Stylistic Analysis Of Binwell’s Cowries Of Hope
Abstract
The aim of this study is to make a stylistic analysis of a novel entitled A COWRIE OF HOPE by Binwell Sinyangwe using the analytic model developed by Leech and Short (1981) as the major approach. To facilitate this, the study is divided into four chapters. The first chapter mainly involves the background of the study, the statement of the problem, objectives of the study, research questions and the methodology of the study.
The second chapter is mainly discusses review of related literature and theoretical framework. Chapter three is the analysis part in which selected chapters from the novel are analyzed and chapter four will be the conclusion where it summarizes the major findings.
Most MA theses that have used stylistic analysis are based on certain poem or short stories and much work has not been done applying stylistic analysis to novels, according to the observation made. Thus, this paper tries to apply stylistic analysis on a novel and shows how one can better understand writer’s use of different literary elements and how meanings are constructed from a specific novel.
To give some of the major findings of this study, the writer uses more nouns as compared to other word classes, i.e. adjectives, verbs and adverbs. When we see major figures of speech used, the writer uses repetition and parallelism as the major grammatical and lexical schemes. With regard to the phonological schemes, alliteration is widely used creating a consonant sound effect. Alliterative proper nouns are also use to help the reader not to easily forget the names of the some characters. When we see the use of tropes, almost all of the rhetorical devices that are used are similes.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Stylistics, which has variously been regarded as an eclectic and relatively new concept, in fact, has its origin in traditional rhetoric. Scholars such as Richard Bradford and Graham Hough have linked the 20th Century stylistics with the art of rhetoric as obtained in ancient Greece. In those ancient times, the Greeks recognized the informative, cohesive and persuasive qualities of a good speech in public speaking. The skills of this ‘oral forensic craft of rhetoric’, with the discovery of writing in the 5th Century B.C., began to be taught and learnt as a practical discipline. The ancient forensic orators developed the techniques known as figures of speech, which included schemes and tropes. These were employed in the structuring and elaboration of an argument. They were also used to move the emotion. The Renaissance period in Europe (14th Century – 16th Century) when there was a great revival of learning in art and literature influenced by Greek and Latin, saw the study of these figures under the heading of Elocution. Elocution was technically one of the five divisions of rhetoric.
Stylistic Analysis Of Binwell’s Cowries Of Hope
What can be regarded as modern stylistics can be seen as a development from this main branch of rhetoric? Its interest lies in the relations between form and content, concentrating on the characteristic features of expression. One of the attempts to fuse modern linguistic insights with traditional rhetorical figures was by Geoffrey Leech (1969) in what he termed descriptive rhetoric. In the 19th Century, linguistics as a science invaded the field of style such that any discussion in the area of style was regarded as a discussion in linguistics. This is because any use of language in a literary work operates within the confines of the ‘scientific rules’ of the language. The credit for this development goes to Ferdinand de Saussure.
At his demise, his student, Charles Bally – the expressive stylistic and – became the acclaimed father of modern stylistics. The concept of linguistic stylistics has to do with a stylistic study that relies heavily on the ‘scientific rules’ of language in its analysis. Such rules will embrace the lexical, grammatical, figures of speech, context and cohesion categories. Literary stylistics differs from linguistic stylistics in that the latter abstracts and describes the elements of language used in conveying a certain subject matter whereas the former dwells heavily on external correlates (history, philosophy, source of inspiration, etc) to explain a text, with an occasional leap into the elements of language used. Literary stylistics and linguistic stylistics have different emphases and different methods of operation.
The former operates on values and aesthetics while the latter presents a scientific analysis, working with such tools as grammatical, syntactic and phonological components of the language. With the application of linguistic standards to literary works, the literary critic felt ‘threatened’ and some like Bateson stoutly ‘fought’ to resist the ‘encroachment’. With this linguistic invasion of the field of literature, came a ‘war of words’ among scholars – those who identified with linguistic stylistics and those Who think that literary stylistics alone can do the job of explication of a literary text.
When Winifred Nowottny, in the 1960s, advised that the prudent analysis of work (poetry for instance) is that which begins with ‘what’s there’, she was only lending credence to an academic debate staged by I.A. Richards in the 1920s. Wimsatt and Beardsley, who were extreme defendants of subjecting works of art to linguistic frames, developed I.A. Richards’ propositions. Richards’ treatise was criticized for its basic contradictions concerning affectism, while Beardsley and Wimsatt were flawed because of classification of genetic materials.
Stylistic Analysis Of Binwell’s Cowries Of Hope
However, the point was already made: any objective examination of a literary work has to be by a thorough linguistic analysis devoid of the reader’s responses because such responses are variable, irresponsible, unrecoverable, and demonstrably erroneous. A literary giant such as Bateson, however, fumed at what seemed a linguistic invasion of their field. In some quarters, the literary critics regarded linguists as ‘a generation of vipers’, and Bateson himself swore never to have anything to do with a linguist in his family.
People like Roger Fowler and Rene Wellek certainly see the importance of subjecting a work of art to appropriate linguistic frames, but they caution that exclusively linguistic stylistics or exclusively literary stylistics would be going to the extreme; each needs the support of the other in the common goal of explication of literary works. (See the introductory part of R. Fowler.)
Linguists over the years have studied languages and have actually expanded the wings of language to various levels of Linguistic analysis or description such as phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and Discourse. The graphic representation of sounds (speech sounds) on paper is called writing. Writing is done in different ways for various purposes and by different people. It is because of this that the study of stylistics becomes necessary and an important area to both linguists and critics.
In spite of these initial conflicts, linguistic stylistics has come to stay. It is a term coined in 1968 by Donald Freeman, apparently to put to rest the verbal feud between literary critics and linguists (Freeman1990:120). Scholars have done 4 works aimed at guiding the linguistic stylistic student on the procedure of linguistic analysis. Geoffrey Leech and Michael Short have provided a checklist arranged in four categories – the lexical, grammatical, figures of speech, context and cohesion.
Crystal and Davy have also outlined the methodology of describing the linguistic features of a text. In a more recent study, M.N. Azuike gives a systematic guide on how to analyses a work of art both from the standpoint of the linguistic stylistician and that of the literary stylistician.
Sinyangwe’s fiction is, in this research is subjected to such linguistic frames as diction, phrasal, clausal and sentence patterns, paragraph structure, with a view to exposing the stylistic effects of these in conveying the message in the novel.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Firstly, there exist innumerable literary assessments by scholars, especially the literary critics, on the creative works by African writers. The volumes of African Literature Today (ALT) series and other critical works that are available at present attest to this. Renowned creative writers in Africa have received some level of attention by critics. Nevertheless, as if there is some conspiracy, a prolific creative writer like Sinyangwe, with books to his credit, has scarcely been given due attention. Little or none researchers all over Nigeria have been written on this writer.
None of these has dwelt on a stylistic study of Sinyangwe’s works.
Secondly, students interested in researching into the field of linguistic stylistics need a coherent and current work in the field to update their knowledge. Both problems coalesce to inform the desire to work on the title of this research
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of the study is to conduct a stylistic analysis of novel (cowries of hope). This we have specifically done by examining the novel under this study. The study also examined the aesthetic features, those extra-linguistic linguo-literary – featurses prevalent in the novels. This research also hopes to act as a reference point for students interested in researching into linguistic stylistics
1.4 Significance of the study
The importance of style in any given write-up cannot be underestimated and this research work will be significant in the following ways:
- First, it will contribute to the growing explorations on the interface between language and literature.
- It will also explore how a linguistic framework can help us in understanding literary texts
iii. It will also reveal how literature can tell us about stylistic structure and function
- It will also obviously contribute to our knowledge on the link between literature and style in academic disciplines.
- It will serve as a mail stone for other researcher on stylistic
1.5 Research Methodology
This research will be based on library research; the primary source of information will be Binwell’s Cowries of Hope in carrying out the stylistic analysis. The research shall also source for information from relevant internet.
1.6 Scope of the Study
The study is the cowries of hope. The study is limited to Binwell’s cowries of hope which was chosen for analysis. The analysis will concentrate on analyzing the stylistic features of the text.
This study is also limited only to the selected text for this study and it will not extend it analysis to any other work