Department of English

Permanent URI for this collection

https://repository.run.edu.ng/handle/123456789/55

Browse

Now showing 1 - 15 of 15

Ethnographic Analysis of Major Characters’ Names in Wole Soyinka’s King Baabu
(Ife Studies in English Language, Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-ife, 2017-12) Odebode, Idowu
This paper analyses Wole Soyinka’s King Baabu from an onomastic (study and science of names) perspective. Five major characters’ names from the text, serve as the data corpus for the study. The names are dissected, drawing upon the theory of ethnography of communication (i.e. SPEAKING acronym by Hymes and Gumperz). Findings indicate that the preponderant setting and participants are Guatuna and Guatunans respectively. The dominant act is informative; the foremost key is satirical; the major instrument is verbal and the key instrument is conversation. The study also indicates that Basha/Baabu is the principal character as the end and norm analyses point to him textually and extra-textually.
An Ethnographic Analysis of Names of Round Characters in Wole Soyinka's The Strong Breed
(ACADEMY PUBLISHER, Finland., 2012-09) Odebode, Idowu
This study attempts an analysis of names of round characters in Wole Soyinka’s The Strong Breed from the ethnography of communication’s perspective. It was discovered that the characters in the text bear different names which reflect diverse ethnolinguistic values. This, therefore, necessitated occasional translation from the source language (SL) to the target language (TL) i.e. English. The names were further dissected contextually based on their discursive illocutionary acts. This subsequently revealed a preponderance of informative acts among others. The research further affirmed the submission of Schineider (2009) that conventional anthroponomastics approaches its subject ethnographically. The study therefore, brings about an interface of literary studies, pragmatics, linguistics and onomastics (the study and science of names).
Ethnographic Analysis of Round Characters’ Onomastics in Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman
(Marang Journal of Language and Literature, University of Botswana., 2016) Odebode, Idowu
This study examines Wole Soyinka‟s Death and the King’s Horseman from an ethnography of communication‟s point of view. The work is designed to break the silence on the dearth of onomastic studies on Soyinka. The playwright infuses his novel with onomastic sensibility such that the names reflect different socio-cultural backgrounds, and, in turn, stress the themes of death and scapegoatism raised in the text. The study further reveals that conversation genre is a major tool which the author has manipulated successfully in exercising his naming power over his characters. In addition, it is clear that informing is the principal illocutionary act underlying all the names. These therefore imply that the playwright is both conversing with and informing his reader/audience through his naming strategies. This is so because there is economy of words in naming and, oftentimes, more is being communicated than said through the few strands of letters woven together as a name. The study finally affirms that names are “identity markers that depend on established convention” (Adams 2009, p. 82) and “whatever difference exists between literature and life can be explained as a difference of the contexts in which naming takes place” (Izevbaye 1981, p. 168).
Ethnography of Communication in Ola Rotimi’s The Gods Are Not To Blame: A Pragmatic Study
(British Journal of English Linguistics. Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK (www.eajournals.org), 2015-03) Odebode, Idowu
Ola Rotimi’s The god’s are not to blame has been subjected to various forms of criticisms. However, none, to the best of our knowledge, has delved into analysing the text using Dell Hymes' Ethnography of Communication. It is this gap that this research intends to fill. The study takes a look at eleven selected exchanges in Ola Rotimi’s The gods are not to blame from a pragmatic point of view. It also applies Dell Hymes' theory on utterance meaning i.e. the “ethnography of communication” otherwise known as the SPEAKING Acronym, to the text. The study reveals that the dominant setting in the play is the king’s palace. The act with the highest number of manifestation is the informative act, while the preponderant key in the text is the melancholic key. These, therefore, relate to the themes of death and royalty, praised in the work, among others.
Onomastics and Nicknames of Selected Cars in Nigeria: A Sociolinguistic Study
(Journal of Communicative English, The English language Unit, Department of Educational Foundations and General Studies, University of Agriculture, Makurdi., 2019-06) Odebode, Idowu
This study unearths the nicknames of selected cars in Nigeria in order to reveal their historical cum onomastic significance within the sociocultural milieu of the automobile users. Data comprise forty-five (45) purposively selected nicknames of some popular cars in Nigeria while Halliday’s contextual theory of meaning and VARIES model served as our theoretical constructs. The study is predicated on the analysis of ten (10) interviews and hundred (100) questionnaires distributed randomly among selected respondents. Furthermore, the work indicates that nicknames market and popularise the cars more than the television, radio and other synchronous media, among the natives in Nigeria. Significantly, the new names serve as descriptive/historical instruments for perpetuating events and recording antecedents.
Onomastics, Medicine and Politics in Femi Osofisan’s The Engagement
(Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Academy Publications, 2019-05) Odebode, Idowu
Onomastics, medicine and politics in this study are a pragmatic way of depicting the psychosocial condition of Nigeria as an underdeveloped nation. The study explores Femi Osofisan’s The Engagement from a literary onomastic standpoint with the aim of exposing socio-political anomalies in Nigeria. Nigerian leaders commit flaws of egoistical and individualistic interests which often go against the consciences of the led. On this premise, the study explores the characters’ names in The Engagement with a view to gaining insight into Nigeria’s sociocultural and political contexts. Furthermore, Postcolonial Theory and Halliday’s Contextual Theory of Meaning serve as the study’s theoretical constructs. The study is predicated on the underdevelopment of Nigeria which is epitomised as a psychological behaviour of characters in a nation that is under the siege of political anarchy and different social vices.
Pet-naming as Protest’s Discourse in Polygamous Yoruba Homes: A Socio- Pragmatic Study
(CS Canada: Studies in Literature and Language, 2012-02-20) Odebode, Idowu
This study attempts a speech act analysis of names given to pets particularly by women in polygamous homes among the Yoruba, a popular ethnic group in Nigeria. Twenty-five names were selected for the study. The names were given in-depth analysis based on the theory of Speech Act by Austin (1962). The study indicates that the invented pet names, apart from their initial illocutionary function of insulting, perform certain other functions in their context of usage. Through naming or nicknaming, it is possible to direct, inform, advise and perform different discourse acts. It is also possible to take turns indirectly through naming such that one pet name elicits for another which serves as a reply to the previous. Finally, it is discovered that pet naming is a very significant communicative tool which is largely used by participants in polygamous homes in Africa as instruments of vengeance and protests.
Politeness Phenomenon in Abiku Names among the Yoruba Africans: A Pragmatic Study
(Cross-cultural Communication, 2011) Odebode, Idowu
This study attempts a pragmatic study of Abiku names from the face act theory’s perspective. The thrust of the work is to establish that certain politeness acts are either violated or obeyed in the Yoruba naming systems of Abiku children; thereby proving the economy of words in names and that more is communicated than said within the little strands of letters. Ten Abiku names are selected and analyzed using the pragmatic principle of face act. The study indicates that names, (in particular, Abiku names) in the traditional African Yoruba setting, transcend ordinary labeling to historicize, socialize, spiritualize and influence people psychologically.
A Pragmatic Study of Characters' Names in Ola Rotimi's The Gods Are Not To Blame
(International Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies, 2015-06) Odebode, Idowu
Several studies have been carried out on Ola Rotimi's works using different literary and linguistic criticisms to the exclusion of the author's onomastic resources. This study is an attempt at filling this gap. The study takes an onomastic approach to the exploration of Ola Rotimi's The gods are not to blame. All the major characters' names in the text are given quantitative and qualitative analysis, based on the pragmatic principle of speech acts by Austin (1962). Thus, through the application of the theory to the characters' names, we may establish that rather than mere entertaining his reader/audience, the playwright, through his use of names, oftentimes prescribes, informs, asserts and predicts among others. Thus the study has, pragmatically proved the efficacy of the speech act theory that in saying something, we do something else (Austin, 1962). Furthermore, the study has demonstrated that the text possesses taxonomy of onomastic resources which can be classified as: the role names, real names and nicknames. The real names have the highest frequency of eleven (46%) among others. This therefore attests to the words of Izevbaye (1981) that fictional names are taken from the actual names in use and that names in African setting, are carefully constructed "in a semantico-syntactic sense to manifest specific meanings" (Oyeleye, 1985, p. 138).
A Socio-pragmatic Analysis of Ahmed Yerima's Ade Ire
(International Journal of Language and Linguistics, Center for Promotion of Ideas, USA www.ijllnet.com, 2015-03) Odebode, Idowu
Studies on Ahmed Yerima have focused on the literary aspect of his texts to the exclusion of the linguistic perspective. The present study is designed to fill this gap by employing a pragmatic approach to the study of Ade Ire, by the playwright. Data were taken from the primary text which served as our major corpus. The Speech Act theory was deployed to showcase the illocutionary functions of language in the text while the VARIES model was used to explicate language use in the extra-textual context of the play. The study indicated that the informing act has the highest frequency among the speech acts deployed while informality has the highest frequency in the VARIES model.
A Socio-pragmatic Study of Characters' Names in Wole Soyinka’s The Strong Breed
(International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, 2012-07) Odebode, Idowu
This study attempts an onomastic analysis of Wole Soyinka’s The Strong Breed from a socio-pragmatic perspective. Six names of the major characters in the text are selected for the study. They are given an in-depth analysis based on Halliday’s (1978) socio-semiotic variables model among others. The study indicates that naming (by Soyinka) transcends the illocutionary act of labeling to bring into play the social indices of occupation, age, geography, ethnicity and religion. Out of five variables examined, religion has the highest frequency. This, therefore, proves the religious/scapegoat theme stressed in the work. The study also indicates that names are meaning potentials and a good understanding of the author’s use of names is a great key that unlocks his perceived difficult text(s).
Sociolinguistic Strategies in Marketing Discourse in Ibadan, Nigeria
(Language in India www.languageinindia.com, 2012-02-02) Odebode, Idowu
Prior to this time, little attempt has been made in sociolinguistic research to investigate the peculiarities of the language of marketing in Nigeria. The few available studies in this area are the works of the norm and deviation stylisticians who often perceive the language of marketing as a deviation from or a distortion of ‘normal’ standard. The perception of those linguists cannot be given a place in sociolinguistic research as it does not account for the sociological factors that often condition the use of language in this important domain of human activities. It is against this background that this work is aimed at studying the language of marketing from the sociolinguistic point of view. Effort is geared towards unraveling the manifestation of sociolinguistic issues like: bi/multilingualism, euphemism, interference, code-switching and slangs, to mention just a few, in marketing discourse. Furthermore, the study examines how these terms are determined by the culture of the marketers.
A Sociolinguistic Study of Fagunwa/Soyinka’s The Forest of a Thousand Daemons
(International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, 2012-09-03) Odebode, Idowu
This study takes a sociolinguistic approach to analyze The Forest of a Thousand Daemons, a translation of the Yoruba text, Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Irunmale (1938) which was authored by Daniel Olorunfemi Fagunwa, the greatest Yoruba novelist and translated by Wole Soyinka, a literary icon cum Nobel laureate. The work is premised on the fact that many literary and linguistic attempts at Fagunwa’s work have failed to benchmark the text with the speech act theory and the VARIES model simultaneously as we have done in this study. Fifteen excerpts from the text served as our data. Each datum is subjected to content and quantitative analyses based on relevant sociolinguistic variables of vocation (occupation), sex, age, religion, geography (ethnicity), age, education and socio-economic status. The data were further dissected according to the speech act theory by Austin (1962) in a bid to ascertain the validity of their illocutionary force(s). The study indicates that social institutions affect language (choice and use) a great deal and language, in turn, performs different illocutionary acts among various heterogeneous social groups in a speech community like the Yoruba, which is replicated in the text.
A Speech Act Analysis of Abiku Names among the Yoruba Nigerians
(Language in India www.languageinindia.com, 2012-05) Odebode, Idowu
This paper attempts a speech act analysis of Abiku names from the socio-pragmatic perspective of the Yoruba, one of the three principal ethnic groups in Nigeria. The basis of the study is to prove that names, particularly the Abiku names, serve as means of communication rather than the common function of identification which they are believed to be performing. The Abiku names elicit certain illocutionary acts which are unique and far-fetched in other naming contexts. The paper submits that unlike other names, Abiku names are therapeutic, magical and ‘semogenic’ i.e. they are rich in meaning and have socio-pragmatic significance.
Speech Acts in Billboard Messages of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Redemption Camp, Nigeria: A Pragmatic Study
(English Linguistics Research, www.sciedupress.com/elr, 2015-05-10) Odebode, Idowu
Several studies have existed on various aspects of advertisement billboards and stickers, using different scholastic approaches. But none, to the best of our knowledge, has delved into the pragmatic analysis of religious billboards in The Redeemed Christian Church of God, Redemption Camp, Nigeria. This study is an attempt at filling this gap. The study is based on Austin's (1962) Speech Act theory. Seventeen billboards which were purposively selected served as our data. The data were analysed based on the theory in order to validate the following research questions: What are the pragmatic elements inherent in the billboards? What types of speech acts are preponderant in the billboards? Can we establish that the billboards communicate meaningful messages to the worshippers? The study indicated a preponderance of the illocutionary acts of informing and advising and demonstrated that the billboards are inundated with various meaning-making strategies which enhance their multifarious interpretations.

Browse

Browsing Department of English by Author "Odebode, Idowu"

Results Per Page

Sort Options