Predominant Devices Used By Ngugi Wa Thiong’o In His Novel Wizard Of The Crow
Introduction
1.1 Background Of The Study
Language is a distinctive quality
unique to man. It is what enables man to express him/herself and communicate
with his/her fellow man, and it is acquired naturally. According to Fromkin et
al “…language is the source of human life and power” (3). They also state that
“we use language to convey information to others…, ask questions…, give
command…, and express wishes” (173). There are two specific media of
using language: oral – which is by words of mouth; and written – which is a
graphic representation of words on paper.
It is in the use of language that
style comes in. Style shows the difference between one piece of writing and the
other. According to Adejare, “style is an ambiguous term…” (1). He further
states that the term style means different things to different professions.
Some examples are: to a psychologist, a style is a form of behaviour, to the
critic, style is individuality and to the linguist, it is the formal structures
in function (1).
Stylistics is the study of oral and
written texts. It is the description of the linguistic characteristics (which
means features of linguistics) of all situationally restricted uses of
language. Linguistics is the scientific study of language or of a particular
language. Linguistics is scientific because it applies the method of objective
observation, collection, classification and application of facts to the study
of language.
Stylistics focuses on texts and
gives much attention to the devices, parts of speech and figures of speech. It
goes further to look into the effects of the use of the devices on the reader.
Talking about the scope of
stylistics, Onwukwe Ekwutosi gave four distinctive types of stylistics and they
are:
- General stylistics
- Literary stylistics
- Stylo-stylistics
- Phono-stylistics
General stylistics deals with the
non-dialectical varieties found within a language. In other words, it deals
with situational or contextual use of language, that is, variation according to
use. It also includes a variation of language according to the field of
discourse, variation according to the mode of discourse and finally, variation
according to the style of discourse.
Literary stylistics deals with
language use in literature, that is, variations, and characteristics of
individual writers that made marks in literature. Often, we hear people talk
about the style of Shakespeare, Milton, Achebe or Soyinka.
And also, stylo-stylistics deals
with the qualification of the stylistic pattern. It studies the statistical
structure of literary texts often using computers. Finally, phono-stylistics is
the study of the expression of the aesthetic function of sound.
Stylistic features can be described
as features that produce a style. They include linguistic features such as
diction(writer’s choice of words, such as clichés, archaism, polysyllabic,
monosyllabic), sentence structure such as loose and period sentences,
parallelism, parenthetical expressions and passive expressions. Other features
are cohesion, coherence, use of punctuation marks and figures of speech such as
metaphor, simile, hyperbole, metonymy and personification, slang, colloquialism
and connotation.
Diction: By diction, the reader looks at the simplicity or the
difficulty of words chosen by the writer to express himself.
Sentence: It is made up of words that express a complete thought. It
is the basic unit of thought in any communication. Both oral and written
languages are made up of sentences. There are two main kinds of sentences;
loose and periodic sentences.
Loose sentence: It is the kind of sentence that states the main point
at the beginning. Even when the statement is grammatically complete, one or
more explanatory clauses or phrases come after it.
Periodic sentence: This kind of sentence keeps the main point for the
end. The sentence is not grammatically complete until the end of the sentence.
Parallelism: It is the use of pattern repetition in a literary text
for a particular stylistic effect.
Parenthetical expression: It is used to give more information and also as an
afterthought in a statement.
Passive expression: This is the use of words in the past tense to show the
time of action.
Cohesion: It is a linguistic phenomenon which explains the way
discourse is structured or organized with regard to message. It is a binding
force that ties together stretches of utterances.
Coherence: This is the arrangement of sentences in a logical order.
Punctuation marks: These are signs in writing to divide sentences and phrases
and to make meanings clear.
Figure of speech: A figure of speech is an expression used figuratively
rather than literary. It gives a deeper meaning to words. Some examples are:
Metaphor: Is a comparison between two dissimilar things which
have something in common.
Simile: It is a clear comparison between two dissimilar
things. These two unlike items however share something in common. It is this
common characteristic that is emphasized by the use
of like or as …as.
Hyperbole: It is an overstatement where the speaker exaggerates
what he is saying out of proportion.
Metonymy: This is using a word for something to refer to another
with which it has become closely associated.
Personification: It is giving human quality to an inanimate object.
Slang: Very informal words and expressions that are more
common in spoken language, especially used by a particular group of people.
Colloquialism: A word or phrase that is used in conversation but not in a
formal speech in writing.
Connotation: It is the additional meaning the word gains because of the
different environments in which a word has been used in the past.
Archaism: This is the use of old and middle English words which are
no longer in general usage today. Some examples are, “thereto”, and “thou”.
Clichés: They are phrases or ideas that have been used so often
that it no longer has much meaning and is not interesting.
A way of stylistic analysis is
taking a text and analyzing it at the various levels of the linguistic
organization – phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic levels. It
is the identification of patterns of usage in speech and writing. It is usually
made for the purpose of commenting on quality and meaning in a text.
1.2 Statement
Of The Problem
Though many works have been done on
the style of Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s other novels, not much has been done on his
style in Wizard of the Crow, which is his most recent novel,
published in 2007. Consequently, the researcher intends to examine the style of
Ngugi in this latest novel.
Secondly, most of the works did not
use quantitative stylistic analysis to determine the predominant or most
frequently occurring devices. They often simply listed out all the devices
used.
1.3 Objective
Of The Study
The objectives of this study is to
identify the predominant devices used by Ngugi wa Thiong’o in his novel Wizard
of the Crow and what he achieved by using those devices.
1.4 Significance
Of The Study
This research will help the readers
identify the predominant stylistic devices used by Ngugi wa Thiong’o in his
latest novel Wizard of the Crow and why he used them. It will
also provide reference material for other researchers in the field.
1.5 Scope
Of The Study
The study is restricted to the
novel Wizard of the Crow, a novel comprising six books namely; Book
1 – Power Daemons, Book 2 – Queuing Daemons, Book 3 – Female Daemons, Book 4 –
Male Daemons, Book 5 – Rebel Daemons and Book 6 – Bearded Daemons, with a total
of 264 chapters.
To enable the researcher to carry
out a detailed study of the text and for close textual references considering
the limited time available to the researcher, the scope is further restricted
to only 30 chapters of the novel. In addition, the researcher will restrict the
analysis of the stylistic devices to the use of ellipses, rhetorical questions,
parenthetical expressions, italics and long sentences which in the course of
reading the novel, the researcher found to have occurred more frequently than
the others.
1.6 Research
Methodology
The method to be used in this study
will be an intensive study of related materials from the library and a close
textual analysis of the text: Wizard of the Crow using quantitative
stylistic analysis. This entails counting and writing down the number of times
each of the selected stylistic devices occurred. In addition, 5 chapters will
be selected by simple random sampling from each of the six books giving a total
sample of 30 chapters out of the total 264 chapters that make up the novel.
EDITOR SOURCE: Predominant Devices Used By Ngugi Wa Thiong’o In His Novel Wizard Of The Crow
