A Study of Names and Dialogues as Functional Tools in Iyayi’s The Contract
Abstract
This study discusses the manner in which names of characters and their dialogues have been deployed for meaning projection by Festus Iyayi in the novel, The Contract. It reveals the message projected in the novel as the predatory nature of man in the absence of law and order. This is foregrounded in the elitist insincerity and hypocrisy of the Nigerians, as they try to cover up their hidden crime by taken chieftaincy titles and by showing some open good that will reveal them otherwise. The names and dialogues of the characters involved are discussed as used to reveal religious, geographical and ethnic as well as continental spread of these characters. This is with a view to showing the universality of decay and corruption and above all human cannibalism. Dialogues are encoded using varieties of English to show differences in social status for the same purpose. The paper relies on the systemic text-linguistic model of literary text analysis where it is asserted that every literary text has a central message it projects and it is projected at three meta-levels.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Adejare, O. (1992). Language and style in Soyinka: A systemic text-linguistic study of a literary idiolect. Ibadan: Heinemann.
Beaugrande, R. D., & Dressler, W. (1982). Introduction to text linguistics. London and New York: Longman.
Berry, M. (1975). Introduction to systemic linguistics. New York: St. Martins.
Eggins, S. (2004). An introduction to systemic functional linguistics. New York and London: Continuum.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language as social semiotics. London: Edward Arnold.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1994). Introduction to functional grammar. London: Edward Arnold.
Halliday, M. A. K., & Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. London: Longman.
Iyayi, F. (1989). The contract. Essex: Longman.
Jibrin, M. B. S. (2012). A Systemic text linguistic study of selected Nigerian novels (Unpublished doctor dissertation). Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria.
Jolayemi, D. (2000). Language and style: A systemic text-linguistic study of Olu Obafemi’s Plays. In D. Oni, & E. Ododo (Eds.), Critical studies and reflections on Olu Obafemi (pp. 115-133). Ibadan: Craft Publishers.
Leech, G. N., & Short, M. H. (1981). Style in fiction. London and New York: Longman.
Oyeleye, A. L. (1995). Translation and the African writer in English. In K. Owolabi (Ed.), Language in Africa. Ibadan: IUP.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/n
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c)
Online Submission: http://cscanada.org/index.php/sll/submission/wizard
Reminder
How to do online submission to another Journal?
If you have already registered in Journal A, then how can you submit another article to Journal B? It takes two steps to make it happen:
1. Register yourself in Journal B as an Author
Find the journal you want to submit to in CATEGORIES, click on “VIEW JOURNAL”, “Online Submissions”, “GO TO LOGIN” and “Edit My Profile”. Check “Author” on the “Edit Profile” page, then “Save”.
2. Submission
Go to “User Home”, and click on “Author” under the name of Journal B. You may start a New Submission by clicking on “CLICK HERE”.
We only use three mailboxes as follows to deal with issues about paper acceptance, payment and submission of electronic versions of our journals to databases: caooc@hotmail.com; sll@cscanada.net; sll@cscanada.org
Articles published in Studies in Literature and Language are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY).
STUDIES IN LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE Editorial Office
Address: 1055 Rue Lucien-L'Allier, Unit #772, Montreal, QC H3G 3C4, Canada.
Telephone: 1-514-558 6138
Website: Http://www.cscanada.net; Http://www.cscanada.org
E-mail: office@cscanada.net; office@cscanada.org; caooc@hotmail.com
Copyright © 2010 Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture