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A BIBLIO-TEXTUAL STUDY AND EDITION OF THE POEMS OF ANDREW MARVELL
(1970-06) ABOYADE, B. O.
The introduction of recent bibliographic techniques into editorial practice raised hopes of finally finding objective solutions to many seemingly insoluble textual problems. Yet as the eminent bibliographer Fredson Bowers points out (Bibliography and Textual Criticism, 1964) such hopes - either because the techniques are still not completely developed, or because of their inherent limitations - have not been fully realised. Walter Greg, another pioneer in the field, had earlier warned that the new techniques could not be expected to carry the textual critic the whole way to perfection (Bibliography - An Apologia, 1932). The present thesis represents an attempt to apply the techniques to, and to overcome their limitation in, the editing of Marvell’s poems - with what success the sequel will show. Chapter 1 considers the circumstances surrounding the first printing of most of Marvell’s poems in 1681 at the instance or with the connivance of that Mary Palmer who falsely claimed to be his widow. It is shown that certain items intended for inclusion in the Miscellaneous Poems were cancelled because o£ the political upheavals of the year; that these cancelled poems deal with Cromwell and would have been likely to mind the public at the Civil war and the Regicide at a time when repetition of both catastrophes had been narrowly averted; that because the cancellations, the 1681 edition actually survives in three states. It is further suggested that the volume was printed by ‘casting-ort’ the copy, that, during printing, other materials not supplied by Mary Palmer were added, and that none of those directly concerned with the printing can be expected to have exercised salutary control over the process of publication. Chapter 2 discussed the various theories of textual criticism evolving from editorial practices in the fields of Biblical, Classical, and Modern Bibliographical scholarship. The objective common to all three is the determining of the text closest to the author's original by tracing the descent of surving copies through the use of various methods: by Dom Quentin's theory of intermediaries, by Paul Maas’s system of stemmatics, by Walter Greg’s calculus of variants and the like. For Marvell, with only one edition to be followed, the common problem of preferring one of a series of early editions does not exist; the real difficulty is to ascertain the poet’s own intention whenever there is a cause for doubt, always bearing in mind the not-too-favourable ambiences of poems either published posthumously or circulated anonymously. In addition to the problem of establishing Marvell’s intention in authenticated poems attributed to his authorship. The conclusion is that because of the peculiarities of transmission and survival, an edition of Marvell’s poem must necessarily be based not upon one but upon several methods of approach. Chapter 3 examines the background and technique of the ‘copy-text|’, the use of which is made obligatory by the repeated successes of the bibliographic school of textual critics in its application to earlier English works. Where only one copy of questionable superiority can be singled out, no one need quarrel with this technique; difficulties begin to arise when there are several copies of comparable authority available. To insist upon a ‘copy-text’ even in this case is justified by what Greg calls the ‘accidentals’ of a text (i.e. the spelling modes, the punctuation system, etc.). It is even more justified when it ensures that a modern edition retains significant ‘accidentals’, whatever they be, to the point where all linguistic traits of the author’s period, all significant indications of linguistics and philological peculiarities, whether temporal, or social, or private, should be transmitted through the text. In case of Marvell, the setting-up of a ‘copy-text’ without thorough exploration of ‘accidentals’ is scarcely feasible. That completed, the final question is the degree to which the results of the exploration, the resolutions of the difficulties it reveals, must be followed. Chapter 4 considers many of the peculiarities of the English language in Marvell’s time, particularly those (consequent upon the tangle of vowel-shifts known as the Great Sound Shift) which have immediate effectiveness for the ‘copy-text’ technique. Thanks to research by philologist-linguists like Luich, Sweet, Wyld, Whitehall, Dobson, Nist, Trager- Smith, et al., the overall pattern of Early Modern English, particularly that of the sonantal system, emerges with some clarity. Here, the results are schematized on a phonetic basis, and the confusions that might confront an editor, especially those reflected on spellings and rhymes, are broadly charted. From this exercise emerge several linguistic guide-lines to be followed, or at least considered in editing Marvell. Chapter 5 attempts to demonstrate how the study of para-linguistic factors of metre, rhythm, rhyme, and repetitive sound-patterning facilitates the editorial task, especially for rhymed verse. Here the metre and rhythms of Marvell’s verse are analysed in some detail and from several point of view. The most obvious prosodic feature is the maintenance of a strict syllable count- so strict that any apparent violation can be attributed to an error of transmission. In the octosyllabic couplet, his favourite form, Marvell not only makes good use of traditionally accepted variations, modulations, and metrical equivalences but is also able to absorb into his verse the principles of the ‘Classical plain style,’ the so-called sermo. In him, this is not merely a matter of achieving post-Elizabethan elegance and colloquial ease of diction and syntax; it also, and more importantly, involves the natural ordering of syntactic units in such a fashion that the pauses bordering segmenting them can be varied as freely and unaffectedly in verse as they normally are in prose and speech- all these within the strict metrical framework of syllable count. As a result, there is remarkable free positioning of the ‘caesuras’, which fall at various places in a line after odd- as well as even-numbered syllables and not- as advocated by certain Elizabethan posts and authorities- in a fixed medial position. Following the method of Ants Oras (Pause Patterns in Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama, 1960), an attempt is made to graph pause distribution profiles for the two famous poems “To His Coy Mistress” and “AN Horatian Ode” on the basis of both printed punctuation and syntactic analysis of actual readings. Chapter 6 brings forward the argument that capitalization is a device employed to indicate emphasis- particularly in stress bearing words of a poem- and is therefore an important ‘accidental’ to be reckoned with in editing verse. This fact is revealed in the analysis of Marvell’s On a Drop of Dew, and is confirmed by the practice of contemporary poets, by printing practice, and by statements of primers at tile time. What emerges is that this poem as printed in 1681 (and probably some other poem), seems to have fewer printed capitalized words than appeared in the original manuscript. In editing the poems, while it may not be possible to restore all the capitalization that Marvell intended, it is at least possi1ble to detect words wrongly capitalized, if they destroy what seems to be the intended rhythm and sense. Chapters 7 to 9 deal with the problem of attributing to Marvell some poems written anonymously. In Chapter 7 the various methods of determining the authorship of disputed works are reviewed. These fall into two main groups: internal evidence of style and ideas, the external evidence of direct statements by the author or his contemporaries, or statements from letters, diaries, and so forth. For Marvell external evidence is found to be rather weak – sometimes a contradictory. Internal stylistic evidence is relatively unhelpful mainly because the characteristic styles of the lyrical poems are different from those of the political poems. On the other hand, evidence from ideas seems important because of the feasible comparison between the views expressed in his prose written and those in the political poems. For this purpose, Marvell’s activities and attitudes as a politician are examined in Chapter 8. The picture given is that of a loyal citizen with a deep reverence for law and the constitution and a strong belief in the providential guidance of affairs of state. In a mixed constitution such as that of England at the time when the political poems were written, Marvell was determined to support equally the prerogatives of the King and the privileges of Parliament; and rejected any section – from parliament or King - that might upset the balance. -Finally, in Chapter 9, the political poems attributed to Marvell are re-examined individually. After this consideration, only four of the sixteen poems printed by Margoliouth - The Last Instructions, The Loyall Scott, Bludius et Corona and Scaevola Scoto-Brittannus –are found to be fully acceptable as Marvell’s. Four others – Clarendon’s House-Warming, Britannia and Rawleigh, and the Second and Third Advices are probably his. All the others, it appears, have been wrongly ascribed to him.
A STUDY OF VARIETIES OF WRITTEN ENGLISH IN NIGERIA
(1973-10) ADESANOYE, F. A.
The study postulates three varieties of English performance in the writings of Nigerians, and examines these in detail for their "common core" features and their "indexical markers". In the Introduction is discussed the English in present-day Nigeria with a theoretical cline of the varieties erected, the pivot around which the investigations of the later chapters are hung. The second chapter examines specifically varieties three and two in the performance of Nigerian judges, while the third deals with the use of English in the Nigerian newspaper press. Chapter IV examines first-variety usage in Literary Nigerian English and the fifth chapter undertakes an examination of the language ability of the low grade workers of the University of Ibadan, exponents of the first variety. Chapter VI, the final chapter, summarizes the findings of the investigations, makes some concluding statements, and suggests four possibilities for further research into Nigerian English. In essence, the study identifies the linguistic features common to all the varieties examined, and their indexical markers. The study also suggests that, from the evidence of the thesis, third-variety performances in written English in Nigeria be regarded as Standard (Educated) written Nigerian English.
A STUDY OF VARIETIES OF WRITTEN ENGLISH IN NIGERIA
(1973-10) ADESANOYE, F. A.
The study postulates three varieties of English performance in the writings of Nigerians, and examines these in detail for their "common core" features and their "indexical markers". In the Introduction is discussed the English in present-day Nigeria with a theoretical cline of the varieties erected, the pivot around which the investigations of the later chapters are hung. The second chapter examines specifically varieties three and two in the performance of Nigerian judges, while the third deals with the use of English in the Nigerian newspaper press. Chapter IV examines first-variety usage in Literary Nigerian English and the fifth chapter undertakes an examination of the language ability of the low grade workers of the University of Ibadan, exponents of the first variety. Chapter VI, the final chapter, summarizes the findings of the investigations, makes some concluding statements, and suggests four possibilities for further research into Nigerian English. In essence, the study identifies the linguistic features common to all the varieties examined, and their indexical markers. The study also suggests that, from the evidence of the thesis, third-variety performances in written English in Nigeria be regarded as Standard (Educated) written Nigerian English.
A SOCIOLINGUISTIC FACTOR ANALYSIS OF YORUBA-ENGLISH BILINGUALISM AMONG FORM V PUPILS IN SECONDARY GRAMMAR SCHOOLS IN THE IBADAN AREA
(1977-06) ADENIRAN, A.
This study regards certain variable sociological and educational factors as determinants of a person's or a group's degree of bilingualism, and attempts to ascertain their role in the proficiency abilities of Yoruba-English bilinguals in the fifth form of the secondary grammar school. In Chapter I is an outline of the development of scholastic interest in the curious phenomenon of bilingualism. Some of the theories and research approaches to the study of bilingualism are explicated. The chapter concludes by indicating the descriptive sociolinguistic approach adopted for the study. Chapter II examines the relative role and Status of Yoruba and English among the Yoruba people in the colonial era and in Contemporary Nigeria. The Information and analysis in the chapter constitute a background against which proficiency attainments in the two languages may be understood. Chapter III is methodological. Certain assumptions as well as the objectives of the study are stated. A number of hypotheses of Yoruba-English bilingual proficiency are postulated and the procedure for verifying them described. This involves the use of a language background questionnaire, and tests of language proficiency. In Chapters IV to VI the hypotheses are tested by matching the achievements of the subjects in the tests of proficiency with specific items in the language background information which have been hypothesized as determinants of proficiency. The hypotheses tested in chapter IV deal with bilingual comprehension, in Chapter V with bilingual fluency, and in Chapter VI with bilingual choice and usage habits. In each case the results are stated and discussed. In the last chapter (Chapter VII) we overview the whole investigation, summarising the major findings as regards the nature of bilingual proficiency, and assessing the effectiveness of the instruments used in the investigation. We also consider some of the social implications of the differences in English achievements among subgroups in the category of bilinguals studied, and make some suggestions for avoiding their undesirable possible consequences. Finally, four of the sociolinguistic problems which bilingualism poses are suggested for future investigation.
SOMALI ARABIC POETS - SELECTED CASE STUDIES
(1981-02) ADAM, A. A.
This study contains representative selection of Somali Arabic poetry, which gives a clear idea of the quantity and quality of Somali Arabic poetry as well as its literary standard, its themes, its contents and its forms. Entitled "Somali Arabic Poets - Selected Case Studies", it comprises two parts: "Background Survey" and "Selected Somali Arabic Poets". "Part One" contains three Sections, the first of which is devoted to a brief study of Somalia - geographically, historically and politically. The second is devoted to a study of the place and importance of Somali poetry (in Somali language) in the Somali Culture, and the last is devoted to a study of the emergence and development of Arabic and its literature in the Somali Peninsula. "Part Two" also contains three section s, The first of these is devoted to a study of the life and works of the eminent poet, “zaylaci”, the second is devoted to a study of the life and literary production of the prolific poet, "Hajj Sufi", and the last is devoted to a study of the life, scholarship and Arabic works of the remarkable leader and the famous bilingual poet "the Sayyid". This study ends with concluding remarks, which sum up the findings of this research.
SOCIAL REALISM AND IDEOLOGY IN THE NOVELS OF RICHARD WRIGHT AND SEMBENE OUSMANE
(1983-07) ADEBAYO, A. G.
This study is an attempt at Ideological criticism of black literature. It is divided into five chapters. Chapter one describes briefly the realist tradition in relationship to Richard Wright and Sembene Ousmane. A detailed study is made of the evolution of the concept of realism in literature from the nineteenth century in France to modern times. It is thus possible to locate where our novelists stand on this extensive scale of literary value. While it is possible to document Richard Wright’s indebtedness to realist writer of the American mainstream, Theodore Dreiser as well as the philosophy of existentialism, it is also possible to relate Sembene Ousmane’s aesthetics to that of the socialist realism as well as African oral tradition. The second chapter firmly places the two writers within black literary and social traditions. It examines the black condition which was born out of slavery, racism and colonialism and examines the reactions of Wright and Ousmane to the black condition. While the first two chapters derive from extra literary sources, chapters three to five are strictly based on a stylistic analysis of some of the novels written by Wright and Ousmane. Chapter three concludes that existentialist thought is the main-spring of the Wrightean oeuvre after tracing a vital existentialist link between the major novels of the sane author. On the other hand, the following chapter examines the ways in which the formal structures of Sembene Ousmane’s novels point to the marxist ideology which permeates the texts, thus making them out as socialist realist novels. The comparative perspective is introduced to the study in chapter five where, through a comparison and contrasting of the formal aspects in the works of the two writers, one arrives at the conclusion that despite noticeable divergencies, what unite them is their strict commitment to the black condition, as well as their social realism. In the same chapter, it becomes clear that the ideology of the author is al so transparent through the formal aspects of the novels for while the inner texture of Wright’s novels show him as a critical or "bourgeois" realist that of Sembene Ousmane’s novels prove that the writer is a socialist realist writer. Finally the study illuminates the basis of the works of these two novelists not only as individual writers but as authors who create within a wider tradition of black literature. What have been postulated in the previous chapters for their novels become even more relevant for black literatures in general.
Autobiography through the exile paradigm: the Olaudah Equiano story
(African Cultural Institute, Lagos, 2004) Aguoru, D.
This paper examines the relevance of biographical works in literary studies. Using Oluadah Equiano’s story, the essay treats thematic issues with regard to the slave trade and its consequences on Africans. It posits that what led to the success of the story as a historical document is its effectiveness as a tool in the anti-slavery campaign.
Autobiography and national experience: a study of Wole Soyinka’s selected writings
(Department of English, Olabisi Onabanjo University,Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, 2004) Aguoru, D.
A STYLISTIC STUDY OF THE SPEECHES OF SOME KEY ACTORS OF THE ‘JUNE 12’ CRISIS IN NIGERIA (1993-1998)
(2005-04) ADEGOJU, A.
This study examines the roles played by language in the conflict generated by the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election in Nigeria (commonly referred to as ‘June 12, 1993). ‘June 12’ crisis is so significant in Nigeria’s democratization process that the way it is played out in linguistic and non-linguistic terms deserves scholarly attention. However, extant literature on the conflict pays little attention to the manipulations of language. This study explores that various ways that language is used in defending and promoting personal and group interests, and in subverting the opponent’s goals. The study is limited ti the written mode of the speeches made by the key actors in the conflict, namely Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha and M.K.O. Abiola. Twenty speeches made by these key actors which focus primarily on the ‘June 12’ crisis are used in the study. Out of this number, seven are from Ibrahim Babangida, seven from Sani Abacha and six from M.K.O. Abiola. The study employs descriptive and comparative analytical methods, which account for how linguistic and non-linguistic features merge, differ or subvert others. To provide an adequate theoretical orientation, it applies a revised version of the Hallidayan systematic functional linguistic theory, whose major strength lies in its recognition of the fact that texts are produced and received in contexts of situation. The study reveals that the discourse dwells largely on the tacit trading on ideology as each of the speaking strives to justify his own cause in the conflict while to criminalize his opponents. Also, M.K.O. Abiola at some point almost begins to adopt military speech style, especially in the uses of coercion in responding to the military. Strategies such as appeal to credibility, vilification of opponents, and creations of impressions about the pursuit of unity and common purpose, which are common to political speeches, also feature in the speeches. On the whole, the speaker’s manipulations of meaning have implications for political communication in Nigeria. First, meaning becomes a contested site in which the audience may easily be defrauded. The staging of power, ideology, and double-speak at the meaning sacrifices ‘truth’ and undermines mutual responsibility, the spirit of nation-building, and national reconciliation. The study thus opens up a crucial area that the national reconciliation project in Nigeria should address: the reconciliation of ethnic and national interests and the differentiation of personal from group pursuits. Further research also needs to be carried out on how the ‘June 12’ discourse has influenced inter-ethnic communicative exchanges in Nigeria, as well as the roles of the media in the conflict. The study indicates the need for stylisticians to be interested in discourses that present urgent societal problems.
Features of contemporary African gynotexts: an archetypal reading of Ifeoma Okoye, Fafa Nutsukpo and Florence Attamah’s writings
(Department of English, Olabisi Onabanjo University,Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, 2006) Aguoru, D.
Reviving an english language that is comatose
(Faculty of Arts, Olabisi Onabanjo University, 2007-06) Aguoru, D.
Bridging the gap between the sciences and the humanities in Nigeria; the Wale Okediran example
(Faculty of Arts, Lagos State University, Lagos, 2008-09) Aguoru, D.
Contemporary studies in humanistic traditions have revealed that there are certain negative attitudes to humanistic studies in third world countries. The relevance of the humanities, especially literature, to the socio - political and economic challenges of the 21st century remain controversial. The assumption is that literature and indeed other disciplines in the humanities should be classified as ‘recreational studies’. This article examines the place of the humanities, especially literature, within the humanistic tradition. The works of Wale Okediran, a physician, politician and novelist are selected for this study. Okediran’s writings are exemplary in that they are marked with a distinct quality of having been produced by a completely humanized mind.
Myth and Mythography in Contemporary African Drama
(2011) Solanke, S. O.
Most previous studies regarded myths as a plethora of concocted stories: they paid little attention to dramatic myth and mythography as productive and effective in African way of life. Modernism, sequestered from the past, created directionless and questioning societies. Solutions, pre-encoded in mythologies and transmitted through generations, were jettisoned. This study, therefore, situates dramatic mythic tendencies, depictions and effects in present African way of lives with a view to highlighting the connectivity of their socioreligious, political, economic and general implications to individual and national lives of the African people. The study employs Carl Jung‟s archetypal model which deals with holistic and universal symbols of human experiences. The collective unconscious is the pooling source of human experiences which manifests different but related forms, while a unit of symbol (the primordial original) is the derivative mold from which others emanate. Nine African dramatic texts, Tewfik al-Hakim‟s Fate of a Cockroach (FOC), Athol Fugard‟s Sizwe Bansi is Dead (SBD), Brett Bradley‟s Ipi Zombi? (IPZ), Ebrahim Hussein‟s Kinjeketile (KIN), Ngugi wa Thiong‟o and Micere Mugo‟s The Trial of Dedan Kimathi (TDK), Femi Osofisan‟s Morountodun (MOR), Efua Sutherland‟s The Marriage of Anansewa (MOA), ‟Zulu Sofola‟s Wedlock of the Gods (WOG) (for feminist related issues) and Wole Soyinka‟s Death and the King‟s Horseman (DKH), were purposively selected because they portray African consciousness in authorship, topicalities and environmental issues. The texts are subjected to content analysis. Mythic encryptions represent, for all levels of life, the people‟s accrued mythic experiences. Myth and mythography become everyday creations that are unlimited to the past as ordinary records and stories. They represent present realities with codifications that impact on life and the future. The texts contain mythic tendencies which reveal mythographic meanings and idiosyncrasies relevant to ongoing national and individual situations. Within the African socio-religious life, rites and rituals, marriages and initiations, births and deaths are models of codification. They are symbolic and mythographic representations to entering next level of physical or spiritual life. This is represented in FOC, KIN and DKH. Adil, Kinjeketile and Olunde respectively become heroes through the death of the self. Human reliance on spiritual forces is curtailed at individual and national stages. The powers and presence of gods in human affairs become demystified: man must fight for political and economic independence as depicted in MOR, MOA and TDK as the characters fight the establishment by creating new mythic stories. Textual mythic findings encourage the discarding of anachronistic socio-religious based mythological ideas: rites, beliefs, patrilineal, racial and ethnic discriminations as portrayed in SBD, WOG and IPZ. Solutions to secular and spiritual developmental problems are pre-embedded in African dramatic textual myths. African life is affected by mythographical codifications that can prevent social eruptions, help maintain social balance and instill peaceful co-existence. Therefore, African myths and mythography should be refined and preserved
The Pragmatics of Politeness in Post Office Service in Ibadan Metropolis, Nigeria
(2011) Arua, I.
Although politeness has been well researched in political, medical, media and commercial transactions, it has not been well considered in the area of service delivery in the post offices in Nigeria where it is perceived that the staff exhibit unfriendly attitude to customers. This study, therefore, explores politeness in service encounters in the post offices in Ibadan metropolis with the view to establishing the existence of politeness in the transactions in the establishment, identifying politeness strategies used and highlighting the contributions of job satisfaction, domestic problem, gender, educational status of staff, appearance of customers to the exhibition of politeness during transactions. The study was carried out within a combined theoretical framework of genre classification propounded by Eija Ventola, Suzzane Eggins and Diana Slade, which focuses on the optional and obligatory stages during transaction, Lim's and Bowers' facework theory that locates nuance polite expression orientations and Spencer-Oatey’s rapport managements which categorises rapport strategies. Five post offices from the five local government areas within Ibadan metropolis were randomly selected. Forty seven willing clients and 35 counter attendants were orally interviewed while questionnaires were administered to 35 willing clients and 35 counter attendants respectively. Post office service questionnaire, interviews and participant observation were used for data collection. Transactions in Yoruba were translated into English. Data were analysed using content analysis T-test, ANOVA and Pearson r correlation. Contrary to the belief among many Nigerians that post office staff were generally impolite, a high degree of politeness was established in the staff’s interactions with customers. Although some impoliteness existed, the degree did not affect the transactions. Both the staff and the customers made use of ‘solidarity’, ‘approbation’ and ‘tact’ politeness strategies. The staff frequently used covert ‘solidarity’ expressed by silent acceptance and readiness to offer service. ‘Tact’ came in the form of ‘advice’ and ‘order’ in answer to requests. ‘Approbation’ took the form of ‘suggestion’. Both tact and approbation strategies are power implicated. Customers on the other hand, engaged overt solidarity strategies such as ‘agreement’, ‘cooperation’ and ‘greeting’. ‘Thanking’ was the main approbation strategy; and ‘please’ and implied ‘need’ were used as ‘tact’ strategies when making requests and clarifications. There were relationship between appearance and politeness (r=0.39), job satisfaction and politeness (r=0.29). However, domestic problem, educational status and sex of did not influence the expression of politeness There was a considerable degree of politeness in Ibadan post office service encounters, which facilitated interactions between the staff and the customers.
A Sociolinguistic Investigation of Anglicisms in Personal and Business Names in the Yorùbá Speech Community
(2011) Ajileyc, M. K.
Anglicisation, a major way by which the Yoruba compromise their cultural values, is paradoxically a significant process of domesticating English in Nigeria. Although a large body of literature exists on names, the recent Anglicising tendencies among the Yoruba are yet to be studied despite the strong implications of the phenomenon for the Yoruba language. This study, therefore, examined Yoruba Personal Names (YPNs) and Yoruba Business Names (YBNs), the two mostly affected onomastic genres, with a view to revealing the sociolinguistic significance of such names among Yoruba-English bilinguals (YEBs). The study adopts Labov‟s Variability Theory, which accounts for variety differentiations, changes, modifications and environmental influences. The six states in South-western Nigeria, and parts of Kwara, Kogi, and Edo were purposively sampled. Data were obtained through observation, interview, and survey questionnaire. Four hundred copies of an open-ended questionnaire were administered to randomly selected respondents. Two hundred shop owners with Anglicised names on their billboards were randomly selected and interviewed. Nine domains of discourse were examined: billboards, vehicles, business cards, wedding cards and „pray-for-us‟ letters, e-mail addresses, mementoes, official documents, television/newspapers and goods. The survey questionnaire was analysed through percentage frequency and distributions. Other documents were content-analysed. Four varieties of Anglicisms were identified in YPNs and YBNs namely, consanguinity-indicative Anglicisms, individualised Anglicisms, multiple culture-indicative Anglicisms, and Arabic-Yoruba Anglicised names. These Anglicisms underwent graphological, phonological and lexico-semantic changes. At the graphological level, the English letter “h” was inserted into word initial positions to realise the voiceless palato-alveolar fricative “/ʃ/”. At the phonological level, the English “cc” phonotactic form was imposed on the Yoruba bilabial plosive; and English consonants were transposed. At the lexico-semantic level, English affixes were deployed at word initial, medial and final positions. English sounds were imposed on blends of two or more Yoruba morphemes. Clipping took four forms: Clips with suffixation, clips without suffixation, clips with blending and clips with duplication. Initialling and Partial Acronymy exploited corresponding English orthographic and phonological elements. The Anglicisation of YPNs and YBNs produced the Englishness of the names. Bearers of Anglicised YPNs employed them for special reasons which revealed affection, familiarity, rapport, jocularity, prestige, elegance, and jollity. Users of Anglicised YBNs claimed they enhanced them socially and economically. Generally, YEBs preferred the Anglicised names to their indigenous names because they believed they had prestige and elegance. Varieties of Anglicisms at the graphological, phonological and lexico-semantic levels revealed a considerable alteration of Yoruba personal and business names. YEBs positive dispositions to the names, despite their eroding effect on Yoruba names and culture reflect a strong institutionalisation of English in Nigeria.
Interaction Structure and Pragmatic Features in the 2008 National Quasi-Judicial Public Hearing on the Federal Capital Territory Administration in Nigeria
(2012) Unuabonah, F. O.
Studies on quasi-judicial public hearings have focused on rhetorical, sociolinguistic and critical discourse aspects of the hearings, but have not given attention to the discourse structure and participant goals during the hearings. Thus, this study examined language use and interaction in the 2008 quasi-judicial public hearing, conducted by a hearing panel constituted by the Senate on the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) administration in Nigeria. This was done with a view to revealing the interactional formats and pragmatic roles of language in the hearing and comparing the formats with those of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearing study in South Africa, the only quasi-judicial public hearing yet analysed in Africa. Generic Structure Potential and pragmatic theories provided the theoretical framework for the study because they deal with interactional structures and functions of language in context. Forty purposively sampled video recordings of the hearing were obtained from the African Independent Television stations in Abuja and Lagos. These were complemented with structured interviews with the complainants, newspaper reports, written submissions and the final report of the panel. The data were subjected to content analysis. Ten discourse macrostructural elements characterised the generic structure of the public hearing. These were catalogued as: AO ^ A^ IP ^ [P(Pr)] ^ {I ^ IC}n ^ (PD) ^ (Pr) ^Ad ^ (F) Affirmation Order, Affirmation, Invitation of Perspectives, Presentation, Interrogation, Interrogation Compliance and Admission were obligatory while Prayer Demand, Prayer and Finis were optional. Interrogation and Interrogation Compliance were iterative at equal degrees. Prayer was either a part of Presentation or a pre-Admission occurrence. These interaction structure elements were variously characterised by discourse and pragmatic features. Locutions in the hearing featured jargon, plain words, fixed and free collocations; affixation, compounding, abbronymy and clipping; antonyms and synonyms; and declaratives, interrogatives and imperatives. Contextual beliefs were based on shared knowledge of public hearing procedures, shared knowledge of landed property law, shared knowledge of government involvement and shared knowledge of Abuja metropolis. Thirteen pragmatic acts characterised the language: ordering, swearing, appreciating, informing, complaining, defending, advising, commenting, denying, questioning, promising, requesting and admitting. Five macrostructures in the FCT hearing were similar to those of the TRC hearing, namely, Affirmation Order/introduction, Invitation of Perspectives/elicitation, Presentation/narrative, Interrogation/questions and Finis/concluding remarks. Affirmation, Interrogation Compliance, Prayer Demand, Prayer and Admission were not identified in the latter. The TRC study, using a narrative approach, did not give any attention to generic structure and pragmatic functions, which constituted major findings on the FCT hearing. Generic Structural elements and pragmatic properties provide useful insights into the discourse and procedure of the 2008 FCT hearing. Unlike the study on the FCT which captures the interactional specifics of the hearing, the structures identified in the TRC study were broad and did not cover details of the interaction. Thus, in-depth comparative linguistic studies of quasi-judicial public hearings in Nigeria and other African countries are required to have a clearer understanding of the structure and pragmatic constraints in the hearings.
A Literary Analysis of the Books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes
(2012) Ighile, M. O.
There have been efforts at research into biblical literature, particularly from the sociohistorical and doctrinal perspectives. However, little attention has been given to the literary and stylistic analysis of the Bible. The devotion to the sacredness of the biblical text has short-circuited the needed attention to a proper literary critique of the narrative. This study therefore is a close critique that foregrounds the literariness of the Bible with particular reference to the King James Version of the Books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Thus, the study goes beyond the works of scholars like Alter, Kermode, Norton, Damrosch, Gardiner, and others which have only focused on biblical intertextuality, theological and sociohistorical interpretations of the Bible. Literary stylistic approach from the perspective of Formalism and New Criticism was adopted for this study. This approach was used to examine the stylistic resources, literary forms and functions of the selected texts within the framework of the Bible as a literary piece. The Books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes draw upon a knowledge of philosophy, history, orature, sociology and culture. The literary stylistic approach proved an effective way of making the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes meaningful to their users and also established the credibility and relevance of literary biblical studies as different from doctrinal biblical studies. The development of a literary theory such as Bible as literature, Formalism and New Criticism, enable us to look at the Bible from the perspective of its literary elements. Instead of emphasising the Bible solely as a sacred text, this study enables us to acknowledge it as a literary text with literary features. There are recurrent patterns in the theme, imagery, structure and style of the selected texts. The figurative devices employed advance the persuasiveness of the style. Without ignoring their essentially religious contexts, the study shows the conscious literary framework that shapes meaning and interpretation in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and intensifies their degree of literary appreciation. The study extends the frontiers of extrinsic literary criticism. It has implications for scholars and teachers of literature, religion and culture, who are strategic, not only in situating literary studies within the context of moral instructions, but also in locating biblical values within literary texts. The use of the literary perspective enables the two books to be viewed against the socio-cultural background of the society, from which they emerged, thereby providing a more rounded appreciation of their contents. Literature thus has distinctive characteristics that make a literary approach to the Bible a worthwhile scholarly venture
Ideology and Discourse Strategies in Selected Radio News of Osun State Broadcasting Corporation, Nigeria
(2012) Ajewole-Orimogunje, C. O.
Previous studies on news in electronic media in Nigeria have mostly concentrated on linguistic and stylistic features with little attention on discourse strategies and underlying ideological factors considered to be significant in the construction and full understanding of radio news. There is need for more attention to be paid to ideologies and discourse strategies in media discourse as they enhance the comprehension of radio news. This study, therefore, investigated the discourse strategies and political ideologies in selected radio news of Osun State Broadcasting Corporation, (OSBC), with a view to revealing the interaction between the strategies and ideologies. The OSBC was selected for its unique engagements with political ideologies. The study was carried out within the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) which links the text with underlying power relations and ideologies, using Wodak‟s sociohistorical and van Dijk‟s socio-cognitive models. These are complemented with Halliday‟s Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) for its emphasis on the form/function relationship in language use. A total of 1000 written news reports from the OSBC were collected between April 2007 and November 2010, out of which 250 (25%) were purposively sampled, based on their political contents. The period was selected because of the political tension that characterized the election situation in the State during the regime of Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola. A content analysis of the news was carried out using the tools of SFG and CDA. Three major political ideologies namely, historicist, humanitarian, and welfarist, were observed to influence the deployment of specific discourse strategies in the construction of political news in the OSBC radio during the regime of Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola. Government was projected as welfarist and humanitarian in its political agenda. Historicist ideology was characterised by the use of temporality and historical comparison of events. The linguistic tool of lexicalisation was used to foreground the humanitarian and welfarist ideologies of the government. The historicist ideology was characterised by the use of transitive clauses with a high degree of transitivity which comprised spatio-temporal adverbials and verbal choices for detailed material, mental and relational processes representing the actions and activities of prominent political actors in the news events. For humanitarian and welfarist ideologies, the strategies utilised were blame transfer, source avoidance, positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation, foregrounding of figures and statistics, manipulation, and authoritarianism. Blame transfer exonerated the political actors from the ills of the society and shifted the blame on the opponents. Events that portrayed the ruling political party positively and the opposition negatively were emphasized and given prominence while those that portrayed the ruling party negatively and the opponents positively were defocussed. There is a close interaction between political ideology and the discourse strategies used to project it in OSBC radio news texts. This interaction throws useful insights into the ideational process that is crucial in the construction of radio news. Future studies should undertake an analysis of the link between ideology and television news.
Blogging as A Space for Rhetorical Posturing on Israeli-Hezbollah War
(2012) Jimoh, R.
Blogging, as a social medium, serves as a platform for individuals and organisations to produce rhetorical discourses that deserve scholarly attention. This rhetorical outlook of blogging features significantly in Middle East conflicts, as instanced in the Mideast blogs that cast their focus on the Israeli-Hezbollah war of 2006. Existing studies on blogging as a social practice seem to concentrate mainly on its social roles without paying much attention to its rhetorical outlook. This study explored the ideological nature of rhetoric in blog posts in order to establish how a comprehension of such rhetoric helps to create a better understanding of the role of blogging in the social process, especially in the context of conflict. A combination of socio-linguistic, semiotic and discourse analytic approaches, as expounded by M.A.K. Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, Teun van Dijk’s Triangulated Approach to discourse and Charles Sander Pierce’s semiotic theory, was adapted as the theoretical framework for the study. Ten Mideast weblogs, characterised by personal, collaborative and corporate blogs, which address the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, and seven hundred and fifty posts, with two hundred and fifty readers’ comments, evenly distributed between the blog types, were purposively selected. The data, which are in three modes of signification -language, pictures and cartoons - were content-analysed. Bloggers employed three discourse structures - surface, schematic and dialogic – to pursue Zionist, anti-Semitic and Arab nationalistic ideologies in the posts. These three structures were arranged in a manner that got the blog readers into believing that they had made appropriate choices of response to the postings read, whereas their behaviours and opinions had been controlled through rhetorical strategies such as overstatement, understatement, metonymy, euphemism, mitigation and repetition, which all have a closer relation to underlying ideologies and belief systems of the bloggers. The surface structure contained nationalistic ideologies that were not overtly expressed but located in the linguistic and non-linguistic expressions that characterised the surface structure. The schematic structure defined the canonical order of the discourse through which topics were organised by conventional schemata such that subordinate topics were upgraded by assigning more prominence to them as headlines. The dialogic structure engaged the blog readers in imagined conversation, in which they were assigned passive role as mere commentators, whereas readers’ support was required for the credibility of the published news stories. The pattern of rhetoric in the posts was such that blog readers were made to tilt their views in support of the opinions expressed by the significations in the posts through the discourse strategies, a situation that made most comments in the posts align more with the viewpoints expressed by the bloggers. The nature of rhetoric in the Mideast posts indicates that bloggers conceal their opinions in various significations in an attempt to create strong persuasion for ideological support. The study has therefore provided the ground for establishing the Mideast blog posts as a site for readers’ manipulation in political communication, which is realised through rhetorical strategies embedded in the discourse.
Sexual Rights Advocacy in Selected African Fiction
(2012) Okolo, I. G.
Victimhood, in sexuality discourses in African literature, has, over time, become attached only to women while men have been presented as perpetrators. This perception has dominated feminist and masculinist studies, with little attention paid to men‘s victimisation and sexual rights advocacy. This study, therefore, investigates the representation of sexual rights in African fiction to ascertain African writers‘ responses to these rights. This is in an attempt to show that all individuals have sexual rights, can be victimised in given contexts which are capable of defining/redefining their Otherness, and can seek or gain liberation. The study applies aspects of the Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalytic theories which account for sexuality, otherness and the suffering generated in the clash of the self with the ―Big Other‖. Ten texts – Nawal El Saadawi‘s Woman at Point Zero, Two Women in One, She Has No Place in Paradise and God Dies by the Nile, Calixthe Beyala‘s Your Name Shall Be Tanga, Diane Case‘s Toasted Penis and Cheese, Yvonne Vera‘s Without a Name, J.M. Coetzee‘s Disgrace, Chris Abani‘s Becoming Abigail and Jude Dibia‘s Walking with Shadows – are purposively selected for analyses. The texts are subjected to literary and critical analyses to examine the contexts of sexual rights violation of the self by the ―Big Other‖, the victimisation generated by this violation, and the writers‘ contrived solutions to eliminate it. All the texts share a common denominator – sexual violence and its attendant psychological trauma and physical damages – but, specific texts show that the rights of men, women and children are violated in specific contexts that define their Otherness. Socio-cultural practices and beliefs encourage the violation of rights and victimisation in all the texts, while religion generates same in all of El Saadawi‘s and Dibia‘s texts. While women are victimised in all the texts, men are victimised in God Dies by the Nile, Case‘s and Dibia‘s texts. The role of the perpetrator is played by both men and women in texts by El Saadawi, Beyala, Case and Dibia, whereas only men are the perpetrators in Coetzee‘s, Abani‘s and Vera‘s. While Abani centres on the trafficking of the girl-child for the purpose of sex work, El Saadawi shows that the boy-child can be raped and children are violated when made to suffer for their parents‘ sexual offences. All the texts, in different ways, create avenues for bridging the gap between the self and the ―Big Other‖ and the elimination of suffering. Coetzee‘s and El Saadawi‘s uphold the provision of professional institutions to seek redress for the sexually violated while Dibia‘s and Case‘s highlight tolerance and respect for every individual‘s sexual identity and orientation. All the texts favour the taking of responsibility for sexual actions and religious and socio-cultural re-orientation through sexuality education. African prose fiction writers create sexual rights awareness through their representations of contexts of sexual rights violation, victimisation of male and female genders, and sociologically-grounded solutions to the violation. This awareness, if extended to real world situations, would ensure better understanding and protection of every individual‘s sexual rights.