless to

say, the source of language input for acquiring the language particularly in

informal setting in both EFL and ESL contexts should not be neglected.

English is dominantly spoken or is the official language in an ESL

context where language learners can make use of social interaction as a

source of language input to acquire the language in an informal setting

61
(Rogers, 2004). In other words, learners can have interaction with other

people from different countries using English language as the medium of

communication. Long’s (1996) Interaction Hypothesis emphasizes that

conversational interaction enhances SLA. Particularly, negotiation of

meaning as a component of interaction which triggers interactional

adjustments by the native speakers or more proficient interlocutor can

contribute to SLA.

The distinction between formal and informal learning settings is

significant also in debates about second language development. Lightbown

and Spada (2001) describe informal setting as the contexts in which the

adult learner is exposed to the target language at home or at work or in

social interaction, and formal settings as the contexts where the target

language is being taught to a group of second or foreign language learners.

In the formal language learning setting, the focus of learning is on the

language itself. On the contrary, in informal language learning setting the

focus is on meaning. In informal language learning setting language

learners interact with native speakers in the target language country, use

different technologies at home or at work, watch a movie, or listen to music

or song just as an entertainment which can lead to language learning

Lightbown and Spada (2001). In other words, by viewing a movie or

62
listening to a song in informal settings, language learners indirectly get

involved in the language learning process when they try to understand the

movie or the song by using a dictionary or subtitle (Pemberton, Fallahkhair

& Mosthoff, 2004). According to Marsick and Watkins (1990), formal

learning is classroom-based, and highly structured and purposeful.

2.6.1 Pidgin Language

Pidgin, originally, a language that typically developed out of sporadic

and limited contacts between Europeans and non-Europeans in locations

other than Europe from the 16th through the early 19th century and often in

association with activities such as trade, plantation agriculture, and mining.

Typical pidgins function as lingua francas, or means for

intergroup communication, but not as vernaculars, which are usually

defined as language varieties used for ordinary interactions that occur

outside a business context. Pidgins have no native speakers, as the

populations that use them during occasional trade contacts maintain their

own vernaculars for intragroup communication.

The communicative functions and circumstances of pidgin

development account for the variable degree of normalization within their

often reduced systems. Among other things, they often lack inflections on

63
verbs and nouns, true articles and other function words (such as

conjunctions), and complex sentences. They have thus been characterized

from time to time as “broken” languages and even as “chaotic,” or

apparently without communal conventions. Nevertheless, several pidgins

have survived for generations, a characteristic that indicates a fairly stable

system.

Some of the pidgins that have survived for several generations are

also spoken as vernaculars by some of their users, including Nigerian

Pidgin, Cameroon Pidgin, Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea), and Bislama

(Vanuatu), all of which are based on a predominantly English vocabulary.

Such vernaculars have developed systems as complex as those of

related creoles and are called expanded pidgins. However, some linguists

who assume that creoles are erstwhile pidgins that were nativized and

expanded by children tend to lump both kinds of vernaculars as creoles. A

more plausible explanation for the distinction is the fact that in their

histories pidgins have not been associated with populations that consider

themselves to be ethnically Creole.

64
2.6.2 American Language

English is not only known as the

language of the English people, but
also as the language spoken by people
in
many countries. English began in what
is now the British-Isles. At the
beginning of the fifth century, Britain
was
invaded by three tribes from Northern
Europe: the Angles, Saxons and Jutes.
These three tribes settled down on the
island and merged into one people.
The three dialects they spoke naturally
grew into a single language, the
English
language.

65
English is not only known as the
language of the English people, but
also as the language spoken by people
in
many countries. English began in what
is now the British-Isles. At the
beginning of the fifth century, Britain
was
invaded by three tribes from Northern
Europe: the Angles, Saxons and Jutes.
These three tribes settled down on the
island and merged into one people.
The three dialects they spoke naturally
grew into a single language, the
English
language.
English is not only known as the language of the English people, but

also as the language spoken by people in many countries. English began in

what is now the British-Isles. At the beginning of the fifth century, Britain

66
was invaded by three tribes from Northern Europe: the Angles, Saxons and

Jutes. These three tribes settled down on the island and merged into one

people. The three dialects they spoke naturally grew into a single language,

the English language.

With the development of the English language, it has many varieties

in different parts of the world. Different varieties differ in accent, vocabulary,

grammar, discourse, sociolinguistics, and have its respective

characteristics in pronunciation, tone, intonation, spelling and so on.

Therefore, it is important for English language learners to observe the

differences in language use.

The Americans adopted many words from foreign languages and

invented large numbers of new words to meet various needs. That is to

say, English has developed a character of its own, reflecting the life and the

physical and social movement of the American people. Just as Noah

Webster (1789), the famous American lexicographer and author, wrote in

his Dissertations on the English Language, “The reasons for American

English being different from English English are simple: As an independent

nation, our honor requires us to have a system of our own, in language as

well as in government. Great Britain, whose children we are, and whose

language we speak, should no longer be our standard…” Because of the

67
spreading of English to the world, there are changes that have occurred as

a result of individuals who have come from different areas in England, who

have moved around the world and taken with them their regional

characteristics. Noticeably, there are South African English, New Zealand

English, Australian English, Canadian English and the most commonly

used British English and American English.

2.6.3 Biblical Language

This description of religion presuppose the belief in a God. For Lan

Ramsey (1950:204), he has a different approach though it does not

exclude God, he is of the opinion that religion is the vision of something

which stands beyond, behind and within the passing flux of immediate

things.

The phrase “immediate things” in this definition somehow shows that

Ramsey forget the things in the future or those yet unseen. This is because

religion has to do with the whole of human existence and not merely with

certain special aspects of it. Since it is a deliberate effort to reach out

beyond the self of God.

Religious language is considered by Crystal David (1996:37) as the

most distinctive of all occupational varieties. He mentioned three main

68
reasons for this; it is consciously prescriptive i.e. concerned with issues of

the day and identity.

Thirdly, it is consciously imaginative and exploration as people make

their personal respond to the claims of religious belief. There is also a

unique phonological identity as in spoken prayers and chants.

There existed grapological identity in liturgical booklets, catechism,

biblical texts and other religious publication. Strong grammatical identity in

invocations, prayers and blessings.

2.7 Monologues

A monologue is a speech by a person, expressing mental thoughts or

ideas vocally. This is done directly to another person or audience. It is

literary device often found in dramatic plays, films or videos and sometimes

in poetry. However, in literature, it is similar to soliloquy apostrophe and

asides. Although, they are different from each other. Also, it has similarity

with a poem or epiphany that involves one person or speaker. It is a

thought spoken by a person aloud. Historically, the origin of monologues is

not from dialogue but dialogue came from monologue as a dramatic device.

These literary devices are similar as is a speech by a person aloud, there

are distinctive features between each of them.

69
2.8 Definition of Stylistics and Lexical Stylistics

The concept of style has attracted numerous viewpoints which gave

rise to different theories for its classification and exploration. Style,

basically, is the variation in language use or the varying forms of linguistic

performance by speakers and writers. The fact as Alo (1998:1) puts it is,

“The verbal style includes all the devices of language that are used to

achieve communication goals in speech and writing…”. Stylistics, on the

other hand, investigates how a writer or speaker uses language to

communicate. It is the branch of general linguistics that deals on style,

particularly in works of literature. According to Allan, B. et al (1988), it is ….

a branch of linguistics which studies the characteristics of situationally

distinctive use of language with particular reference to literary language

and tries to establish principles capable of accounting for the particular

choices made by individuals and social groups in the same speech

community. Many theories have been propounded by scholars to explain

linguistic style in literature and guide its exploration as a critical approach.

These theories reflect the dichotomies in the perception of the concept by

different scholars. The Russian formalists and Prague school of the 1920’s,

for instance, see style in literature as foregrounding (see Hawkes, 1977;

70
Bennett, 1979; Lemon and Reis, 1965). Also with the structuralists of the

1960’s (Hawkes, 1977; Culler, 1975), they stress the importance of the

medium i.e. language.

According to Fowler (1990), linguistic formalism postulates the

existence of a special poetic language, which is distinguishable from

“ordinary” or “scientific” language. For Wellek and Warren (1963:22-26),

largely drawing on the semantic theory of Richards, explains a distinct

poetic use of language and that is, it is non-referential, non-practical, non-

casual, etc. This theory is acceptable also by Noam Chomsky’s (1957)

Transformational Generative Grammar (TGG), which sees style as a

deviation – the style of a writer or speaker is delineated by his constant

departures from linguistic norms. This is another critical strand of the

language of poetry, in the sense that it overtly contravenes phonological,

syntactic, semantic and pragmatic rules. Widdowson (1984:162) opines the

deviant nature of poetry when he observed that, “it is common to find

instances of language use which cannot be accounted for by grammatical

rules”. For Crystal (1987:71), he explains that stylistics focuses on

“deviant” and abnormal features rather than broader texts or discourses

(Wetheril, 1974; Leech, 1957; Cluysenaar, 1976; Fowler, 1981, 1986). It is

this deviant format that, Roman Jacobson (a theorist of TGG) refers to as

71
the “poetic function” of language i.e. forms of language that draw attention

to themselves. Also, Chomsky’s (1957) deep and surface structures is also

a fundamental theoretical aspect of style, since the meaning of surface

linguistic constructs like poetry, is retrievable in the deep structure.

Osundare (2003) discusses three concepts of style as choice, difference

and iteration. Continuing, this scholar describes “choice” as a further

subdivision into preverbal and verbal choice i.e. the thinking process of the

writer/speaker and the actual usage of language in the verbal form. The

scholar explains “difference” in terms of variation and deviation. This

means that style implies saying something in different ways and also

violating linguistic norms. According to the scholar, the concept of iteration

emphasizes repetition of linguistic elements for focus and emphasis. The

systemic functional grammar that provides the theoretical framework for the

present study, is systemic functional linguistics. The interest of this

linguistics is not only in describing the structure of language, but also in

explaining the properties of discourse and its functions. It revolves around

the work of J.R. Firth in general and M.A.K. Halliday in particular. In

Hallidayan (1971) perception, a formal feature is stylistic if it has a

particular meaning, effect or value. This notion emphasizes how language

functions in texts and the nexus between language and what it is used for,

72
or to achieve. It is factual that whatever linguistic resource that is worth

describing must be put to use, in the sense that the description and

interpretation are necessarily based on the situational variables that

prompted its use. For Oha (1994:730) he posits that the approach

recognizes the interdependency of style, meaning and context of situation

and that the latter should not be subjected to second fiddle position, or

ignored, in the analysis of style.

However, in Systemic Functional Grammar, language structure is

analyzed along semantic, phonological, lexical and grammatical lines.

Language function, on the other hand, is examined from three angles

namely ideational, interpersonal and textual. These are referred to as the

metafunctions of language. The ideational metafunction of language is

synonymous with the field of discourse i.e. the subject matter or

propositional content of the text and the context of language use i.e. is it a

religious or socio-political subject? The interpersonal or interactional

function, at another level, refers to the tenor of discourse i.e. the social

relationship that exists among participants in a specific discourse situation,

which can influence or shape language use. The textual aspect is

particularly germane to the present study. It is concerned with the mode.

Leech and short (1985:209) see Halliday’s textual functions of language as

73
“…ways of using language to organize, understand and express

information for effective communication” (see Opara, 2005). The main point

is that, the textual metafunction relates what is said in a text to ideas

outside the discourse, as we shall demonstrate in the present study. It is

concerned with the internal organization and communicative nature of a

text. In this model, cohesion is examined both lexically and grammatically.

The lexical aspect examines sense relations and lexical repetitions, as we

shall see in the present study. The grammatical aspect on the other hand,

examines repetition of meaning through reference, substitution and ellipsis.

The language of African literature has its socio-cultural peculiarities. The

historical fact of colonialism, which made countries in the continent ether

Anglophone or Francophone, etc, has made the imperialist languages the

media of literary expression. However, African writers have devised various

strategies to contextualize indigenous meaning in these imperialist

languages. Adejare (1992) writes that traces of African mother tongue are

most pronounced in the works of African writers. Alo (1998) summarized

these “traces” or peculiar linguistic characteristics of the literature viz:

coinages, borrowings, native similes and metaphors, native rhetorical

devices, transliteration, native proverbs and idioms, etc. The dominant

critical focus on African poetry has been on the traditional literary and

74
thematic features of texts. Linguistic/stylistic studies are generally sparse

(see Eyoh, 1997). Vincent (1979:220) hints at a general and more acute

problem about the lexical aspect of language use in poetry viz: “one main

factor which inhibits explication of modern African poetry is the general

insensitivity of the average reader to words”. The few works that attempt a

linguistic/stylistic appraisal of poetic creations in the continent include:

Anozie’s (1985) “Equivalent Structures in Soyinka’s Poetry: Toward a

Linguistic Methodology in African Poetry Criticism,” Ofuani’s (1987) A

Stylistic Analysis of Okot P’Bitek’s Poetry, Osakwe’s The Language of

Wole Soyinka’s Poetry: A Diatype of English, Eyoh’s (1997) J.P Clark-

Bekederemo’s Poetry: A Study in Stylistic Criticism. Edonmi’s (2000) A

Text-Linguistic Enquiry into Osundare’s Poetic Idiolect, and Ushie’s (2001)

Many Voices, Many Visions: A Stylistic Study of ‘New’ Nigerian Poetry.

Importantly, from the corpus of available literature, J.P Clark-Bekederemo’s

poetry has not been given intensive linguistic enquiry like other African

poets, such as Soyinka and Osundare. In fact, Eyoh’s (1997) J.P. Clark-

Bekederemo’s Poetry: A Study in Stylistic Criticism remains the only full-

scale work that applies linguistic insights and methods to the study of the

poet. However this work is limited to lexical stylistic analysis of dramatic

texts. The crux of the model is that, as Opara (2005) put it, “while

75
Discourse analysis analyses WHAT is communicated in Discourse,

stylistics analyses HOW it is communicated”. Unlike other modern linguistic

models, which study invented or isolated aspects of language, Discourse-

Stylistics examines the form and function of linguistic constructs which are

beyond the sentence, in specific social, cultural or historical contexts, as

explored in the given discourse. The critical point is that, the model enables

the analyst to establish both the discourse and stylistic features in the text,

by exploring the network of interdependences among linguistic and extra-

linguistic features, which help the text not only to mean, but also to achieve

cohesion and coherence. Discourse itself is composed of structure,

meaning and action (Schriffin, 1987). The concept originates from the

discovery that language operates within a pragmatic context and that it is

necessary to delineate and apply that context to its explication. This

explains why sub-disciplines of discourse analysis, such as pragmatics,

conversation analysis, speech act, and ethnography of speaking (i.e. co-

operative principle), are relevant functional approaches to language study.

This also justifies the adoption of Halliday’s systemic functional grammar,

as the analytical model for this analysis, in that it also relates formal

linguistic patterns in texts, to their given communicative contexts.

76
 The definition of stylistics is proposed by Short (1996: 1) as an

approach to the analysis of literary texts using linguistic description.

Stylistics spans the borders of the two subjects, literature and linguistics.

As a result, stylistics can sometimes look like either linguistics or literary

criticism, depending upon where the person is standing when he is looking

at it. In line with Short‟s statement, Widdowson (1975: 3) also describes the

term stylistics as an area of mediation between two disciplines i.e.

linguistics and literary criticism. The ultimate purpose of literary criticism is

to interpret and evaluate literary writings as works of art whereas the main

concern of linguistics is with the codes themselves and particular

messages are of interest in so far as they exemplify how the codes are

constructed.

Then, Simpson (2004: 3) proposes that the activity of stylistics is to

explore language, and more specifically, to explore creativity in language

use and its contribution for meaning construction. This method of inquiry

has an important reflexive capacity as it can shade light on the language

system it derives from. Stylistics tells us about the rules of language

because it often explores texts where those rules are bent expanded or

stretched to breaking point. Thus, doing stylistic analysis thereby enriches

77
people’s ways of thinking about language and exploring language offers a

considerable purchase on people’s understanding of literary texts.

Another definition of stylistics is proposed by Coyle. Coyle (1993:

184) states that stylistics is the examination of literary language of an

author and its contribution to the construction of the meaning. He further

consolidates the idea that the objective of literary stylistics is to investigate

thematic and aesthetic values generated by linguistic forms. It means style

is not mere ornament; rather it conveys important details of meaning and

evolution. Therefore, the discussion of stylistics includes a writer’s way of

thinking about his/her subject and his/her characteristic way of presenting it

for a particular reader and purpose by his/her way of linguistic choices.

From the above scholars‟ definitions and descriptions, it can be said

that stylistics is a linguistic approach to literature, explaining the relation

between language and artistic function. Every analysis of style is an

attempt to find the artistic principles underlying a writer’s choice of

language.

From the simple viewpoint of word formation, „stylistics‟ can be

defined as „the study of style.‟ The concept of style has been greatly

disputable even as to literary texts and its definition in terms of different

aspects. Lehman (1996: 303) proposes that the term style can be applied

78
to individuals, to genres, to periods or to languages. Scholars, for example,

who read Shakespeare‟s writings, ascribe them to him because of his style.

One style is identified to the period of renaissance, another for

enlightenment. Thus, being applied to individuals, to genres, to periods, or

to languages, the term style then still have wide array of applications. In

line with the above idea, Leech and Short (1981: 52) define the term style

in terms of the domain of the language use e.g. what choices are made by

a particular author, in a particular genre, or a particular text. When people

say style is the way in which language is used, it belongs to the linguistic

concept of Ferdinand de Saussure‟s parole and langue. Parole means the

way individual user of a language performs the code reference of that

particular language and the langue is studying about the total properties of

a particular language. This means style in this context is the way language

is used by a particular writer in a particular literary work to communicate

with the readers.

According to Chapman (1973: 11), style is the common adoption of a

register by a number of people in a certain recurring situation. Styles are

the product of social situation: of a common relationship between language

users. Therefore, every style is used for communication within a group,

large or small, close-knit or scattered, with features which are accepted as

79
communicative by members of group. Abrams (1981: 385) defines the term

style as a manner of linguistic expression in prose or verse. He further

elaborates that the characteristic of style of a work or a writer may be

analyzed in terms of its diction or choice of its words, its sentence structure

and syntax, the density and types of its figures of langue etc. Hence,

people can understand that style in literature mainly concerns the linguistic

behaviors of a literary work and the characteristics of the literary selection

that concern forms of expression that are used to put thoughts into words.

From the above scholars definition, it can be inferred that style is the way

language is used by a particular writer in a particular literary work. Style

covers the process of selection and combination involved in writing a

fictional work. That means it denotes the writer’s choice of words (diction)

and the way such choices are arranged in sentences and longer units of

discourse.

2.9 Summary of Issues and Problems

As is obvious from the names of the branches or types of stylistic

studies, this science is very closely linked to the linguistic disciplines

philology students are familiar with: phonetics, lexicology and grammar due

80
to the common study source. The term semantics is also widely used in

linguistics in relation to verbal meanings. Meaning is not attached to the

level of the word only, or for that matter to one level at all but correlates

with all of them – morphemes, words, phrases or texts. This is one of the

most challenging areas of research since practically all stylistic effects are

based on the interplay between different kinds of meaning on different

levels. Suffice it to say that there are numerous types of linguistic meanings

attached to linguistic units, such as grammatical, lexical, logical, denotative,

connotative, emotive, evaluative, expressive and stylistic. The theory of

functional styles investigates the structure of the national linguistic space –

what constitutes the literary language, the sublanguages and dialects

mentioned more than once already. Literary stylistics will inevitably overlap

with areas of literary studies such as the theory of imagery, literary genres,

the art of composition, etc. Decoding stylistics in many ways borders

culture studies in the broad sense of that word including the history of art,

aesthetic trends and even information theory. As in many other aspects of

life the situation changed in a language policy. That requires creation of

new textbooks, dictionaries and manuals. In order to fulfill these goals one

must know every field of linguistics. In my opinion, the subject matter

contained in this study is very factual because there are no perfect works

81
that can fully describe literary stylistics. The main goal of the work is to

compare, analyze and find examples which belong to linguistic stylistics.

The practical value of the research is that the material and the results of the

given qualification work can serve the material for theoretical courses of

lexicology, stylistics, typology as well as can be used for practical lessons

in teaching second language learners, home reading, conversational

practice and current events.

CHAPTER 3

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY

3.1 Theoretical Framework

82
 Theories are formed to explain, predict and comprehend phenomena.

Sometimes it can be formed to challenge and strengthen already existing

knowledge within the scope of the critical assumptions. A theoretical

framework is a structure that holds and supports a theory of a research

study. It explains, introduces and describes a theory which answers the

questions of ‘why’ and ‘how’ of the research study. It includes concepts,

definitions and existing theories that are relevant to the particular study.

And the theoretical framework of study must account and demonstrate a

theory or concept that is relevant to the topic of the study and that will in

turn relate to the broader fields of knowledge in the study taken. This is not

an already made concept because it came into existence through the

formulation of the topic. This is because the research will review

works/researches, theories and analytic models that are of importance and

relevant to the research problems, one is investigating. Then, the selection

of a particular theory is dependent on its capacity, appropriateness, ease of

application and explicit power of the theory.

Meanwhile, theoretical framework has been found to strengthen the

research study in the following ways namely:

(a) An appropriate and good theoretical assumption arouses the

critical evaluation of the work by the reader.

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 (b) To open the creativity and connection of the researcher with the

existing knowledge in the field of study. That is, the existing

theory will be a guide to the researcher as well as a source of

information because the theory provides relevant hypothesis

and knowledge that helped in the research study.

(c) The theoretical assumptions help the research to critically

address the questions of ‘why’ and ‘how’ of the research study.

(d) The researcher moves from simply defining the concepts to

stating facts and findings or even hypothesis.

(e) Having a theory helps the researcher to know and identify the

scope and limits of the study to those generalizations.

(f) It alerts the researcher to investigate how the variables differ

and under what condition and situation.

Thus, a good theoretical framework fulfills these purposes, explaining

the meaning, nature and challenges of a concept and can use those

knowledge and understanding to act in more informed and effective ways.

A theoretical framework most relevant to this work is the theory of

systemic functional linguistics of M.K. Halliday (1960). The theory regards

language as property of the society. Many linguists have researched into

this discipline of stylistics and have come up with many hypotheses,

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theories and findings but the more appropriate and relevant to this study is

the theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics of M.A. Halliday of 1960. The

Systemic Functional Linguistics that regards language as a property of the

society. This means that language changes in relation to the needs and

wants which is derived from the structure of the context. The Systemic

Functional Linguistics came into existence as a result of the works of

Kasper Malinowski, John Firth and Benjamin Whorf. This, in turn took its

root from anthropological linguistics and this further formed the background

of Halliday’s inspiration. Another influence during the time was the Sapir –

Whorf hypothesis whose main concern is on cultural relativity.

Continuing, they observed that language influences culture and the

language of a people is a show of their culture and system of thought.

However, this hypothesis faced serious criticism which led to the apparent

understanding of language as a vehicle of thought and culture of a people

rather than a determination of the people’s culture or their thought system.

This study adopts this approach because the study is largely focused

on the lexical style geared towards proffering explicit explanation on how

Toni Duruaku dramatic texts account for textual features in the drama texts.

Hence, Ononye (2014: 34), opines that the comprehension of the

nature of stylistics is done best by describing the part of linguistics that

85
deals with the theories and methods of modern linguistics in the analysis of

the use of language in various modes and domains of the text.

Kin and Yoon (2014: 35), said that, the Systemic Functional

Linguistics deals on the recurrent lexical choices, syntactic structures and

cohesive devices within a text. Meanwhile, the domain of this study is

specifically with the lexical choices and cohesive devices as the title signify.

Thus, the focus of linguistic stylist approach as used in this study is

purposely adopted to systematically expose how Toni Duruaku drama texts

showed in the use of language the influence of his environment, culture

and variety of English use by the people he is exposed to.

This Systematic Functional Linguistics is formulated basically on the

principles of broad social semiotic approach specifically for explaining the

functions of language.

For Halliday (1994: 5), systemic functional linguistics shows language

as a system that is consists of network of systems or inter-related sets of

options for making meaning.

According to Kamalu and Tamunobelena (2015:94), the name

systemic came from systems which mean theoretical representation of

paradigmatic relations in contrast with the syntagmatic structures of

language. Here language is considered as a network of systems not as

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mere rules and the systems help the researcher to make good choices.

The nature of this linguistics makes the use of language possible for people

to carry out the social functions of language in relation with others in the

linguistic environment. Agreeing Halliday (1994:5) observed that language

is important because it functions and accomplishes its tasks as opposed to

traditional grammar which deals with compositional syntax, semantics and

lexical categories like nouns/verbs.

According to Opara S.C. (2019: 15), “linguistic stylistics is a broad –

based discipline in language dealing with the “social functions of language”.

Continuing (2019: 16), language connects its use and the artistic roles in

texts while emphasize is placed on the variation of language of use by the

writer.

Also, it deals with functions of language is preference in structural

breakdown which mean ordinary discourse analysis. It explores the various

grammatical options made available by linguists for speakers/writers.

For Ononye (2018: 85), systemic functional linguistics is “a

descriptive and comparative study of stylistic conventions of text types”.

Agreeing with Ononye, Gajir (2017: 35) states that “Systemic

Functional Linguistics involves the description of grammar as a system and

not as rules, based on the evidence that the set of grammatical

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configuration is concerned with the selection of linguistic items from a

describable set of options”.

Continuing, (2017: 35), he stressed that the analysis of linguistic

choices given to language users is made available within the use of system

network in the Systemic Functional Linguistics which is captured during

utterance. These choices according to the theory is called Lexico –

grammatical network.

Finite

For example;

Clause

Diagram 1:

Non – Finite

Adjectival – Adverbial group

Nominal

Group

Prepositional Phrase

Work

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Source: http://www.istla.org/systemic

From the diagram above, the choice to use a nominal group instead

of a clause to show a semantic process in the diagram is as result of the

structural consequences of the choice made. In the diagram, the finite

shows a combination of subject and finite = nominal group. This indicates

that for one to choose a finite (verb) a subject and finite item must be

present. Hence, the subject is a nominal group or noun and the finite is a

verb.

Furthermore, there are four important aspects of Linguistic theory in

Systemic Functional Linguistics which are identifiable to the levels of

language. These are prominent in phonology and grammar. They are unit,

structure, class and system which are rated in scales of rank, experience

and delicacy.

Ononye (2018: 83) cited Catford (1968) explaining the meaning of a

unit says that it is a “category setup” used to denote part of language

activity carrying grammatical forms that are meaningful recurrently.

Continuing, according to Ononye (2018: 85), the units found in grammar of

English language is as follows sentence, clause group, morpheme and

word and each of these grammatical units carry semantic feature.

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 For example, a sentence is made up of a main clause, a subordinate

or two as the case maybe. While the clause has the subject,

predicate/verb, complement and adjunct. The group can function as subject

component, predicate component, complement component or adjunct

component within the clause. The group can also have modifier, head,

qualifier any or more of these components within a group. So, Systemic

Functional Linguistics accounts for unit, class, structure and system of the

language.

However, within the structure of the group there is the word. And the

word consists of the base, prefix, infix, ending and addition while the

morpheme is the smallest meaningless Linguistic unit that has grammatical

or semantic features. This morpheme is divisible grammatically.

Kamalu and Tamuhobelema represented these grammatical

categories in the Systemic Functional Linguistics in this diagram as in a

Ladder Form.

Sentence

Diagram 2:

Morpheme

Word

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 Group Phrase

Clause

For Opara S C (2016: 9) citing Unoh (1994: 121) “these

characteristics of language could help gain insight into how to learn

language”. Continuing, she opines that language is organized, systematic

and hierarchical. This is evident in the five units found in grammar showing

the hierarchical property of language while the rank scale holds them

together. Tomori (1985: 112), in Opara (2016: 10) also opines that the

“syntactic structure of a speech has the grammatical units starting with the

sentence, the clause, the phrase, the word and the morpheme as the

lowest/last rank.

Sentences
Clauses
Groups
Word
Morpheme
Hence the grammatical rank scale according to Opara (2016: 10)

showing syntactic structure and order of power is;

Communicative Act

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 And that is why language is horizontal and vertical. The vertical

includes choice possibilities showing linguistic forms of relations of words,

sentences and utterances that relate to change, style, choice and clause.

Language also is an interrelated sets of options that make meaning explicit.

However, these sets of options of language is flexible or dynamic as

the case maybe because words and sounds could be organized to form

new words which can make meaning change and new symbols created.

Humans can adapt linguistically, socially and historically to the changes in

their environment (Halliday, 2000: 15).

On the other hand, language in the horizontal axis means chain

relations. This simply means collocation – how words in an utterance come

together to become meaningful in a linear sequence like the word: dis +

appear + ing (Opara, 2016: 11). Thus, the unit of sound at the lowest stage

in the order combine to form units at the next stage in the order until it

reaches the syntactic structures that are complex in meaning which is

sentence, paragraph and discourse. The system is characterized by chains

of networks and choice relations having horizontal rules that hold its

elements together (Opara, 2016: 11).

Again, language is arbitrary, symbolic and social symbolically,

language express information and ideas about the world in meaningful

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networks for communication. This can be powerful instrument that can

make humans risk their lives or take the lives of others. According to Opara

(2016: 11) words like “queer and nigger” are symbolic. These words are

highly symbolic in America because they are emotional. Also, the English

word “sheep”. Symbolic words are seen as things that donate or represent

meaning given to them by their users and they are “abstractions”. ,

The social nature of language is that language is governed by rules

accepted by people in a given speech community. By implication, it is the

function of language as used in socialization i.e. it is human specific.

Language is used to produce results on behavior by expressing the human

thought and will of the speaker. This is not an ordinary self-expression or

the response to external stimuli. Language can be said to be arbitrary

because the sound systems of a language that is phonology are related

arbitrarily through meaning. This means that if one does not know the

meaning of a word, the mention of the word will not explain the meaning.

There is no relationship between the word and form in language. For

example, the mention of the word table, one would not by its sound know

the meaning of the word. This means according to Opara (2016: 12) that “a

name given to a thing represents its value or meaning within a society”.

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 This is why Unoh (1995: 121) in Opara (2016: 14) states that there

are three dimensions of language which are form, content and function. He

regards language as an embodiment of knowledge which has content, form

and use and function integrated. From this, an individual’s language

behavior can be ascertained. So, language can be used to transform

arbitrary vocal sounds and signs into meaningful utterances and these

helps to master the various aspects of language.

3.2 Research Design and Instrument

This study is descriptive as well as analytical in its design. The study

explains and describes the method used for data collection and analysis of

stylistic tools used by Toni Duruaku in these drama texts, A Question of

Choice, Cash Price, A Matter of Identity, A Mirage for a Dream and

Silhouettes. This study also captures code – mixing, code switching,

nativization, pidgin, colloquial expressions, loan words, blends and loan

expressions, proverbs/idioms, coinages/neologisms, ellipsis, abbreviations

and figurative features that occur in the drama texts. This is done by listing

and writing down the translation of each of the selected tools as appeared

in the selected chapters of the drama texts using tables to ascertain and

account the validity of the data. Therefore, in each of the selected stylistic

94
device, each aspect of the text is used for the purpose of illustration. The

data used in this study is an analysis of related materials from the textual

analysis of selected extracts of the drama texts. This study is also

quantitative analysis because it involves tables which identities the listing

and writing down the translation of each stylistic devices in a text as the

study covers from which generalization is made.

3.3 Sampling of Area of Study

This study because of its scope and nature is text – centered since it

is textual analysis. It uses the sampling method that draws its components

from the extracts from these drama texts namely, A Question of Choice,

Cash Price, A Matter of Identity, A Mirage for a Dream and Silhouettes.

These drama texts have incidents as chapters and it is only the text called

A Matter of Identity that has different settings in its plot. The drama text is

divided into, the meeting in Incident One, the order (Incident Two), the

consent (Incident Three), before the trip (Incident Four), departure (Incident

Five), judgment (Incident Six), the return (Incident Seven), post mortem

(Incident Eight).

The extracts from the drama are purposively selected by the

researcher from these four drama texts and these texts extracts are

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described based on Leech and Short’s checklist which has four categories.

They are grammatical categories, lexical categories, figures of speech

categories and cohesion and context categories. Meanwhile the

interpretation and description is based on the findings on the description of

MAK of Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistic Model which considers

language used by people in relation to its social functions. By implication, it

is a model that considers language as a form and function that helps

people to communicate thereby providing a suitable analytical framework of

quantitative and qualitative grammatical analysis of the use of language.

With the help of this model, the researcher was able to fully bring to

limelight the important Linguistic Features/Properties contained or

possessed in the writer’s style.

3.4 Procedure of Data Collection

The micro and macro levels of text analysis are adopted by this study

as its method of investigation. This is dependent on the documentary

research method that has the organization of all the evidences from the

texts under review. However, the linguistic perspective provided and

propounded by Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics provides the

framework of this study and analysis. For this study in order to fully analyze

96
the textual qualities of these drama texts, the study considers the

information and ideas found in the Systemic Functional Linguistics which

explains and describes functional and systemic nature of language. The

linguistic make up used in the analysis of drama texts is based as

mentioned already in the Systemic Functional Linguistics perspective on

how the lexical choices in lexico – grammatical system of these drama

texts are gotten.

The random selection of extracts from the drama texts are analyzed

ranging from lexical items, idioms/proverbs, neologism, colloquial

expression, nativization, pidgin, code – mixing/switching and other lexical

stylistics like foregrounding, deviation, register analysis. This will help to

bring meaning which can be comprehended outside what is said or written.

Furthermore, the extracts for analysis are organized and analyzed based

on Systemic Functional Linguistics which considers language as important

and relevant to humans in realizing the function of language as a means of

communication.

3.5 Sources of Data Collection

The items used in this study are called Data and it came from

extracts of conversation in the drama texts and speech from the text. These

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data collected are analyzed at the level of lexis. This helped to bring to

limelight the writers use of language and how he is sensitive to his

environment.

3.6 Population of Study and Sample Technique

The researcher used purposive random sampling technique in

selecting from the population of the study. The study population was done

to cover the whole incidents found in the texts into a manageable size to

achieve the desired result. And this purposive random sampling are

samples selected because to the field of study. However, the nature or

circumstance of the study situation influences the sample size.

CHAPTER FOUR

LEXICAL STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF TONI DURUAKU’S DRAMA TEXTS

4.1 Introduction

The writer expresses his imagination from the experiences

encountered. The use of language called the writer’s diction is his

communication tool to express and put across these experiences. This is

evident in the drama texts under study. These writer’s experiences also

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include the writer’s culture and background which he shares with the

people within and outside his environment. However, by implication,

language used by the writer shows the language of the people in which it is

used. Of course a people’s culture and language are interwoven.

According to Bright (2006:16), the context of a work is a very important

factor in any act of language attitude while the choice of words is

dependent on the context of environment of use. For Opara (2016:89), that

African writers often produce work that sometimes during translation from

target language to the writer’s language of use of lose “some shades of

meaning of the source language” in trying to express or convey the culture

and traditional norms of a people. Continuing, she states that Achebe

writes that “for an African, writing in English is not without a serious

setback…” This can make the writer describe situations which are not

relevant and suitable to the English society or situation.

Allerton (1979:9) in Opara (2016:90) is of the opinion that the

language of a people conveys their culture. For example, the word Daddy

in Nigerian situation could be a father or a benefactor or spiritual head.

Hence, this chapter clearly illustrates what exists between the style and the

use of language, the method of presentation of the writer’s experiences and

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culture which specifically brings to limelight the distinct features of his

drama texts.

4.1 Nigerian Literature and the English Language

English language as a world’s language has become the language of

office and Lingua Franca of Nigerian after the reign of our colonial masters.

This has made many Nigerian writers to use English language to depict the

Linguistic community by which their works are based. For example, Ken

Saro – Wiwa’s Sozaboy and Soyinka’s Trials of Brother Jero. In each of

these texts, they featured characters that used pidgin expressions and in

some character like “Mene” used Nigerian English with Broken English.

Others use local imagery and transliteration which show their culture and

language. Nigerian writers often use features of Nigerian English language

in their works.

“Nigerian writers often switch codes to their first language in their

texts. Wole Soyinka does this in Madman and Specialists and The Lion and

the Jewel. Many people including the teachers and pupils do this because

they cannot find equivalents in English and are afraid that in even trying to

translate, they might lose some of the nuances of meaning in the texts and

sometimes the mixture is used as a stylistic device”. Opara S C (2016:93).

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 Bamgbose (1995:11) states that “Nativization of English in Nigeria is

not limited to the usual features of transfer of phonological, lexical,

syntactic and semantic patterns of Nigerian languages into English, it is

also concerned with the creative development of English including the

evolution of distinctively Nigerian usages, attitudes and pragmatic use of

the language”.

This resulted in what Adegbija (2002:20) called “Domestication”. For

him, this is the result of the constant contact of Nigerian indigenous

languages and English language. This is characterized by the people living

in Nigeria using language to suit or represent their culture and beliefs, way

of life and the social – cultural norms of the people. This nativization or

domestication or indigenization of English language in Nigeria has

influenced Nigerian writers positively as they can convey or represent or

express the linguistic and socio – cultural desires of their people. Some use

their native or local vernacular to add vigour to English language like in the

use of idioms.

Again, Igboanusi (2001) x-rayed the Igbo tradition in some Nigerian

novels and found out that the works of seven writers clearly depicts the

tradition of the people by the use of language. This is the translation of

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idioms, images, proverbs and culturally rich expressions to English

language.

Some linguists have proven that this is an innovative use of lexical

items by writers as an important stylistic device in Nigerian works of Art.

Also, the appropriate use of these indigenous proverbs, idioms and

imageries have helped writers to effectively convey cultural meaning and

values as he makes choices between linguistic resources available. These

choices can be influenced by the subject matter and the social and

contextual variables. Thus, Nigerian literary works are characterized in

contextualized English language and it clearly depicts the imagery of the

socio – cultural contexts of people living in Nigeria. And these make their

works clearly Nigerian brand.

4.3 Lexical Stylistic Approach

This kind of approach is a two – fold approach that involves

lexicology and stylistics. The definition of lexicology simply means the study

of lexis. According to Darbyshire (1967:139), “Lexis is that branch of

linguistics which deals with the major units of language that carry the

burden of referential meaning”. Lexis is not only the stock of words in a

language, it is also made up of phrases and idiomatic expressions that are

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more larger linguistically than the traditional lexical items used by writers to

express limitations encountered while trying to produce their works. So

stylistics in combination with lexicology means the study of literary works

linguistically. For Leech and Short (1981:10, 11), “it refers to the way in

which language is used in a given context, by a person, for a given purpose

and so on”. Also, that “it is selection from a total linguistic repertoire”.

Crystal and Davy (1985) in Awonuga (2009), it is a part of language

that deals with the choice of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences and

linguistic tools as it relates the theme and the context which has socio

linguistic features in a literary text.

Abioye (2009:2) stressed that “due to experiential differences, the

way one individual uses language differs, sometimes significantly, from that

of another even when they are talking about the same thing. The way a

writer presents his message to his readers is often referred to as the ‘style’

of that writer”. Furthermore, three main factors form the basis by which the

vocabulary units are fundamentally analyzed stylistically and they include

temporal, social – functional and territorial factors according to Polikarpov

and Kurlov (1994). Ogunsiji (2000), holds almost the same view as the

above as he states that stylistic meaning is connected to “contextual

variables”. In effect it holds that the application of the features of general

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linguistics the stylistic analysis of text involves the graphological,

phonological, lexical, syntactic and semantic features in the text. Again,

Halliday (1971) writes that stylistic analysis is functional since it is formal in

nature which means that the nature carries a particular meaning, effect or

value. Thus, lexical features are analyzed with their functional parts in this

study as it relates to the contextual use of these items. This is because the

linguistic choices made by the writer are regarded as the most important

part that helped in the successful writing and representation of the

thoughts/ideas/messages in the work which projects the creative ability of

the writer.

4.4 Methodology

In this study, the approach as stated in chapter three involves the

analysis of extracts in the selected texts which emphasizes lexemes that

gave Tony Duruaku’s drama texts its uniqueness. In this research, the

analysis of selected extracts in the texts feature lexical items from

indigenous languages, Nigerian pidgin expressions, proverbs, loan

words/loan blends/loan expressions feature. In discussion, these items are

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explained on their association that is based on the time, context and setting

and language background of the writer and other features with their

denotative meanings. For a better explanation and clarity, the proverbs

from the texts are analyzed in tables because they are in sentences. This

means that the categories overlap each other.

The categories include the following;

(a) Nigerian pidgin expression

(b) Proverbs/Idioms

(c) Code mixing/code switching

(d) Loan words/loan blends/loan expressions

(e) Coinages/neologisms

(f) Semantic extensions

(g) Cohesive ties

(h) Imagery drawn from immediate environment

4.5 Presentation and Discussion of Data

This research as emphasized above, uses the analysis of extracts in

the five selected drama texts where these features namely; lexical items,

Nigerian Pidgin English, loan words, coinages, idioms, proverbs are

captured. And to further classify the conversations contained in the texts, a

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consideration of the ten point description of the components involved in the

communicative event of Saville-Troike (1982) in Searle, J, (1977) is used.

They are;

(1) The genre or type of event (e.g. jokes, story, lecture, greeting,

conversation).

(2) The topic or referential focus.

(3) The purpose or function of the event in general and in terms of the

interaction goals of individual participants.

(4) The setting, including location, time of day, season of year and

physical aspects of the situation (e.g. size of room, arrangement of

furniture).

(5) The participants, including their age, sex, ethnicity, social status,

or other relevant categories and their relationship to one another.

(6) The message form, including both vocal and non-vocal channels

and the nature of the code which is used (e.g. with what language

variety).

(7) The message content or surface level denotative references, what

is communicated about.

(8) The act sequence or ordering of communication (speech acts,

including turn taking and overlaps phenomena).

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 (9) The roles of interaction, or what properties should be observed.

(10) The norms of interaction, including the common knowledge, the

relevant cultural presuppositions, or shared understandings, which

allow particular inferences to be drawn about what is to be taken

literally, etc.

In this discussion, the texts are analyzed one by one according to the

order of publication and year.

The texts are as follows with their publication dates;

(a) A Question of Choice (1987)

(b)Silhouettes (1993)

(c) Cash Price (1997)

(d)A Matter of Identity (2003)

(e)A Mirage for a Dream (2016)

Text 1: Selected Extracts from A Question of Choice

The Content of the Text

The text A Question of Choice is a social drama on self –

employment about a boy by name “Sam”. This is a story of a young school

leaver, an expert in agricultural science. He preferred to seek for

employment in the big town where he “enjoy the good things of life”. He

was totally disappointed when he failed several attempts to secure

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employment in the big town. He, then realizes the truth about life, country

and what is gives. This work criticizes the misguided, overzealous and the

“easy – pather” of the present society. It brings to limelight the brutality and

realities of quest for white collar job in the country. According to the writer

“A Salute to industry, patience, foresight… and those who are able to still

get up from a bad fall…”. This drama text features the following categories,

namely;

i. Lexical items

ii. Nigerian pidgin

iii. Imagery drawn from immediate environment

iv. Code mixing and code switching

Text 1.1: Extracts from A Question of Choice

See Appendice 1

Pg Lexical items Frequenc Translation or meaning

y
3 Go and ask Ekene to get 1 Native soup and garri
more soup and eba (traditional Igbo food)
19 Dede 25 Senior brother/uncle
27 Large appetite for work 1 Diligent/hard work
1 My eyes are watering 1 Tears are coming out of
the eyes because the
soup is pepperish

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 These items are loan words that are Nigerian way of showing

culture/locality as they do not have direct lexical equivalent in English

language.

Loan Blends/Loan Words/Loan Expressions Lexical Variants are also

referred to as Loan Words. These are words that are used directly by the

writer by borrowing from the native or indigenous language into another

language – target language, without changing the form of the word.

Sometimes, they resemble loan blends. However, the difference between

loan words and loan blends is that a loan blend is a combination of a native

or indigenous item and a loan word item. Again, loan expressions are

words that refer directly to transfer structures from indigenous language

into English. The important lexical words in the texts are selected with their

translations or meaning as indicated in the table.

Accordingly, language is purely a relative reflection of cultural

conventions in every society. As can be seen, in this text the lexical word

“Dede” does not have in it’s entirely the concept the writer wants to express

in the environment. Presenting this in English language will be awkward as

the respect and tone will be captured adequately. Instead, the writer would

have used senior/elder brother or uncle as the case maybe. More so, it

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shows the respect that is accorded to elders in African especially the

Igbo’s.

(2) Soup and eba (pg 3)

Eba (cassava flour called garri)

(3) Shop (a small room containing goods) (pg 9)

(4) Wahala (problem) (pg 27)

Text 1.2: Nigerian Pidgin

It has been noticed that Nigerian pidgin has not been codified and that

there has been no agreement in vocabulary development and rules of

grammar of the pidgin language. Meanwhile, African writers tend to use this

pidgin language to denote class/intimacy and statue.

(1) Watering – My eyes are watering. (pg 1)

Meaning: I am shedding tears because of the pepper in the soup.

(2) Tire first – We shall see who will tire first.

Meaning: Let us see who will be exhausted.

Text 1.3: Imagery Drawn from the Immediate Environment

Sometimes, certain lexical items inspire one to create images that

made a creative work its peculiarity and expressive beauty (Yubo, 2011).

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 However, imagery can be explained or discussed in two levels namely

metaphorically or literally. Literally means denotatively while metaphorical

meaning is usually influenced by socio-cultural and pre-suppositional

contexts. These imageries are represented in the tables below.

“An elder does not watch the goat struggle itself on the rope” (pg 7)

Functional Settin Participants Message Rule for Norms for Genre/topic

purpose g form/contex interactio interaction
t n
Mazi In the Mazi Spoken to The inter- Direct speech by Action/Nece
Ogbonna house Ogbonna state the locutors Mazi Ogbonna to ssary
realized the of and Mazi need to talk are elders his kinsman
need to Amadi Amadi to Sam also in Igbo Amadi Senior
help Mazi tradition brother to Sam
Amadi and the
convince use of
Sam to proverbs is
practice very

111
what he important
studied in in all their
the discussion
university
(Agriculture
)

Note: Ogbonna happened to be an Uncle to Sam the junior brother to

Amadi. Amadi has been trying to convince his younger brother to establish

in the village as an agriculturist not to go to the town for white collar job.

Amadi told him how he has tried endlessly to make Sam stop planning to

go to the city to look for job while he (Amadi) has all it takes to establish a

big farm in the village.

“A fly that does not listen to advice, follows the corpse to the grave”

(pg 20)

Functional Setting Participants Message Rule for Norms for Genre/topic

purpose form/context interaction interaction
To warn In Ogbonna Advice from The inter- Direct Advice/Warning
Sam to Amadi’ and Sam Ogbonna to locutors are speech by
listen to his s house Sam to listen an elder and a Ogbonna to
elder and take youth. The Sam
brother what Amadi use of the
Amadi and offered him proverb
establish in shows the
the village presence of

112
and help in an elder
the family
upkeep

Note: Ogbonna confronted Sam and told him the need to accept what his

elder brother Amadi has offered him. Also, that he should recognize and

realize his elder brother assistance to him because there is need for him to

show his elder brother appreciation by helping in the family upkeep and

since his brother doesn’t have any child.

“When blood masquerades like water, then you treat it as water” (pg

4)

Functional Setting Participants Message Rule for Norms for Genre/topic

purpose form/contex interaction interaction
t
Caution In Amadi and Spoken to The inter- Direct speech Caution/warning
Amadi’ Ogbonna show anger locutors are of Amadi to
s house and elders. Ogbonna his
fraustration Proverbs kinsman
used by
elders add
dignity to
their words
of wisdom

113
Note: Amadi told Ogbonna how stubborn Sam has been and his bad

behaviors. That he has taken enough of his stubbornness and will no

longer tolerate them. But Ogbonna was telling him also that he should not

relent because Sam is his blood and as such, he advised, “that blood is

thicker than water”.

Text 1.4: Code – Mixing/Code – Switching

This is a sociolinguistic characteristics found in any multilingual

setting like in Nigeria. It is a communicative device used for social and

stylistic presentation for convenience. It has been noticed that Nigerian

writer’s exhibits code – mixing/code switching in their work of art. And this

is presented in the characters utterances so much that the density of the

lexical items borrowed from the English language largely determine or

show the speakers educational level and exposure. Hence, the evidence in

this analysis.

(1) “All right. We shall see who will tire first. Let him sit here and eat food

three times a day. The food he has refused to grow”. (pg 8)

Analysis:

We shall see who will “”tire first” is an example of code mixing. The

writer used two languages in the above statement and that is English

114
 and pidgin. This is equally a code switching because Amadi switches

language from English to pidgin.

(2) “God forbid! It’s a family wahala”. This is also code – mixing/switching

as case of pidgin and English language and this indicates second

language situations.

Text 2: Selected Extracts from Silhouettes

The Content of the Text

The text “Silhouettes” is a political drama on democracy and

responsibility about a town called Amadike. It tells the story of succession,

leadership, change, authority, responsibility and honour. The procedure for

succession in this town, was clearly stated but the new trend of modernity

and economic success (affluence) by one of their sons, Nwaeze fueled the

crisis in the drama as Nwaeke and group demand for a referendum. The

quarrel began when the guardian of the stool refused that the succession

115
 rule be adhered to. There was chaos in the town as their past confronts the

present. A criticism of our present day communities.

In this text the following categories features;

i. Loan words/blends/expressions

ii. Cohesive devices (Ellipsis)

iii. Code mixing/code switching

iv. Idioms

v. Coinages/neologisms

Text 2.1: Loan Words/Loan Blends/Loan Expressions

The important lexical items/extracts in the texts and their translations

are indicated below;

S/N Lexical Items/Origin Pages Frequency Translations/Meaning

1 Eaten shit (Pidgin) 5 2 Humiliation
2 Eze-ship 9 5 Kingship
(Igbo/English)
3 Eze-stool 20 1 Authority
(Igbo/English)
4 Kola (Igbo/English) 29 1 Fruit used for hospitality
5 Akom shurrp (Igbo) 43 1 Native herb to cure
malaria
6 Dede (Igbo) 43 5 Senior Uncle

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7 Papa (Igbo) 46 4 Father
8 Kobo (Igbo) 62 1 Smallest denomination
of our currency
9 Ogu na ofo (Igbo) 68 1 Symbol of fair play and
justice
10 Odejimjim (Igbo) 77 1 Local vigilante group

Text 2.2: Cohesive Device (Ellipsis)

This is a cohesive device called Ellipsis which links an utterance.

According to Opara, S.C. (2000), quoting Scott (1978:55), the elliptical

clause can share elements that can form component structure of the first

clause. And the elliptical clauses from the texts are as following;

(1) “Nwaeze, your acolyte disgusts me, but I shall answer…” (Pg 1)

The clause “but I shall answer…” which is the elliptical version of

but I shall answer you when the time comes. The ‘you when the time

comes’ was omitted. According to Opara, S.C. (2000: 53), it can be

represented thus:

You when/ the time/ comes/ = CCP

Above is the structural analysis of elliptical clause.

(2) “And you want me to fault now… to fail in my duty and shame this

family”.

117
 It is supposed to be “And you want me to fault now and shame

this family”. The elliptical is that the other part of the clause was later

given by the writer making the structure to be CCP as in the first

clause.

“To fail in my duty and shame this family” is the answer for the first

clause of (2).

Text 2.3: Code Mixing/Code Switching

(1) “Chai! I have eaten shit. Okay, we shall see who laughs last. Today

you have marked yourself for destruction”. (Pg 34).

“Chai” is an Igbo exclamatory word and this is used with English

language in this utterance to show code mixing/switching.

118
Text 2.4: Idioms

These are wise sayings that are used to express thoughts or ideas. It

is a typical of Nigerianism especially used by the Igbo people and depicts

their culture as well.

S/N Idioms Semantic Expression

1 What is a woman who is past Unimportant things should not be
child bearing to a man who talked about or discussed.
craves for a child? (Pg 2)
2 Is it not the fly that flew from the That is moving from one difficult
ground unto a rubbish heap and level of equally magnitude to the
celebrated that it had left the other of the same difficult level.
ground. (Pg 4)
3 Obialor, you have broken the That one has spoilt ones case by
cooking pot. We shall see where the persons self. Or one is the
you will eat from. (Pg 6) cause of one’s problems or
downfall.
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 4 Soon we shall see the rump of That the secret of one will be
the foul. Patience. (Pg 12) exposed.
5 Don’t be the friend who cries Not to be more emotional or
more than the dead man’s concerned than the victim.
relations. (Pg 31)
6 I’ll have taught you that if a child That it is not good for one to
challenges his father to a embark on what he cannot
wrestling match, his father’s loin – achieve.
cloth will blind him. (Pg 33)
Text 2.5: Coinages/Neologism

These are lexical inventions that resulted from the morphological

processes that combine pre – existing morphemes or entirely created new

ones. Some of these coinages are as follows;

S/N Coinages Translation

1 Before the gloom – descends (Pg 17) Trouble starts
2 Better – forgotten custom (Pg 18) Out dated custom
3 Eze – stool (Pg 20) Kingdom authority/unity
4 Eze – ship (Pg 9) Kingship
5 Pure – bred (Pg 1) Son of the soil
6 Clear – headedness Peaceful situation

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Text 3: Selected Extracts from Cash Price

The Context of the Text

The text Cash Price is a story about the problems that befall a society

that besets a social structure which places values on money. The story

revolts round Chinwe the victim, Uche the husband and Obinna, the master

planner. The young men want already made cash, the girls go for easy

cash, and the young women are not left out either. Some get away with it

while some are entrapped and doomed. This is a replay of our present day

society.

The following categories feature;

i. Imagery drawn from immediate environment

ii. Coinages/Neologisms

iii. Nigerian pidgin

iv. Cohesive devices (ellipsis)

Text 3.1: Imagery Drawn from the Immediate Environment

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(1) “A hoe that is taken to the farm must till the soil; otherwise it is a

useless piece of equipment weighing down the unfortunate farmer”.

(Pg 2)

(2) “A performing masquerade dances forward; it also dances

backwards; it turns to all sides of the arena; but it knows where to

turn to get money and where to turn for ordinary applause”. (Pg 3)

The above utterances are idiomatic expressions of Igbo language.

Utterance (a) means that when something of importance loses its value, it

is useless to the owner rather it becomes the object of worry.

Utterance (b) means that sometimes people pretend to do something

whereas they know when or how to get what they actually wanted. These

utterances show the socio-cultural situation of the Igbo people and they are

symbolized stylized utterances.

According to Opara, S.C. (2019: 41) quoting Chinua Achebe in “Things

Fall Apart” (1988), this idiomatic utterance is formal and uses metaphorical

and proverbial language that is regularly used.

Text 3.2: Coinages/Neologisms

(1)Battery – charging (Pg 5)

Translation: Electrician

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(2)Kick starter – repairing (Pg 5)

Translation: Petty electrician

(3)House – keeping (Pg 7)

Translation: Up – keep

(4)Old – fashioned (Pg 8)

Translation: Ancient

(5)Unnaturally – excessive control (Pg 10)

Translation: Possession

(6)Independent – minded (Pg 10)

Translation: Uncontrollable

(7)Husband – snatches (Pg 12)

Translation: Concubines

(8)Give – away (Pg 13)

Translation: Cheap

(9)Knock – out (Pg 14)

Translation:

(10) Fashion designer (Pg 16)

Translation: Boutique

(11) Mrs. Tough Lady Look (Pg 18)

Translation: Difficult

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(12) Razzle – dazzle (Pg 18)

Translation:

(13) A chronic borrower (Pg 35)

Translation: Borrows excessively

(14) Second – hand clothes

Translation: Used clothes

(15) Hell – cat (Pg 41)

Translation: Obstinent

(16) Expensive – looking suit (Pg 46)

Translation: Very costly suit

(17) Two – timing (Pg 57)

Translation: Unfaithfulness

The lexical words listed above are called descriptive coinages. They

are constructions usually by the writer to describe some socio-cultural

elements that are not easily or directly explicit or adequately expressible in

English language to suit the situation/environment. This is Nigerianism that

is easily understood in Nigeria certain morphological processes, hence

through suffixation of derivational morpheme and compounding mainly.

For example; Give – away

Husband – snatchers

124
 Knock – out

Hell – cat etc.

The morphological processing of compounding is dominant in the

above coinages. There is a combination of independent words in all these

words and of course a new meaning or interpretation is given as it is

particular of any compound word. Thus, the items are already identified as

contextually Nigerian.

Text 3.3: Nigerian Pidgin

The following are highlights of Nigerian pidgin used by the writer.

According to Opara, S.C. (2019: 34), ‘Pidgin though a ‘language’ of its own,

enriches and influences Nigeria English because it is used in informal

communication’. Continuing, she opines that it is regarded as a hybrid and

it has a combination of both the African language and borrowed items from

English language. This is ‘simplified’, ‘mixed’, ‘impoverished’ and

‘restricted’. Although, it has limited role to play officially because it is seen

as the play officially because it is seen as the language of commoners or

low class citizens in the country without education.

125
 It differs from the sub-standard Nigeria English called broken English

which is a total deviation from the Standard English especially in syntax

(Jowitt, 2000; Trudgill and Hannah, 1986:96) in Opara, S.C., 2019:34.

Obinna:

“So I go dey for door dey watch una make una finish chop. Sunday no do

that one o. sometime, you go buy bell dey ring am so I go hear am for my

room. But to come tanda for door for sake say I go see when you go eat

finish, na lie be that”. (Pg. 22)

This speech was made by Obinna when he came to Chinwe’s house

and found that he house boy Sunday was around. He started talking to no

one in particular out of guilty conscience. Although, Obinna is not a low

class and unprofessional person, but he used pidgin as a cover up since

the houseboy emerged from inside the room to interrupt their discussion.

He pretended that he was present while Chinwe was eating or as if she just

finished eating.

Sunday:

“Because him get money, him think say everybody go do bow foram (spits)

yeye man. I dey happy with small one I dey get see madam say him dey go

church. Which kin church she fit go with that man. When she come back

126
you ask me wetin them talk for gospel, him no go fit sabi. (Laughs

derisively) All right oo”. (Pg. 52)

If you look at the tone of the speech, you will realize that Sunday is

not happy and have noticed the relationship between Obinna and Chinwe

without them knowing it. Meanwhile, Obinna has earlier annoyed him by

reprimanding him for not cleaning the furniture before going to church.

Because he doesn’t want Sunday to distract them or be there while he

discusses with Chinwe in her matrimonial home. The writer used Sunday to

show that character that portrays low level of proficiency in English

language and of course as low class citizen houseboy.

Sunday:

“Believe am Sir. And since you tell me make I dey observe, I see say the

man dey live for one big house for 5 Independence Layout Road.

Sometime na there dem dey. (pause) E fit be Madam go church kwa! Or

him sister house”. (Pg. 85)

The word “kwa” is used by Sunday to buttress the authenticity of his

claim on the Madam ‘Chinwe’ and also as a code – mincing of pidgin and

Igbo language.

Therefore, Nigerian pidgin is a linguistic feature of Nigerian society.

Although, it is unofficial Lingua Franca of some particular state in Nigeria,

127
for example, Warri or Portharcourt. This is well understood by the average

Nigerian noticeably by some low class which has a very distinctive

vocabulary.

Text 3.4: Cohesive Device (Ellipsis)

According to Opara, S.C. (2019:52), it is a “cohesive device” that has

a linking feature between the lexical items contained in a text. For Scott

(1978:55) in Opara S.C. (2019:52). That the elliptical clauses found in a

speech have some components which form the structural part of the first

clause.

“I don’t think you know the quality of the fabric. Place it on your skin and

feel the coolness; feel…” (Pg. 12)

The clause “place it on your skin and feel the coolness; feel…” which

has the elliptical version as “feel the coolness of the fabric”. The sentence

pattern is thus;

“Feel the coolness of the fabric”

Verb Adverb Object

V + A + O (Noun)

And the structural analysis of the elliptical clause is (PAC)

128
“Feel the coolness of the fabric”

P A C

Text 4: Selected Extracts from A Matter of Identity

The Content of the Text

The text A Matter of Identity is a community drama on self –

determination. A story about Umukwenu clan. This clan was forbidden from

holding their annual festival by the very gods that made the festival

mandatory. And that is why, the elder, Ntagbu said that, “And yet we have

been ordered not to hold the festival. The gods are indeed playing ‘nchoro’

with us….”.

The word ‘nchoro’ means a traditional game of strategy using seeds

and dug out holes. The solution according to the gods is for them to select

a boy or a girl of sixteen years, an only son or daughter to embark on a

journey to the land as emissaries. This drama is a traditional drama that

provokes thought on “who we are and how to retain that which makes a

society different or unique. A Matter of Identity and what we are known for.

A clarion call to retreat and surrender.

129
 The following categories feature;

i. Imagery drawn from the immediate environment

ii. Proverbs

iii. Code mixing/switching

Text 4.1: Imagery Drawn from the Immediate Environment

Page Idioms Semantic expressions

15 Let me tell you, my friend, a clan that It means that one should not
forgets her heroes cannot breed new forget the past because the
ones. And a land with no heroes is past assures the future
dead, and is a mockery in the eyes of
other communities
15 A man does not run away from his duty That one faces the challenges
simply because of a tease of life inspite of oppositions
24 You are a very black snake in the An enemy that behaves as a
homestead, eating the chickens friend
30 We had been going on like the fly on a When one tells self lies about
mound of earth which believes that it the situation of things on
has left the ground ground
33 You cannot tell what the mouth smells You cannot ascertain the
like until the nose ventures near it characteristics of a person
until you encounter the person

130
 Text 4.2: Proverbs

“Our people say that if you sacrifice to the gods on an empty

stomach, you’ll smell like the spirits”. (Pg. 17)

Genre Function/ Setting Participants Message/Form Rule of Norms for

/Topic Purpose /Content Interaction Interaction
Advice To show The They are the They were Here Ntagbu This is an indirect
that why scene is representative discussing how was telling speech to others
they were the s of their to prepare and others that they to remind them of
disagreein elder’s village. They send the two have been the need to bring
g with each meeting are four in emissaries to fighting/attackin kolanut and palm
other is ground number; the land of g each other wine which as
because at Obiocha, never – never since they delayed
the proper Ntagbu’ Ocheze, land before they came because
things were s house Ntagbu and could they have been
not done Mbagwu commence their presented with
annual festival kolanut which is
as directed by the right and
the gods of the first thing to do
land before any
official
gathering Igbo
culture

NB: The four elders were patiently arguing with each other especially the

two rivalries, Ntagbu and Obiocha. They do not seem to agree in any way

131
 rather they antagonize each other with offensive words. Therefore, when

kolanu was eventually presented and the palm wine by Okoli, Ocheze

accused Ntagbu and the one that is supposed to bring the kolanut and the

palm wine since he is the head of the host village. Ntagbu jokingly used this

proverb top buttress while the argument among happened since they did

not do the right thing at the right time. That is Igbo culture.

“If a man does not die young, he will surely eat bearded meat”. (Pg

18)

Genre/T Function Setting Participants Message/Form Rule of Norms for

opic /Purpose /Content Interaction Interaction
Consent To show In the Mbagwu Mbagwu It is a casual Indirect speech
that what same consenting to consented to proverb that used by Mbagwu
he is scene in Ocheze who the accusation realize tension to show that his
accused the said that but warned that among the nephew has come
of is time meeting Okoli his he may have elders since he of age to fool
for him to ground at nephew is gone to practice hasn’t come around with the
engage Ntagbu’s fooling their local with the palm maidens
in such house around with dance for the wine yet
practice the maidens festival

NB: The emissary to the “Never Never Land” the boy Okoli is Mbagwu’s

nephew and as such he is a little bit possessive and that is why he is

always insinuating things among others. When the elders realized that they

have not started the meeting officially because there were kolanuts and

132
 palm wine, they started looking for him to blame. Meanwhile, Mbagwu has

asked his nephew, Okoli to go and get the palm wine, he stayed back

where his age mates were rehearsing the dance they wanted to present

during the festival without them knowing that they gods do not approve

these emissaries sent. Ocheze accused Okoli of fooling around while the

maidens which was true while Mbagwu supports him because he said that

he is of age.

“A hot coal given to a child by his elder cannot scorch him”. (Pg 19)

Genre/ Function/ Setting Participants Message/Form/ Rule of Norms for

Topic Purpose Content Interaction Interaction
Mandat It serves as At the scene Mbagwu An indirect Here Mbagwu
e an of the telling others speech showing is mandating
authority or meeting the that an agreement Ntagbu to
signal to go second time authority to continue with
ahead and at Mbagwu’s someone the blessing of
perform the house attracts kola
function power and
because courage
he has
their
support

NB: This was said when they gave Ntagbu kolanuts to pray over before

they eat. They started an argument as to whom the kolanut will be given to

bless. Mbagwu presented the kolanuts and showed them to his kinsmen.

133
Ocheze said that the kolanuts should be given to the eldest while Ntagbu.

Obiocha said that it doesn’t matter even though they are not in his house.

Besides, they are in his village and his person who brought the kolanuts.

Ntagbu now consented with this proverb to further ask him to continue

because he has their blessing.

Text 4.3: Code Mixing/Code Switching

It is an established fact that language mixing is a property of any

bilingual environment and Africa is a typical environment. It is also a true

setting found in bilingual and multilingual environment like Nigerian which

produces hybridized utterances. According to Opara, S.C. (1999:92)

quoting, Ogunsiji, 2001; Jowitt, 2000, This is called “Strategies of Inter-

cultural Communication”.

(1) “But we are quick to remember even the tiniest shortcoming. Tufia!”.

(Pg. 16)

(2) “Where is his sense of humour? Is it this small njakiri…” (Pg. 16)

In the above utterances, there is code – mixing of two languages. In

utterance (1) there is a mixture of English and Igbo. The main utterance is

in English while the exclamation is in Igbo. This is purely an example of the

style of the writer.

134
 In the second utterance (2), the main idea is spoken in English

language while the concluding word is Igbo language. And that carry’s the

lexical item of the utterance. Njakiri meaning of caricature in English

language. However, the writer uses these Igbo words not that it doesn’t

have the English counter paid or word but because he considers the

environment or convey the image and picture of the environment of a

native speaker of in the environment of use. About from this reason, the

writer may have according to Opara, S.C. (2016:93), that writers may have

been afraid of translating in adequately or lose the extent meaning of the

words or speech in the texts resort to their first language. However, it could

be a style of the writer like this writer under study. In effect many African

writers in trying to be creative and proficient broken their limitation which

English language has placed on them to create and coin their words to suit

the situation and environment of their work.

Again Onwukwe Ekwurtosi in Nka (2008:7) quoting H.G. Wuddowson

in Yankson (1987:15) writes, “At the heart of literary creation is the struggle

to device patterns of language which will bestow upon the linguistic items

concerned just those values which will convey the individual writer’s

personal vision”.

135
 Continuing, they observed that for the writer to convey his thoughts or

ideas, there must be a kind of struggle between the words and meanings of

lexical items in the text.

Text 5: Selected Extract from A Mirage for a Dream

The Content of the Text

The text A Mirage for a Dream is a swipe at widow abuse and poor

economic state of people that encourages citizens to emigrate for better

life. The story of an ambitious man who in spite of agitations from his wife,

impatiently jumped into danger because of wealth and what it could give.

He was bitten by the bug migration to Europe where currency beckons. He

joined the Sahara passage and met his death. The organ harvesters ripped

out his kidney and he died. The situation the youths find themselves in the

country where many die and some come back alive loaded with currency.

The following categories feature in this text namely;

i. Loan words/blends/expressions

ii. Semantic extensions

iii. Coinages/neologisms

iv. Nigerian pidgin

v. Code mixing/switching

vi. Idiomatic expressions

136
Text 5.1: Loan Words/Loan Blends/Loan Expressive

(1) ‘Ekwueme! You said you will kill him and you have done it. O na –

awu a zutoola nwanyi ojoo umu, onwu di aguwa ya’. (Pg. 1)

(Meaning: The accusation on the widow when the husband dies as if

she is the killer of husband by the husband’s sisters married in an

outside the town)

(2) ‘Ashawo dey abuse me o’. (Pg. 8)

(Meaning: Prostitute)

(3) ‘Ocho passenger!’ (Pg. 8)

(Meaning: A tout)

(4) ‘Ogaranya boy’. (Pg. 12)

(Meaning: Rich man child)

(5) ‘Bus conductor’. (Pg. 12)

(Meaning: Driver assistant or mate)

(6) ‘Eruru’. (Pg. 16)

(Meaning: Igbo language for larva)

(7) ‘Sho!’ (Pg. 22)

137
 (Meaning: Is that so!)

(8) ‘All correct Sir’. (Pg 22)

(Meaning: Everything is okay, Sir)

(9) ‘Na he – me – he’. (Pg. 29)

(Meaning: It is wonderful)

(10) ‘Yahoo – yahoo’.

(Meaning: Internet fraud)

(11) ‘Na waoh!’ (Pg. 40)

(Meaning: Local exclamation of amazement)

(12) ‘Keke boys’. (Pg. 46)

(Meaning: Commercial tricycle in Nigeria)

(13) ‘Tori go change’. (Pg. 51)

(Meaning: The story will change)

The speech in item (1) is mournful or a sarcastic speech that is

aesthetically stylistic as it produces the original orality found in any burial

setting and also a local and cultural feature that depicts Nigerian burial

rites.

As a matter of fact, item in (2 – 13) is loan words and some of them

are local substitutes. And Abioye, T. & Ajiboye E. (2014) quoting Hoffer,

2005; Durkin, 2009, writes that in a text where this kind of sociolinguistic

138
features occur, borrowing is in inevitable. Secondly, language is truly a

reflection of the cultural belief of a people and this sometimes cannot be

captured by a foreign language.

This is why some of these lexical items used by the writer are either

from the indigenous language like Igbo directly or from Pidgin English to

capture exactly the expression of the writers thought. For example, items

like ‘Eruru’, ‘Ocho passenger’, ‘sho!’, ‘Ashawo!’, ‘Keke boys’ and so on. The

effect of these items will present to the reader will have being awkward if

presented in Standard English language because the environment is

different from the environment of the work. More so, it shows a typical of

Nigerian environment. The lexical items – Ocho passenger and Na – he –

me – he are morphological innovation that undergo the processes of

affixation and conversion. In Ocho passenger, there is compounding as the

‘ocho’ is an Igbo word for looking and passenger is an English word for a

person who board a commercial bus. The two items completely change

their individual meaning as a feature for a compounding item to mean

driver’s mate. Also, the word, Na – he – me – he is a pidgin blend with a

Yoruba dialect which means wonderful or excellent.

Text 5.2: Semantic Extensions

139
 These are some lexical items provided with their semantic meaning.

They are as follows;

(1) ‘Bus conductor’. (Pg. 12)

General meaning: A person who loads the commercial vehicle.

Extended meaning: Driver’s mate.

(2) ‘Madam go’. – slow (Pg. 10)

General meaning: It is a compounded word meaning industrial

protest by workers.

Extended meaning: The Madam is slow and steady in her

business as a bar woman.

(3) ‘Give me the gist now’. (Pg. 41)

General meaning: The main story of what happened.

Extended meaning: The actual thing that happened.

(4) ‘Tear rubber’. (Pg. 47)

General meaning: A compounded word meaning brand new.

Extended meaning: A slang used in Nigeria to mean a brand new

car just from the industry.

(5) ‘Keke boys’. (Pg. 46)

General meaning: Motor tricycle taxi boys used as commercial

services.

140
 Extended meaning: Commercial tricycle.

The items above are semantic extensions of English language which

has undergone morphological processes to acquire new meanings. These

words usually reflect the variety of English language spoken in Nigeria. It is

a fact that English language in Nigeria has been nativized and

domesticated. And because of this, English language used in Nigeria is

now contextualized to suit Nigeria environment.

Text 5.3: Coinages/Neologisms

1. ‘Out – of – water’. (Pg. 16)

Meaning: Worried, disturbed

2. ‘All correct Sir’. (Pg. 22)

Meaning: Everything is alright Sir. It is an expression used by Nigerian

uniformed service personnel for their leader.

3. ‘Tear rubber’. (Pg. 47)

Meaning: Nigerian slang for brand new car.

4. ‘Two – kobo job’. (Pg. 40)

Meaning: A small salary job that cannot fetch good live hood.

5. ‘Anya ura’. (Pg. 40)

Meaning: An Igbo expression for inattentive, signifying sluggishness.

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6. ‘Hard – earned money’.

Meaning: Earning with hard labour.

7. ‘God – knows – where’.

Meaning: An unknown destination.

8. ‘So – called adult education’. (Pg. 49)

Meaning: Much announced or stressed adult education.

9. ‘Mister get – rich – quick’. (Pg. 50)

Meaning: Getting rich at the detriment of everything i.e. illegal means.

10. ‘Co – in law’. (Pg. 52)

Meaning: The husbands of sisters.

11. ‘Bye – bye poverty’. (Pg. 55)

Meaning: No more poverty in his life again.

12. ‘No sweat!’. (Pg. 55)

Meaning: Without stress! Very easy!

13. ‘Sinister – looking men’.

Meaning: Evil looking men.

14. ‘Wannabe’. (Pg. 69)

Meaning: A Nigerian slang for people who travelled to Europe and come

back rich.

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 Many of these items are descriptive coinages intended to describe

the socio – cultural elements surrounding the environment of the story. The

vocabulary items are found in Nigerian English.

Text 5.4: Nigerian Pidgin

The conversation between Chimdi and the banana seller in the park

(Pg. 4).

Girl: Oga, which one do you want?

Chimdi: This one wey dey four. How much? Wait make I touch am now.

E be like say e no ripe.

Girl: Oga e ripe o. Touch am now.

The bargaining between the two people Chimdi and banana girl

happened in Pidgin English and this is an example of the language of the

uneducated in Nigeria because many of them are either touts, petty traders

or driver’s mate. Chimdi was asking the banana girl if it is ripe enough for

him to buy and eat. And the best way for him to know that is by touching

and feeling the banana.

There are also lexical pidgin items used and they are as follows;

1. ‘Oga Sir’. (Pg. 4)

Meaning: Nigerian parlance for superior or employer.

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2. ‘Abi’. (Pg. 4)

Meaning: Local expression for is that not so.

3. ‘Yeye girl’. (Pg. 8)

Meaning: Pidgin expression for English silly girl.

4. ‘Sho!’. (Pg. 8)

Meaning: Pidgin expression of amazement.

English: Is that so!

5. ‘Tee te’. (Pg. 9)

Meaning: Pidgin expression for long time.

English: Long ago.

6. ‘Tori’. (Pg. 51)

Meaning: Pidgin expression for narrative story.

English: Chat me up.

7. ‘Halla’. (Pg. 51)

Meaning: Pidgin slang for worry.

English: Nag

8. ‘Wahala’.

Meaning: Pidgin expression of trouble

English: Problem

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Text 5.5: Code – Mixing/Code Switching

1. ‘Ah Ah! Madam. Na that one wey I wan take, na him you want? Haba!’

(Pg. 5)

There is code mixing and switching as two languages are used. The

main idea is said in pidgin while the exclamation is in Hausa a Nigerian

local language.

2. ‘Book or no book, I go carry am Nnaa! This one pass me o!’ (Pg. 6)

There is two languages here and it is Igbo and pidgin and like the

first, the exclamation is in Igbo language.

3. ‘The man no fill form o. E no fit write anything. Wey the man kwanu?

Make I check outside’. (Pg 20)

There is code mixing and switching from pidgin to Igbo.

Text 5.6: Idiomatic Expressions

1. ‘Ehhh! When a man with no teeth wants to buy corn, I become

suspicious’.

Translation: Whenever one wants above ones means then there is

trouble.

2. ‘You are rushing into the dark night without a lamp!’.

Translation: When one is embarking on dangerous journey.

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4.6 Summary

The lexical stylistic analysis of Toni Duruaku’s drama texts has been

made to produce benefit results by combining the language used by the

writer in these drama texts and the environment in which these texts are

produced. The inspiration of the writer linguistically is Nigerian, specifically

eastern part of Nigeria. This can be deduced from the writers use of loan

words, blends and expressions, idioms, proverbs, code mixing/code

switching, pidgins, English, local languages, coinages and semantic

extensions. His style of using local languages as exclamatory word or

expression is peculiar to him and in most cases when there is a kind of

argument. The reader is made to express the right signal the writer wants

to convey because, the socio – cultural and aesthetic importance to the

language component of texts is naturally provoked by using familiar and

direct images which is available easily to the reader by writer. Hence, the

full interpretation and comprehension of texts is assured as familiar items

and images are provided by the writer. Also, there are prominent evidences

that English language that came to Nigeria has been nativized,

146
domesticated and acculturated in Nigeria. This makes it more acceptable

and relevant in Nigeria as they capture the characters as well as the social

status and situation of English language used by Nigerians.

Thus, this study found out that these literary works of Toni Duruaku is

restricted to a specific geographical area and captured the socio – cultural

and functional of this group or area or society.

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 CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION

5.1 Summary of Findings

This research study has tried to do a lexical stylistic analysis of the

dramatic texts of Toni Duruaku. Using the systemic functional linguistics of

M.K. Halliday. Toni Duruaku choices or tools for effective communication

are aesthetic which further enhances the quality of the texts analyzed.

From this study, it is established that the socio – cultural and linguistic

environment of the people captured determines the kind of language used

by the writer. Hence, it is very different to separate a people from the

social, occupational, political, economic background which is very important

the person’s choice of words used at different situations. Every utterance

has the context within which it is used, of course which is determined by

the circumstances that surround the choice of discourse. As earlier

mentioned, a careful study and stylistic principles and method of literary

texts have the capacity of producing the features that portray literature as

educative and entertaining. Alowonle, F.K. (2010: 20) quoting Short (1996:

148
27) agrees that “detailed and systematic analysis can be seen as an aid to

our understanding and appreciation of the text under discussion as well as

providing a rational language – based account to support interpretation and

giving insights into the process by which we interpret when we read”.

Furthermore, there is marked used of Pidgin English in these texts’

Cash Price, and A Mirage for a Dream. Pidgin English in Nigeria has

influenced English language used in Nigeria. Although, an unofficial

language used by some ethnic group in Nigeria, especially people from

Rivers State, Benin, Calabar and some people in Lagos State. It has

elements of African languages and English language – a hybrid. There is

no accepted word composition and rules of the grammar that govern its

construction hence it competes with English language because it is widely

used. This is because it is easily understood by the average Nigerian. The

vocabulary is distinctive, simplified and mixed. The use of Pidgin English in

these dramatic texts shows social frictions or status in Nigeria, a distinction

between the educated, highly placed and non-educated and lowly placed.

This can be found in the character ‘Sunday’ in Cash Price and ‘Chimdi and

Co’ in A Mirage for a Dream. This truly simulates the socio – linguistic

feature of Nigerian situations.

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Code – Mixing/Code Switching

There are examples of code switching and code mixing in A Matter of

Identity, A Question of Choice, Silhouettes and A Mirage for a Dream.

For instance, in these two utterances from the three texts, the writer

uses exclamatory words in his text. It is peculiar to him.

(a) A Matter of Identity (Pg. 22)

‘I will not accept this. I cannot allow my child to be the object of

sacrifice. A ritual victim. Tufia!’

The main chat is in English language and the exclamation is Igbo

language.

(b) A Question of Choice (Pg. 2)

‘Dede! Welcome! You have come at the proper time. Join us.’

‘Dede’ is an Igbo name for elders and the speech is in English

language.

(c) Silhouettes (Pg. 56)

‘Oh! Dede.

Cha! I don chop shit. Look me o. Ordinary girl dey talk to me like this.’

150
 Cha! Is an Igbo exclamatory word and the speech is in Pidgin

English.

This is called Language Mixing and it is a situation found in any

bilingual and multilingual environment like Nigeria. It is an indication that

there is an evidence second language situation. According to Opara, S.C.

(2016:92), “Code mixing is the ability to use two languages within the same

sentence” while code – switching is (2016:93) “the ability for a bilingual to

switch from one language variety to another as shown in the above

example”. More so, the utilitarian nature of English language as the

language of the world and its place and function in Nigeria as their official

and Lingua Franca made many Nigerian writers to be neatly skillful and

quick in using English language to show or portray the linguistic society on

which their works of art are built. In Toni Duruaku’s dramatic texts: A

Question of Choice and A Mirage for a Dream used the houseboy ‘Sunday’

and ‘Chimdi’ as bus conductor respectively as characters that used pidgin

English for communication. The illiterate characters discuss freely in this

language. Also, he used local imageries drawn from the immediate

environment to maintain his Nigerianess.

Abioye, T. & Ajiboye, E. (2014), quoting Okara (1963) writes, “As a

writer who believes in the utilization of African ideas, African philosophy

151
and imagery to the fullest extent possible, I am of the opinion the only way

to use them effectively is to translate them also literally from the African

language native to the writer into whatever European language he is using

as his medium of expression” (quoted in Ohaeto, 1988:80).

Soynika (1988:107) agreeing with Okara (1963) opines that “… when

we borrow an alien language to sculpt or paint in, we must begin by co –

opting the entire properties in our matrix of thought and expression. We

must stress such a language, stretch it, impact and compact it, fragment

and reassemble it with no apology as required to bear the burden of

experiencing and of experiences be such experiences formulated or not in

the conceptual idioms of the language. As a result of the interaction

between the English language and the Nigerian culture, the language has

been domesticated and nativized in Nigeria” (Kachru, 1992).

This romance English language and with the indigenous Nigerian

languages has produced a locally branded variety of English language

which is characterized by people using language to depict their culture,

status and background. A reflection of the people’s socio – cultural and

linguistic demands and wants. In other to show this Nigerian writers like

Toni Duruaku use their vernacular to add vigour and aesthetic in their

works. In these dramatic texts Toni Duruaku used his native or local

152
imagery in his environment and expressed them through language. These

are ranging from the translation and transliteration of images, idioms,

proverbs and traditionally use sayings from Igbo words to English.

Idioms and Proverbs

One of the hall marks of Toni Duruaku’s style is its influence by native

proverbs and idioms. In these examples;

(a) A Matter of Identity (Pg. 33)

“You cannot tell what the mouth smells like until the nose ventures

near it”.

It simply means that you have to encounter something before you can

access it.

(b) Silhouettes (Pg. 32)

“…when the little chick begins to grow feathers, it looks as if it would

grow bigger than its parents”.

Meaning: that the son of Obialor Chidi should respect him and allow

elders to discuss politics instead of meddling in it.

These innovative and creative uses of lexical words by Nigerian

writers have significantly become a stylistic device and tool in literature in

Nigeria. Because of this, this research study has found out the adequate

153
use of these traditional proverbs and idioms or imagery helped the writer to

professional express the culture heritage of the text society so that one can

comfortably identify the setting and society. Also, choices are made from

the other linguistic tools available to the writer.

Another style prominently used in all his works is his use of colloquial

speech. There are samples of verb forms and contraction showing

colloquial situations from;

(a) A Question of Choice: [Don’t, he’ll, she’s, I’m (Pg. 2, 3, 6 and so on)].

(b) Cash Price: [Let’s, won’t, mhh mmh!, can’t (Pg. 4, 8, 9 and 10)].

These are also found in all the other texts. There are evidence of

imperative and vocatives in his works. This is where there is a similarity

between his style and Buchi Emecheta.

These words express command or sudden surprise and some are

used for address. The most important thing is that the choices made by the

writers may be influenced or not by the theme and the socio – cultural

context of the text. Thus, the Nigerian works of Arts is characterized by

contextualized English language which illustrates clearly the beauty of the

socio – cultural situations of Nigerians which make their works of Art

distinct and Nigerian.

154
 Secondly, the main approach used in this research study as stated

above in chapter 4 is that of systemic functional linguistics. The findings

has shown that the writer Toni Duruaku like other African writers has used

the Nigerian literary style to add vigour to English language by using

domesticated, nativized indigenized and vernacularized Nigerian English.

This reveals the linguistic choices used by writer to proficiently convey his

message as well as to communicate effectively.

5.2 Recommendations

In this study, I have examined and analyzed the dramatic texts of

Toni Duruaku and found out the stylistic choices made, these choices

made produce effect that are impressive and worthwhile. The writer choice

Nigerian literary language use which is influenced by nativization, pidgin

and colloquial expression to achieve proficiency in his field. Stylistic

analysis is actually the understanding and interpretation of a text. A useful

discipline that donates logical and creative thinking which can be used to

understand and study other disciplines. It can be used to apply in the

analysis of variety of texts as shown by this study, making stylistic a useful

and important discipline. It is a known fact that stylistic study is science that

has links with other discipline because of the study source. There is a

155
correlation between the levels of linguistic features and meaning. It is

challenging to note that since all stylistic effects are correlated, there are

many kinds of linguistic meaning at interplay in different levels. Hence,

literary stylistics will eventually overlap with other areas of literary students

like the theory of literary genres, art of composition and imagery. For a

researcher in this field of study to succeed effectively, the researcher has to

be conversant with or know every field of linguistics. While the main aim of

this study is to analyze and find out the uniqueness, aptness, personal and

informal communicative ability of the writer and its relationship with other

writers in his environment. From the foregoing, the English language used

by all group have in common this Nigerian English. This in turn shares

certain standard form of English which is a feature of any variety of English.

This Nigerian English has influenced positively Nigeria literature. In any

opinion, this Nigerian English should be taught and used official to examine

and evaluate students. Scholars should not look down on this language

since it is replay of the culture and social heritage. And they are used in

literature is aesthetic, educative, entertaining and natural. It also sells and

projects Nigerian their academic proficiency, culture and tradition to the

outside world. Our own language just like other English’s of the world. The

important practice aspect of this research study is that the materials and

156
the result of findings can serve as the lexical stylistic tools for theoretical

courses in the discipline. It could be used for practical lessons in teaching

second language learners and students in linguistics especially English

language and literature.

5.3 Contribution to Knowledge

(1) Identify Toni Duruaku as coming from a particular geographical and

linguistic millennium. His characters are therefore a reflection of his

linguistic heritage of his linguistic environment.

(2) The study is able to identify that human languages rob off on one

another. The interaction between Igbo/English language in the

selected drama texts of Toni Duruaku has clearly advanced a

symbiotic relationship in which both languages have gained different

dimensions such as syntactic and semantic dimensions.

5.4 Conclusion

Toni Duruaku has been able to provide adequate stylistic tools for

communication in a natural African environment. He further illustrates the

Igbo’s use of idioms/proverbs as the words spoken or used by wise elders.

It is also evident from the analysis that it is a show of the cultural and

157
sociolinguistic environment of a people and this determines the right

language to use. In fact, in any public gathering or meetings like in any Igbo

society, he provides the right proverb/idiom that depicts the status of the

group because it is culture based. He manipulates the reader or creative

vivid imagery which is familiar to the reader thereby sustaining his interest

and concentration. These stylistic tools found in these texts are meaningful,

as they communicate the feelings, desires and thoughts of the writer.

Among other things explained and discussed, these devices deepened the

messages, beauty, aesthetics and meanings of Toni Duruaku’s literary

proficiency.

158
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