| 1 |
Author(s):
Dr. Nasir Umar Abdullahi.
Page No : 1-16
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Ngugi ’ wa Thiong’o’s Writing Career: the Rise and the Development of a Dynamic African Literary Star
Abstract
A myriad of Ngugi’s readers may presuppose that the literary career of this celebrated African writer began at the University. Albeit it was at Makerere that he triumphantly wrote and subsequently published his first and second novels, Weep Not Child and The River Between for which reason he reveals in his own words that “I started writing in 1960. I was then a student at Makerere University College” (Homecoming: 47), and for Lindfords, Ngugi’s literary career begun specifically “towards the end of 1960” (23), evidences corroborate that Ngugi has started his literary writing since at the secondary school: the Alliance High School. The motive behind this article is to unveil that Ngugi’s literary writing career history is marvellous and distinctive. Although famous African writers the likes of late Achebe have written earlier than him, he is such a rare prolific writer, who has written at different places, at different periods, for different motives, with varying degrees of inspirations, all of which demonstrate an unprecedented, literary dynamism in his entire literary writing career.
| 2 |
Author(s):
Dhuha S. Raheem, Dr. N. Solomon Benny, Prof. D.V.R. Murthy.
Page No : 17-27
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A Comparative Study of Linguistic Ideology in English and Arabic Language
Abstract
Linguistic ideologies aim to understand the language and culture present in the world. English is the most widely accepted language worldwide, used for global communication. Arabic, on the other hand, is increasingly important due to its diverse culture and knowledge. The problem of the study is identified as the discrepancies of ideologies based on socio-cultural codes that may generate differences in meaning when using both English and Arabic language. A comparative study examines linguistic ideologies in English and Arabic languages, using interpretive methodology and secondary data. The findings reveal significant differences in ideology, indicating historical and characteristic differences between the two languages. Linguistic ideology stemming from different cultures provides the opportunity for exploding diverse social cultural codes and political dimensions which impacts the social world and impacts the process of meaning generation and understanding as well.
| 3 |
Author(s):
Ajiwoju Johnson Ajayi.
Page No : 28-40
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A Linguistic Stylistic Analysis of Political Commentaries on Ondo 2020 Gubernatorial Election on Online Newspapers
Abstract
This study investigated linguistic stylistic analysis of political commentaries on Ondo 2020 gubernatorial election. The researcher selected 4 political commentaries from two online newspapers (Sun and Independent). The focus of this study was to analyze the collected data based on the objectives of the study that cover syntactic, phonological, foregrounded elements and deviant features found in the selected political commentaries. The analysis was anchored on Leech and Short’s Checklist of Linguistic and Stylistic Categories as its theoretical framework while the method was qualitative research analysis. Descriptive survey method was however employed to analyze the collected data. Hence, the findings showed that sentences in the analyzed comments are predominantly non-simple sentences with mixtures of declarative, imperative and interrogative sentences. Phonological devices such as alliteration, assonance, and consonance fully have rhythmic patterns. Also, foregrounded elements such as phonetic spelling, and dominant deployment of deviational and non-deviational foregrounding to captivate readers’ attentions are evidential. Lastly, deviant features such as morphological, grammatical and lexical deviations manifest in the analyzed comments. Thus, the manifestation of linguistic features inherent in the analyzed data is an attestation that the choice of words in the use of language is peculiar to an individual writer.
| 4 |
Author(s):
Fafiyebi Damilola Oluseyi, Agbeleoba Samuel Oyeyemi, Bamigboye Omolade.
Page No : 41-54
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Pragmatic Acts in the Language of Alms Begging in Southwest Nigeria
Abstract
The meaning of language is tied to the context where it is used. This study examines the different pragmatic acts performed by beggars across Southwest Nigeria while soliciting alms. The aim is to establish the role of language as a tool in perpetuating this age-long profession of soliciting alms from members of society. The study employs Jacob Mey’s Pragmatic Act theory as its theoretical springboard while data for the study was obtained by closely observing the activities of the subjects across selected locations within the study area. This is done with the consent of the subjects. The study discovered beggars often employ nine pragmatic goals in achieving their objective, that is, soliciting, hailing, praying, directing, informing, assuring, requesting, pleading and inquiring, with the pragmatic goal of pleading to account for the highest percentage of the occurrence. The study also identified a linguistic adaptation where the research subjects conform to the situational context in their linguistic choices, including a manifestation of shared situational knowledge between the research subjects and their addressees.
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Author(s):
Dr. Ben-Fred Ohia.
Page No : 55-63
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A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Ogba Proverbs as Tools for Cohesion
Abstract
Sociolinguistics means many things to different people. It is a field that studies the relationship between the users of language and the social structures in which they live. “A sociolinguistic analysis of Ogba proverbs” focuses on the study of Ogba proverbs, exploring the sociolinguistic aspects. Its aim is to explore and analyse Ogba proverbs from the sociolinguistic perspective in the context of English as a second language in Nigeria. This will go a long way to offer a sociolinguistic insight to the contributions of Ogba language, culture and way of life. The data for the study were collected orally through interviews of competent Ogba first language speakers and translated to the English language for analysis. The qualitative and descriptive research designs were adopted for the analysis. In all, twenty (20) proverbs were analysed using Dell Hyme’s Ethnography of Communication Theory as the major analytical framework with insights from Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. This is because of the relevance of Dell Hyme’s Speaking which accounts for such sociolinguistic variables as setting, scene, participants, act sequence, instrumentality and genre as is evidenced in the data, and how the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis allows this paper to relate its data to aspects of Ogba worldview and culture. This paper establishes that Ogba proverbs are relevant to both oral and written communications within and outside the Ogba environment. They are employed to embellish, spice and beautify oral and written communications commonly but proudly exploited in Ogba people’s interpersonal relations through conversations. On typology, Adedimeji’s (2003) typological classification is applied for the classification of the data into types. It was discovered that Speaking allows for the comprehensive understanding of the data for this paper which is as a result of its explicit and analytic potential, while Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis shows aspects of Ogba Culture that manifest in Ogba proverbs.
| 6 |
Author(s):
Dr. Ben-Fred Ohia.
Page No : 64-76
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Suspense and Dialogue as Aspects of Aesthetics in the Plot of Elechi Amadi’s Trilogy
Abstract
The greatness of Elechi Amadi in African literature in the divergent assessments of his literary creativity by significant critics over time is in his creative ability. Elechi Amadi’s trilogy: The Concubine, The Great Ponds and The Slave demonstrate aptly his artistry. Suspense in the texts is made manifest in myths and worship of the gods. The trilogy embodies elements that are consequential to the African society and worldviews. Amadi’s trilogy from various perspectives discuss the painful narrative of the spirit-husband myth as seen in The Concubine, inter-village conflict evidenced in the Great Ponds, and the wrath of the gods against Echela’s family in The Slave. The purpose of this paper is to examine suspense and dialogue and how myths are consciously used to effect suspense in the mind of the reader of the texts. Consequently, dialogue by characters also reflects on the myths to create more suspense. This paper in its findings notes that Amadi magnifies the jealousy and anger of the gods over human beings as they must yield to the dictates of the supernatural forces. The aesthetics in the trilogy is on how Amadi successfully explores real and supernatural issues. The paper concludes that Amadi’s trilogy is still relevant in contemporary Nigeria as people still believe in worship at the shrines. This paper recommends a cordial relationship among African traditional religious worshippers, Islam and Christianity for the purpose of unity, and also recommends more research effort on suspense and dialogue as suspects of aesthetics on Elechi Amadi’s trilogy. This paper hinges on Dell Hyme’s Ethnopoetic theory because of its focus on cultural elements in the society. This paper has made a unique contribution to theory, policy and practice.
| 7 |
Author(s):
Onkwani Everlyne.
Page No : 77-96
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Transderivational Antifaithfulness in Ekegusii Nominal Pluralization
Abstract
Nominal pluralization in Ekegusii involves combinations of the base with the noun class prefixes. However, little is known about the morphophonemic alternations in nominal pluralization. This study investigated the phonological processes involved in nominal pluralization so as to formulate the phonological constraints within the Transderivational Antifaithfulness theoretical Framework. A descriptive research design was employed to collect, analyze and describe data. The researcher generated a list of 32 plural nominals; at least two plural nominals from each noun class and identified speakers of Ekegusii in Kisii County who verified the data as acceptable. Sample data were obtained from each noun class through purposive sampling, analysed, coded into semantic classes and explained using Anti- Faithfulness Theory provided in Optimality Theory. Findings show that noun Class prefixes induce vowel deletion, alternation, lengthening, consonant mutation and deletion and they occur to simplify articulation and meet the open syllable structure requirements of Ekegusii. The phonological changes mark the winning candidates which satisfy Transderivational Anti-Faithfulness constraints which enforce violation of the related faithfulness constraints.
| 8 |
Author(s):
Isaac Eyi Ngulube, Kelechi Elezie.
Page No : 97-128
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Language Style in Advertising: A Study of the Print Media
Abstract
This study investigates the language style of English commercial advertisements in the print media. The study seeks to find out the kinds of language and style mostly used in English advertisement; this is because previous studies in stylistics have concentrated on the literary approach to stylistics. This study finds this technique very one-sided and subsequently proposes a dual approach to the analysis of the language style of advertisement. The research employs William Well’s stylistic theory as a theoretical construct. The analyses used the descriptive approach. The research used note taking as the instrument to elicit data. We found out that the personification style is mostly used and the occurrence in our corpus is about four times; it is followed by alliteration style which occurs in three advertisements and assonance style which occurs twice in our corpora. The next is the use of simile, anastrophe, apostrophes, asyndeton, poly-asyndeton, and chiasmus styles which appeared once in the advertisements. The advertisements also used narrative style, dramatic style, newsy style, dialogue style, and humorous style. The study concludes that in the use of personification and alliteration styles, the creators of the advertisements mostly seek to use simple and interesting style to create pleasant, mellifluous, captivating sentences, which will persuade, influence, and capture the readers’ attention to patronize their products.
| 9 |
Author(s):
Nwabunwene David, Enisire Rita Ejiro.
Page No : 129-139
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Critical Discourse Analysis of Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah’s 2022 Easter Message: Implications for National Cohesion
Abstract
Critical discourse analysis explores the impact of language on social practices and how society is, in turn, shaped by language. It examines how the social indices of identity, inequality, injustice, ideology, power, dominance and resistance interface with text and discourse to achieve social stability. This paper analyzes Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah's 2022 Easter message from the standpoint of critical discourse analysis and examines the implications of the social structures articulated in the text to national cohesion. From this study, it is found that language is a constituent of society and that by studying the forms of language, one reveals the social processes and the specific ideologies embedded in them.
