LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 13:7 July 2013
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Appositive Relations and Strategic Discourse Functions in Selected Nigerian Novels

Joseph A. Ushie, Ph.D.
Romanus Aboh, Ph.D.

Abstract

Novel provides a wide range of grammatical possibilities which novelists explore to capture the diverse thematic concerns of their literary engagements. In spite of these possibilities, studies on the Nigerian novel have mostly concentrated on lexical processes, rhetoric and thematic explorations to the neglect of how Nigerian novelists explore grammatical items such as appositions to capture the multivocal preoccupation of their literary commitment. Anchored on the grammatical concept of appositions, this paper examines the strategic discourse functions appositive relations perform in the Nigerian novel. The analysis, which is both quantitative and qualitative, reveals that appositive relations are not just co-referential grammatical items, but strong discourse markers which are used to perform a range of discourse functions in the Nigerian novel.

Key words: Appositive element, anchor, discourse; Nigerian novelists

Introduction

Due to Nigerian novelists’ tendency to capture reality in detailed and precise manner, their works provide good and many examples of the use of appositive relations in all its varieties. Despite the multivocal functions to which appositive is put to use in the Nigerian novel, studies on the Nigerian novels have mostly concentrated on pragmatic features (Osunbade, 2010), pronominal reference as discourse strategy (Ogunsiji, 2008) and lexical strategies (Aboh, 2012). Moreover, the literary angle is mostly given to the analysis of the extant cultural influences on Nigerian writers’ creative ambience (Okolo, 2008), Diaspora identity negotiation (Kehinde, 2008) and the Nigerian socio-political dislocations providing the materials with which its writers weave their art (Erritouni, 2010).

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Joseph A. Ushie, Ph.D.
Department of English
University of Uyo
Nigeria
joseph.ushie@gmail.com

Romanus Aboh, Ph.D.
Department of English
University of Ibadan
Nigeria
romeaboh@gmail.com
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