Abstract
Language and style never moves beyond a concentration on the
supremacy of words. Literary piece (such as novels) somehow contain
meaning of style with language; effectively manipulated in ways that
signal it as different from “ordinary” language. A stylistic analysis of
Chimamanda Adichie’s “Purple Hibiscus” (2003) and Chinua Achebe’s
“Anthills of the Savannah” (1987) is carried out to educate, explicate
and expose everybody that come across this paper, in guiding them on how
to analyse and understand these prose texts. It also examines the
uniqueness of stylistics as it concerns both the combination of
linguistics and literary study of the texts being reviewed. The data
used to illustrate and substantiates our claims are systematically
sourced from the selected Nigerian prose texts earlier mentioned. The
lexico-semantic patterns and choices, the phonological, morphological,
syntactic and graphological devices are the main stylistic elements
coupled with rigorous in-depth analysis of the figurative language
employed in selected prose texts which are used to prove our claims.
Finally, we find that each of the elements however, has identifiable
functions which contribute to the effective meaning of the texts.
Therefore, it can be concluded that these elements trigger and play
important roles in passing the intention of the writers/authors across
their audience. Comparatively, this research discovers that Adichie
borrows a lot from Achebe’s manner of writing in simple free-flow
linguistic and stylistic presentations, there is, nevertheless, a wide
disparity in their sexist beliefs and ideological orientations. This
implies that; while Achebe tends towards phallocentric predilection,
Adichie subtly differs by pitching a camp with her gender lot –
Feminism. This creates a wide valley between the two mountains.
Keywords: Stylistics, language, figurative language, syntax, graphology, lexico-semantics…
INTRODUCTION
Stylistics has always had a hard time of it. As an academic
discipline it has always been seen, pretty much throughout the twentieth
century, as neither one thing nor the other, or, much worse, as all
things to all men and women, as sitting uncomfortably on the fence
between the linguistic and the literary, and as a bit uneasy within
either domain, building bridges that never quite stretch far enough
across dividing waters and always, as here, resorting to retreat, repair
and reconciliation metaphors of bridges, unfilled gaps and spaces,
crossing contested territories, unhappy marriages and paths not taken.
In the 1960s and 1970s this was in part to be expected for an
essentially inchoate interdisciplinary endeavour. Linguists felt
stylistics was too soft to be taken too seriously and tended to
introduce irrelevant notions such as performance data and
interpretation; literature specialists felt that stylistics was too
hard, too mechanistic and too reductive, saying nothing significant
about historical context or aesthetic theory, eschewing evaluation for
the most part in the interests of a naïve scientism and claiming too
much for interpretations that were at best merely text-immanent. And
many linguists and literary critics continue to this day to give
stylistics a hard time. But, for better or for worse, stylisticians have
stayed together. Although, there have been few divorces or major
disagreements within the family (G. Watson and S, Zyngier, 2007: R.
Carter, 2007).
However, stylistics as a term as generally been referred to as the
study of style and language. The concept of style itself has had a
troubled history in the modern period both within and outside literary
study. It has commonly been argued that, we use the term ‘style’ without
knowing its meaning. The Work of literature is written and presented in
many ways in order to bring out its creative nature. To achieve this,
the writer uses his peculiar manners, choice of words and form in
presenting his message. This is what is known as style. Style therefore
is the peculiar way in which something is done (Nnaji, 2014).
Simpson (2004:2) defines style as “a method of textual interpretation
in which primary of place is assigned to language”. This shows that
language is the key point in stylistic because a writer employs various
forms and patterns of language while presenting his message.
Stylistics is the description and analysis of the variability of
linguistic forms in actual language use. The concepts of ‘style’ and
‘stylistic variation’ in language rest on the general assumption that
within the language system, the same content can be encoded in more than
one linguistic form. Operating at all linguistic levels (e.g.
lexicology, syntax, text linguistics and intonation), stylisticians
analyse both the style of specific texts and stylistic variation across
texts. These texts can be literary or non-literary in nature. Generally
speaking, style may be regarded as a choice of linguistic means; as
deviation from a norm; as recurrence of linguistic forms and as
comparison.
Azuike (1992) in Nnaji (2014) identifies the following rubrics to
guide one in stylistic analysis. They are: “Style as a deviation from
the norm, style as individual, style as content and form, style as
choice, style as a product of context, style as good and beautiful
writing”.
Style as choice, as one of the six rubrics forms, is the focus of
this work. This means that an individual can adopt a special way of
writing to make his work unique. Often times, the author’s identity is
given away by some details reflecting, habit of expression or thought,
and these seem to confirm that each writer has a linguistic
‘thumb-print’, an individual combination of linguistic habits which
somehow betrays him in all that he writes. Accordingly, it is a writer’s
idiosyncratic way of expressing himself or herself, it is an offshoot
of his or her personality.
Style may be said to relate communicative performance, which is the
demonstration of the speaker’s or writer’s language capacity in
generating and understanding specific communicative contexts. Stylistics
therefore is the study of style. But style itself, by its nature, is a
subject of debate. This paper is thus an attempt to investigate the
style of writings of these two authors that make their works distinct
from their contemporaries.
● PLOT (PURPLE HIBISCUS)
Kambili Achike, the narrator, is a fifteen-year-old girl living in
Enugu, Nigeria with her father, Eugene (Papa), mother, Beatrice (Mama),
and older brother, Chukwuku (Jaja). The novel begins on Palm Sunday.
Jaja refuses to receive communion at church, and Papa throws his missal,
breaking Mama’s beloved figurines. Kambili then
explains the events leading up to this scene. Papa, a wealthy factory
owner, is an active philanthropist in public and an upstanding Catholic,
but at home is a strict and violent authoritarian. He publishes a
newspaper, the Standard, which is the only paper willing to criticize the new Nigerian Head of State.
Mama gets pregnant. After Mass one day the family visits Father
Benedict, their white priest. Mama feels sick and doesn’t want to leave
the car. When they return home Papa beats Mama until she has a
miscarriage. Later Kambili takes her exams and comes second in her
class, disappointing Papa. At Christmas the family goes to their home
village of Abba. Papa’s father, Papa-Nnukwu, lives there, but Papa
doesn’t speak to him because his father sticks to his traditional
religion and won’t become Catholic. Kambili and Jaja visit Papa-Nnukwu
briefly. Aunty Ifeoma, Papa’s widowed sister and a university professor,
arrives in Abba as well. She seems fearless and willing to criticize
both Papa and the government. Her children; Amaka, Obiora, and Chima:
are precocious and outspoken.
Ifeoma takes Jaja and Kambili to an Igbo festival. On Christmas Papa
feeds the whole village. The next day Papa catches Kambili breaking the
“Eucharist fast” as she eats some food along with a painkiller she needs
to take for menstrual cramps, and he beats her, Jaja, and Mama. Ifeoma
convinces Papa to let Jaja and Kambili visit her in Nsukka. Kambili and
Jaja arrive and are surprised by Ifeoma’s poverty, but also the constant
laughter in her house. Jaja is fascinated by the purple hibiscuses in
Ifeoma’s garden. Father Amadi, a young, handsome Nigerian priest, comes
to dinner.
As the days progress Jaja opens up, though Kambili remains silent and
confused. Ifeoma hears that Papa-Nnukwu is sick, and she fetches him
from Abba. Amaka starts painting a picture of him. Father Amadi visits
often, and Kambili finds herself attracted to him. One morning Kambili
observes Papa-Nnukwu’s morning ritual, which is similar to Catholic
confession.
Father Amadi takes Kambili to the local stadium. He makes her chase
after him and tries to get her to talk. Kambili is confused by her
feelings and his “unpriestly” demeanor. Papa finds out that Papa-Nnukwu
is staying in the house. The next morning the family discover that
Papa-Nnukwu has died in his sleep. Papa takes Jaja and Kambili back to
Enugu, and Amaka gives Kambili her painting. Papa punishes Jaja and
Kambili for not telling him they were staying in the same apartment as
their grandfather, a pagan, by pouring boiling water on their feet. Papa
and his editor, Ade Coker, decide to run a controversial story in the Standard. Soon after, Ade Coker is assassinated with a package bomb.
One day Kambili and Jaja are looking at the painting of Papa-Nnukwu
when Papa comes in. He beats Kambili severely, and she wakes up in the
hospital. Papa agrees to let Jaja and Kambili return to Nsukka. Ifeoma
worries about losing her job for speaking out against the “sole
administrator” appointed by the government. The university closes after a
student riot. Men ransack Ifeoma’s flat, trying to intimidate her.
Kambili falls more deeply in love with Father Amadi, who seems attracted
to her.
Mama arrives one day after being beaten into another miscarriage.
Papa takes his family home, and the next day is the Palm Sunday on which
the novel begins, when Jaja stands up to Papa. After Palm Sunday there
is less fear and silence in the house. Ifeoma calls to say that she has
been fired and is moving to America. Jaja and Kambili return to Nsukka.
Ifeoma takes them on a pilgrimage to Aokpe, where Kambili sees visions
of the Virgin Mary and reaffirms her faith. Father Amadi leaves to do
missionary work, and Kambili weeps and confesses her love to him. Ifeoma
gets a visa and prepares to leave Nigeria. Papa is found dead at his
desk, and they all go to Enugu. When Papa’s autopsy is complete, Mama
says that she poisoned him. The police arrive and Jaja takes
responsibility for the crime.
Three years later, Kambili and Mama visit Jaja in prison to tell him
he will be released soon. Mama has grown withdrawn and rarely speaks.
After the visit, Kambili feels hopeful about the future.
● PLOT (ANTHILLS OF THE SAVANNAH)
Part I
Set in the fictitious West African country of Kangan, Anthills of the Savannah opens
with a meeting of the regime''s president and his Cabinet. The
government has been in place for two years, since a coup overthrew the
former dictator. Three men, friends since childhood, have assumed
important positions in the new system. Sam is the president, Chris Oriko
is the Commissioner of Information, and Ikem Osodi is the editor of the
government controlled newspaper, the National Gazette. Ikem is
an intellectual and a poet who is very outspoken about the need to
reform the government. Chris acts as a mediator between Ikem and Sam.
Sam has become a leader without regard for his people, seeking only
to acquire more power for himself by any means necessary. Chris and Ikem
realize that Sam is rapidly becoming a dictator. They helped get him
appointed to the position, even encouraging him when he felt that his
military background was inadequate preparation for a position of such
importance. Now, Chris and Ikem regret their previous support of their
friend and seek to control Sam in their own ways. Meanwhile, Sam''s
obsession with power has made him paranoid and temperamental. When Sam
decides he wants to be elected "President−for−Life," a national
referendum is called but the region of Abazon refuses to participate.
Sam in turn denies the region access to water despite a drought,
expecting that without water or food the people will give in. When
delegates from Abazon arrive at the capital on a mission for mercy, Sam
suspects that they are actually planning an insurrection. In fact, his
paranoia leads him to believe that the insurrection is being assisted by
someone close to him.
Although Chris is aware of how dangerous Sam is becoming, he believes
that by staying in his government position he can serve his country.
Meanwhile, Ikem''s editorials are becoming more radical, and Chris tries
to convince him to tone them down.
Ikem has a girlfriend, Elewa, who is semiliterate and works in a
shop. She is pregnant with his child. Chris''s fiancee, Beatrice, is a
well−educated woman who holds a position as administrator for one of the
state offices. She has known Ikem since youth and works for Sam, so she
has connections to all of the major characters. She observes the
government''s activities and Chris''s and Ikem''s reactions, and feels that
she is the only one sensitive enough to truly understand the situation.
She expresses to Chris and Ikem that they are approaching the problem
incorrectly because they are not really connecting to the people and the
land.
Part II
Sam commands Chris to fire Ikem from his position as editor, at which
point Chris responds in a highly unusual way—he refuses to obey Sam''s
order. Sam believes that Ikem is involved in the "protest" staged by the
delegates of Abazon, but Chris knows better. Still, Ikem is fired and
soon after addresses a student group at a university. Never one to hold
his tongue, he is very vocal about his criticism of the government. He
makes a joke about the regime minting coins with Sam''s head on them,
which is turned into propaganda claiming that Ikem has called for the
beheading of the president. Ikem is taken from his home in the middle of
the night and shot and killed by the state police.
Part III
Chris realizes just how dangerous Sam has become and goes into hiding
after using his contacts within the international press to publicize
the truth about Ikem''s murder. With the help of Emmanuel, a student
leader who greatly admires Chris; Abdul, a sympathetic cab driver; and a
small covert network of supporters, Chris is able to escape the capital
city of Bassa by bus and head for Abazon. Meanwhile, the government
orders Chris''s arrest and threatens anyone found to be withholding
information about him.
On the bus trip, Chris begins to feel reconnected to his native land
and Emmanuel meets a beautiful student named Adamma. The bus is stopped
by a mob caught up in a drunken frenzy. They are celebrating the news
that Sam has been killed and his regime overthrown in another coup. As
Chris and the other bus passengers make their way through the crowd,
gathering bits of information, Chris sees Adamma being dragged off by a
soldier to be raped. Chris rushes to her rescue, and the soldier shoots
and kills him.
Part IV
Emmanuel, Abdul, and Adamma return to Bassa to tell Beatrice and the
others what has happened. Although grief−stricken, Beatrice hosts a
naming ceremony for Ikem''s baby girl, born after his murder. Men
traditionally perform the ceremony, but Beatrice fulfils this role,
naming the child Amaechina, a boy''s name that means "May the Path Never
Close."
AUTHOR’S NARRATIVE STYLE (ADICHIE AND ACHEBE)
● Narrative Style in “Purple Hibiscus”
“Purple Hibiscus” is told in the first person narrative style. The
language is simple and sometimes lyrical. As stated earlier, it is an
account of sights and sounds from the mouth of a quiet witness like
Mama, Aunty Ifeoma, Jaja and Ade Coker. In Adichie’s employment of the
‘shift in perspective technique’, Kambili’s focus is beamed beyond the
seclusion of the Achike family house in Abba to the wider society. Some
reviewers argue that the political sub-plot of Purple Hibiscus does not
complement its main plot. This view is incorrect. It is chiefly through
this sub-plot that the novel’s setting emerges. Ade Coker reminds us of
the late Dele Giwa, who was bombed to death in Lagos during the
Babangida’s military regime. By localizing this sub-plot and its drama
to Abba, the setting becomes modern Nigeria as a whole. The political
sub-plot also aggravates the drama in the main plot by fuelling Eugene’s
stress, this help to shake things up towards the climax and hasten the
drama and the suspense that brought about his tragedy.
Adichie’s language was simple and comprehensible by an average reader
in the least however she does endeavour to import some of her native
language’s lexicons but she was careful enough to make sure they don’t
hinder the simplicity in the text’s language as the English translation
of these lexicons were made to follow immediately after them. Also, it
helps inform the reader of the cultural inclination of the text.
● Narrative Style in ‘Anthills of the Savannah’
“Anthills of the Savannah” provides a complete view of the action of
the novel by offering multiple points of view. Achebe allows the reader
to see the situation from the points of view of Ikem, Chris, and
Beatrice, and also, in some passages, from that of a third person,
omniscient narrator. This technique enables the reader to make
judgements for him/herself rather than relying on a narrator or a single
character to supply descriptions of people and events. This also is a
way in which Achebe retains the part of his African literary heritage
that focuses on the community rather than on the individual.
Most of the dialogues of the ordinary people of Kangan is written in
the dialect of Pidgin English. The unusual grammar and unfamiliar words
of this dialect can be difficult for western readers, but its inclusion
gives the novel a strong sense of realism. In additional it is easy to
identify a character’s level of education or social standing based on
his or her manner of speech. Chris, Beatrice, and Ikem are sympathetic
as characters, as they are able to interact with common people by
speaking Pidgin English and with powerful political figures by speaking
British English. Rather than distance themselves from ordinary citizen,
as Sam does. Chris, Beatrice and Ikem routinely abandon their British
English in favour of being able to communicate in a meaningful way.
TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF “PURPLE HIBISCUS” AND “ANTHILLS”
● Morphological Analysis of “Purple Hibiscus”
At the morphological level, Initialisms are employed
in the texts thus abbreviated names or perhaps “lexemes” are used to
represent and refer to certain items and concepts. For example,
“Television” is represented and referred to as “TV", “Master of
ceremony” is represented by “MC”. Under this light, “Curriculum Vitae”
is represented as “CV” and “Vice–Chancellor” as “VC”. These
initialized/abbreviated words are used by the writer to familiarize the
reader with the objects and concepts being referred to. For instance,
abbreviated forms “TV”, “MC”, “CV”, “VC” and “CNN” are commonly used in
the informal setting. Thus, this saves the text from being “too formal”
and therefore helps to give the audience or reader a sense of
familiarity with the text.
Word–compounding is another morphological device
employed in the text by the writer to give a perfect description of
certain concepts by joining two or more words together with a hyphen to
create a new word/lexeme with a new meaning. Examples are;
- “Later, she knot palm front into sagging crop shape and hang on the wall beside our gold-frame family photo”. (pg. 11) – i .e. framed with Gold.
- “I tied around my chest, over my pink-and-white flowered nightgown.” (pg. 174) - i.e. a nightgown made of pink-and-white colour flower design.
- “Aunty said, laughing in that proud-coach-watching-the-team
way.” (pg.140) – i.e. this depict that the person being refer to in
this context (Aunty Ifeoma) laughs in the kind of manner in which a
football coach who has been made proud : watching his football team
play.
- “She lowly ran the cloth over her figurine one of its match-stick-size legs raised high in the air, before spoke.” (pg. 43) – i.e. legs like the size of that of matches sticks.
- “We drove past the sturdy tree around the faculty of engineering, past the vast mango-filled field around the female hostel.” (pg. 139) – i.e. full of mango trees.
- “I could see the big duplex that nestled behind a canopy of trees with greenish–yellow leaves…” (pg. 139) – i.e. yellow leaves with dotted green colour pigments.
This technique was deployed in abundance in this text to aid perfect
description of objects, concepts and ideas. It also contributes to the
simplified nature of language of the text thus making it, easy to read
and understand even by an average reader. Other Instance of word
compounding is.
- “…she then pointed to the vice chancellors lodge, to the high walls surround it, and said its youth to have well-tended hedges of cherry…” (pg. 139)
- “…and the palm–size flower brightened the foliage in the yellow polka dots.” (pg. 137)
- “…only for a snack when we sometimes bought the steam cooked cow-pea-and-palm-oil cakes on the drive Abba” (pg. 135)
- “…three long-stemmed roses so piercingly red, I wondered…” (pg. 122)
- “…to spill over onto a thin strip of road already full double-parked…” (pg. 119)
- “…It laid there, a huge leather-bound missal that contained the reading for all three cycles of the church year.” (pg. 15)
● Morphological Analysis of “Anthills of the Savannah”
At the morphology level, Initialism and Word–compounding has noticed
in Adichie’s “Purple Hibiscus”, are also employed by the writer to
propel familiarization of words with the reader’s everyday language.
Examples of instance of deployment of these devices in the text are
given below.
Initialism as stated earlier helps to familiarize
the reader with the text. This is because these instances of initials
connote every day or informal language. Thus prevents the text from
being too formal in its language. Instances of Initialism in the text are as follow:
VIP – “Very Important Person” (pg. 23)
NTBB – “Not To Be Broadcast” (pg. 34)
MM – “Mad Medico” (pg. 35)
BB- “Buife, Beatrice” (pg. 36)
Initialism is also used to abbreviate characters’ names.
Instances of Word-Compounding in the text are:
- “He was the all-rounder--good student, captain of the Cricket Team…” (pg. 36) - i.e. good in all school activities: academic and extra – curricular.
- “Well-chosen words” (pg. 3) – i.e. carefully selected words.
- “...opened the heavy doors of carved panels, stood aside and gave a long, hand-quivering salute.” (pg. 5) – i.e. saluting with his hand shaking.
- “And when His Excellency asked me to suggest half-a-dozen names for his Cabinet Professor Okong was top of my list.” (pg. 8) – i.e. Half of a dozen, six perhaps.
- “...invited by the even younger coup-makers to become His Excellency the Head of State...” (pg. 8) – i.e. those who orchestrated coup.
As stated earlier, word-compounding is deployed in the text by the
writer in order to help the reader have a detailed description,
explanation as well as depicted picture of characters and events by the
writer.
● Graphological Analysis of “Purple Hibiscus”
At the Graphological level, Punctuations marks such as colons, semi – colons and dashes are employed in abundance in the texts.
The Semi–colons are used to provide more explanatory information in addition to the previously provided Facts as seen in the samples below;
“we had to found civilized in public” he told us; we had to speak English (pg. 21)
In the above extract, the first statement had already conveyed a
complete thought or information. However, the punctuating semi–colon is
used to introduce the second sentence (underlined) which only conveyed
the information the speaker intended or was initially trying to pass to
the reader in the first sentence. This implies that the speaker is
prohibited from speaking their native language when they are in public.
Another instance of semi-colon is seen below:
“It was mostly Mama’s prayer group members who plucked flowers; a
woman tucked one behind her ear once, I saw her clearly from my window”
(pg. 17).
This implies that although the speaker has never been present when
mama’s prayer group plucked the flower but having seen one of them
tucked one behind her ear once; she was very sure they are the ones
plucking the flowers indeed.
In the above extract, the first sentence entails a suggestive
statement, while the second sentence introduced with a semi-colon,
entails backing evidence provided to validate the speaker’s claim. Other
instances of semi colons are:
- “He always encouraged father Benedict to call and win that
person back into the fold; nothing but moral sin would keep a person
away from communion two Sundays in a row” (pg. 14).
The above, serve to reflect the belief if the speaker about anyone
who miss(es) holy communion two Sundays consecutively or perhaps absent
from the church on two Sundays consecutively.
- “Her green wrapper hung lower than usual on her waist; it had been knotted with a lazy effort at the side” (pg. 42)
This serves to suggest that “the wrapper” must have been wore (put on) or tied in a hurry.
- “I could hardly hear her words; instead what I heard
clearly was the sound of something catching on her trout” (pg. 46)
This serve to suggest that the person being referred to in the above
extract (Yewande) was crying, sobbing and talking simultaneously.
Dashes on the other hand, are also used but only to provide additional information or description e.g.;
- “Father Benedict usually referred to the pope, papa and Jesus - in that order” (pg. 12)
This serve to suggest that, Father Benedict has always preach this
sermon (every sermon) in that pattern; by giving credit, to the pope,
Eugene and then Jesus Christ in that hierarchical pattern which shows
how much dear, he holds Eugene Achike in esteemed regards. Dash here, is
used to provide detail and additional information.
- “She was nervous, I could tell – not just because a fresh
cashew tasted nothing like white wine but also because her voice was
lower than usual” (pg. 21)
This serve to suggest the person being referred to his not only
“nervous” but terrified as well as whole trying hard to impress Papa so
that he can’t get cooled having been angered previously JaJa.
- “Although papa did not smile at her – he looked too sad to smile – I wished I had to say that before mama did” (pg. 50)
The above, serves to suggest that papa was quite impressed by what
mama had just said previously. But his sadness overcrowds this
impression which shows the kind of agony he borne in him and how
dejected he is.
Few Colons were also employed by the writer to
introduce factual messages and informative insights concerning events
and characters at hand, some are descriptive but often about a
particular concept or idea. For example;
- “…. the same feeling I got after I sneezed: a clear tingling sensation” (pg. 50)
In the above extract ‘colon’ is used to introduce and provide a
perfect picture of the kind of ‘feeling’ the speaker was initially
telling us about. Thus, it serves to suggest that the speaker (Kambili)
was proudly impressed (and eventually relived) having her father praised
and admired in such manner and with such description.
By and large, all these punctuation marks are employed in the
text in order to provide additional information, facts description,
explanation, thought and ideas. These help to feed the readers with
enough details about the picture being painted by the writer in the
story.
Italic is another graphological device deployed by
the writer to separate and identify foreign words/lexeme/phrases from
the English words. Most especially, “words and phrases” adopted from the
Adichie’s indigenous language: Igbo language. It is also used to
identify names of particular items or products in the middle of
sentences e.g. “Standard” as seen in one of the exact below:
- “But no, he used The Standard to speak the truth…” (page 13)
“Standard” is the brand name of papa` s newspaper / editorial
company. Italics here, is used to introduce and identify the name of the
afore-mentioned “item” or “product” within the sentences. It is written
in a manner different from that of other texts/words/letters. Thus; it
is foregrounded. Another example is:
- “Nne ngwa, go and change” (pg. 16)
Here italics is used to identify foreign word which is used with
English adopted from the writer’s Igbo Language (One of the three major
Languages in Nigeria).
- “Papa Nnukwu was an ozu now, a corpse” (pg. 121)
In the above sentence, italic is use to separate the Igbo lexeme:
“ozu” substituted by the writer and used in place of the English word
“corpse”.
- “The word fridge floated around my head” (pg. 192)
In the sentence above, italic is used to foreground the lexeme:
“fridge”. It serves to suggest to us the speaker’s amazement or perhaps,
surprise at the fact that “corpse” (dead body: human) are kept in
fridge as a means of preserving them. Hence, it sounded strange to the
speaker.
- “To say ebezina and wipe away her tears” (pg. 193).
It is noted that most of the initialized words, phrase and lexemes
written in the writer’s native language were deliberately foregrounded.
This is because the writer could have simply supply and replace them
with their English counter-parts instead of providing them as additional
information. Hence, it helps carry with the text: “a cultural identity”
(African cultural identity) along with it through language–lexeme
importation. It also adds beauty to African literature as a whole. It
makes it easy to identify the text as a Nigerian/African literary text.
Capitalizations, another graphological device
deployed in the text to deliberately foreground words, phrases or
statements by being written in contracted form (capital letter)
different from the pattern in which others were written e.g.
- GOD IS LOVE (pg. 15)
- WELCOME TO ABBA TOWN (pg. 63)