Stylistic Analysis of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun

A STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF CHIMAMANDA ADICHIE’S “PURPLE HIBISCUS” AND CHINUA ACHEBE’S “ANTHILLS OF THE SAVANNAH”

Abstract

Language and style never moves beyond a concentration on the supremacy of words. Literary piece (such as novels) somehow contain meaning of style with language; effectively manipulated in ways that signal it as different from “ordinary” language. A stylistic analysis of Chimamanda Adichie’s “Purple Hibiscus” (2003) and Chinua Achebe’s “Anthills of the Savannah” (1987) is carried out to educate, explicate and expose everybody that come across this paper, in guiding them on how to analyse and understand these prose texts. It also examines the uniqueness of stylistics as it concerns both the combination of linguistics and literary study of the texts being reviewed. The data used to illustrate and substantiates our claims are systematically sourced from the selected Nigerian prose texts earlier mentioned. The lexico-semantic patterns and choices, the phonological, morphological, syntactic and graphological devices are the main stylistic elements coupled with rigorous in-depth analysis of the figurative language employed in selected prose texts which are used to prove our claims. Finally, we find that each of the elements however, has identifiable functions which contribute to the effective meaning of the texts. Therefore, it can be concluded that these elements trigger and play important roles in passing the intention of the writers/authors across their audience. Comparatively, this research discovers that Adichie borrows a lot from Achebe’s manner of writing in simple free-flow linguistic and stylistic presentations, there is, nevertheless, a wide disparity in their sexist beliefs and ideological orientations. This implies that; while Achebe tends towards phallocentric predilection, Adichie subtly differs by pitching a camp with her gender lot – Feminism. This creates a wide valley between the two mountains.

Keywords: Stylistics, language, figurative language, syntax, graphology, lexico-semantics…

INTRODUCTION

Stylistics has always had a hard time of it. As an academic discipline it has always been seen, pretty much throughout the twentieth century, as neither one thing nor the other, or, much worse, as all things to all men and women, as sitting uncomfortably on the fence between the linguistic and the literary, and as a bit uneasy within either domain, building bridges that never quite stretch far enough across dividing waters and always, as here, resorting to retreat, repair and reconciliation metaphors of bridges, unfilled gaps and spaces, crossing contested territories, unhappy marriages and paths not taken. In the 1960s and 1970s this was in part to be expected for an essentially inchoate interdisciplinary endeavour. Linguists felt stylistics was too soft to be taken too seriously and tended to introduce irrelevant notions such as performance data and interpretation; literature specialists felt that stylistics was too hard, too mechanistic and too reductive, saying nothing significant about historical context or aesthetic theory, eschewing evaluation for the most part in the interests of a naïve scientism and claiming too much for interpretations that were at best merely text-immanent. And many linguists and literary critics continue to this day to give stylistics a hard time. But, for better or for worse, statisticians have stayed together. Although, there have been few divorces or major disagreements within the family (G. Watson and S, Zyngier, 2007: R. Carter, 2007).

However, stylistics as a term as generally been referred to as the study of style and language. The concept of style itself has had a troubled history in the modern period both within and outside literary study. It has commonly been argued that, we use the term ‘style’ without knowing its meaning. The Work of literature is written and presented in many ways in order to bring out its creative nature. To achieve this, the writer uses his peculiar manners, choice of words and form in presenting his message. This is what is known as style. Style therefore is the peculiar way in which something is done (Nnaji, 2014).
Simpson (2004:2) defines style as “a method of textual interpretation in which primary of place is assigned to language”. This shows that language is the key point in stylistic because a writer employs various forms and patterns of language while presenting his message.

Stylistics is the description and analysis of the variability of linguistic forms in actual language use. The concepts of ‘style’ and ‘stylistic variation’ in language rest on the general assumption that within the language system, the same content can be encoded in more than one linguistic form. Operating at all linguistic levels (e.g. lexicology, syntax, text linguistics and intonation), stylisticians analyse both the style of specific texts and stylistic variation across texts. These texts can be literary or non-literary in nature. Generally speaking, style may be regarded as a choice of linguistic means; as deviation from a norm; as recurrence of linguistic forms and as comparison.

Azuike (1992) in Nnaji (2014) identifies the following rubrics to guide one in stylistic analysis. They are: “Style as a deviation from the norm, style as individual, style as content and form, style as choice, style as a product of context, style as good and beautiful writing”.

Style as choice, as one of the six rubrics forms, is the focus of this work. This means that an individual can adopt a special way of writing to make his work unique. Often times, the author’s identity is given away by some details reflecting, habit of expression or thought, and these seem to confirm that each writer has a linguistic ‘thumb-print’, an individual combination of linguistic habits which somehow betrays him in all that he writes. Accordingly, it is a writer’s idiosyncratic way of expressing himself or herself, it is an offshoot of his or her personality.

Style may be said to relate communicative performance, which is the demonstration of the speaker’s or writer’s language capacity in generating and understanding specific communicative contexts. Stylistics therefore is the study of style. But style itself, by its nature, is a subject of debate. This paper is thus an attempt to investigate the style of writings of these two authors that make their works distinct from their contemporaries.

PLOT (PURPLE HIBISCUS)

Kambili Achike, the narrator, is a fifteen-year-old girl living in Enugu, Nigeria with her father, Eugene (Papa), mother, Beatrice (Mama), and older brother, Chukwuku (Jaja). The novel begins on Palm Sunday. Jaja refuses to receive communion at church, and Papa throws his missal, breaking Mama’s beloved figurines. Kambili then explains the events leading up to this scene. Papa, a wealthy factory owner, is an active philanthropist in public and an upstanding Catholic, but at home is a strict and violent authoritarian. He publishes a newspaper, the Standard, which is the only paper willing to criticize the new Nigerian Head of State.

Mama gets pregnant. After Mass one day the family visits Father Benedict, their white priest. Mama feels sick and doesn’t want to leave the car. When they return home Papa beats Mama until she has a miscarriage. Later Kambili takes her exams and comes second in her class, disappointing Papa. At Christmas the family goes to their home village of Abba. Papa’s father, Papa-Nnukwu, lives there, but Papa doesn’t speak to him because his father sticks to his traditional religion and won’t become Catholic. Kambili and Jaja visit Papa-Nnukwu briefly. Aunty Ifeoma, Papa’s widowed sister and a university professor, arrives in Abba as well. She seems fearless and willing to criticize both Papa and the government. Her children; Amaka, Obiora, and Chima: are precocious and outspoken.

Ifeoma takes Jaja and Kambili to an Igbo festival. On Christmas Papa feeds the whole village. The next day Papa catches Kambili breaking the “Eucharist fast” as she eats some food along with a painkiller she needs to take for menstrual cramps, and he beats her, Jaja, and Mama. Ifeoma convinces Papa to let Jaja and Kambili visit her in Nsukka. Kambili and Jaja arrive and are surprised by Ifeoma’s poverty, but also the constant laughter in her house. Jaja is fascinated by the purple hibiscuses in Ifeoma’s garden. Father Amadi, a young, handsome Nigerian priest, comes to dinner.

As the days progress Jaja opens up, though Kambili remains silent and confused. Ifeoma hears that Papa-Nnukwu is sick, and she fetches him from Abba. Amaka starts painting a picture of him. Father Amadi visits often, and Kambili finds herself attracted to him. One morning Kambili observes Papa-Nnukwu’s morning ritual, which is similar to Catholic confession.

Father Amadi takes Kambili to the local stadium. He makes her chase after him and tries to get her to talk. Kambili is confused by her feelings and his “unpriestly” demeanor. Papa finds out that Papa-Nnukwu is staying in the house. The next morning the family discover that Papa-Nnukwu has died in his sleep. Papa takes Jaja and Kambili back to Enugu, and Amaka gives Kambili her painting. Papa punishes Jaja and Kambili for not telling him they were staying in the same apartment as their grandfather, a pagan, by pouring boiling water on their feet. Papa and his editor, Ade Coker, decide to run a controversial story in the Standard. Soon after, Ade Coker is assassinated with a package bomb.

One day Kambili and Jaja are looking at the painting of Papa-Nnukwu when Papa comes in. He beats Kambili severely, and she wakes up in the hospital. Papa agrees to let Jaja and Kambili return to Nsukka. Ifeoma worries about losing her job for speaking out against the “sole administrator” appointed by the government. The university closes after a student riot. Men ransack Ifeoma’s flat, trying to intimidate her. Kambili falls more deeply in love with Father Amadi, who seems attracted to her.

Mama arrives one day after being beaten into another miscarriage. Papa takes his family home, and the next day is the Palm Sunday on which the novel begins, when Jaja stands up to Papa. After Palm Sunday there is less fear and silence in the house. Ifeoma calls to say that she has been fired and is moving to America. Jaja and Kambili return to Nsukka. Ifeoma takes them on a pilgrimage to Aokpe, where Kambili sees visions of the Virgin Mary and reaffirms her faith. Father Amadi leaves to do missionary work, and Kambili weeps and confesses her love to him. Ifeoma gets a visa and prepares to leave Nigeria. Papa is found dead at his desk, and they all go to Enugu. When Papa’s autopsy is complete, Mama says that she poisoned him. The police arrive and Jaja takes responsibility for the crime.

Three years later, Kambili and Mama visit Jaja in prison to tell him he will be released soon. Mama has grown withdrawn and rarely speaks. After the visit, Kambili feels hopeful about the future.

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Chapter One/Introduction

Background to the Student

All over the world, people learn English language for different reasons: some learn English for their jobs; some learn English because it is an international language; and some learn English because it is the language of science. In their journey of learning, they should bear in mind that, like any other languages, English language consists of processes the learner needs to follow in order to learn it. One of the processes is part of the speech. When one looks into the English language from the top to the bottom, one will find what is called parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives… among them are prepositions.

Prepositions cannot give meaning on themselves; they link with other words or groups of words such as nouns, verbs, or adjectives to give the meanings. However, there will be a problem if there are no clear rules for how to use them.

To add more, the reason that makes prepositions confusing is recognizing prepositions that are attached to verb, adjective and nouns. A noun or pronoun always follows a preposition. A prepositional phrase is a preposition and its object. Prepositional phrase can be two or three words. However, prepositional phrases can also be longer, depending on the lengths of the preposition and the number of words that describe the object of the preposition.

Despite the above-mentioned classifications, still there are some difficulties that may face student of third year secondary. Many secondary students of the third year, they misuse prepositions both in their spoken and written language. Furthermore, some students whether they are students of the third year or else, they have common mistakes of using prepositions; even some English native speakers may say they use preposition without perfect interpretations.

Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate misuse of English prepositions by primary school students to come out with findings and suggest possible ways of learning and using prepositions correctly

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 3

1. THE MAIN ASPECTS OF FUNCTIONAL STYLES 5

2. THE PUBLICISTIC STYLE OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE 7

3. THE MAIN FEATURES OF THE NEWSPAPER STYLE 8

3.1 The Structure of News Stories 9

4. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF HEADLINES IN THE ENGLISH NEWSPAPER 13

4.1 The Special Language Features of Newspaper Headlines 14

5. ANALYSIS OF THE STYLE OF THE HEADLINES 20

5.1 Methodological Considerations of the Research 20

5.2 The Omission of Words 21

5.3 The Use of Short Words 23

5.4 The Use of Loaded Words 25

5.5 The Use of Nominalization 26

5.6 The Use of Noun Phrases 28

5.7 The Use of Gimmicks 31

CONCLUSIONS 36

REFERENCES 38

DICTIONARIES 39

SOURCES 39

INTRODUCTION

Today‘s life is unimaginable without the mass media. A lot of different printed as well as online newspapers try to attract the readers. Firstly, the reader notes the headline of the article and only after then decides whether to read it or not. Therefore the headlines are one of the most important components of the piece of writing.

The newspaper as a form of the mass media is known for several ages. However, the investigation of the language in newspapers has started only in the mid-20th century. The principles of creating and analyzing newspaper headlines have not been widely explored.

The object of the work is the analysis of British newspaper headlines.

The aim of presented research is to analyze the stylistic features of the newspaper headlines of The Telegraph. To achieve this aim the following objectives have been set:

1. To overview the theoretical data of functional styles.

2. To overview the newspaper style.

3. To disclose the functions and general peculiarities of the headlines.

4. To analyze special language features of the headlines.

5. To indicate the frequency of certain stylistic features used in the newspaper headlines.

Relevance of the work. There are quite many linguists who analyzed the newspaper style such as A. Bell (1991), T. A. Znamenskaya (2005), C. Rich (2010), O.K. Denisova and L.P. Pozniak (2014). The stylistic features of the newspaper language as well as the headlines were introduced by R. Fowler (1991), M. Swan (1995), D. Reah (1998), J. Morley (1998). The syntactical classification of the headlines was studied by I. Mardh (1980), Caroline M. de B. Clark (2007).

The novelty of the present research. The newspaper headlines can be analyzed from different linguistic perspectives. The present paper focuses on the main grammatical as well as lexical language features that create the style of headlines found in the broadsheet newspaper.

The research methods used in the present study are the following:

1. Descriptive theoretical analysis made it possible to analyze scientific literature regarding the features of functional styles, newspaper style, headlines.

2. Descriptive analysis was useful in analysing the selected examples of English newspaper headlines.

3. Descriptive statistic method was used to indicate the frequency of certain stylistic features revealed by the analysis.

The scope of the research and research material. For the purpose of investigation 200 examples of the newspaper headlines have been drawn from the British online newspaper The Telegraph. 71 instance of headlines has been used as illustrative examples.

The structure of the present research. The work is composed of introduction, theoretical and practical parts, conclusions and the list of references. In the introduction the objectives, the aim, the relevance of the work, the methods used in the research as well as the number of analyzed headlines are presented. The theoretical part contains the discussion of functional styles, publicistic style, the features of the newspaper style and headlines. The practical part is for the analysis of the stylistic features typical for the newspaper headlines. Conclusions give the findings and the results of the presented study. The list of references arranged in alphabetic order presents the used materials.

THE MAIN ASPECTS OF FUNCTIONAL STYLES

Every written or spoken discourse has a style. The word itself refers to some kind of a function. A style depends upon the purpose of the text or the specific conditions of communication in different situations. However, there is no single and concrete definition of a word style.

N. Leech and M. Short (2007:10) point out that the style refers to the way in which language is used in a given context, by a given person, for a given purpose. To cite V. Mathesius (1982:105f) ―style is a significant manner in which the linguistic means of expression has been employed or will usually be employed for a concrete purpose‖. The online Reference Dictionary1 defines style as the mode of expressing thought in writing or speaking by selecting and arranging words, considered with respect to clearness,

effectiveness, euphony or the like, that is characteristic of a group, period, person, personality, etc. In other words, style refers to ways of writing or speaking—how a person varies the resources of language in order to make a speech or written discourse meaningful.

We may have the style of an individual which is typical for the individuality of the writer or speaker and the functional style which is dependent on the aim of a text or speech. It is clear that functional has something to do with function or objective. R. Dirven and V. Fried in the book called Functionalism in Linguistics (1987:13) state that functional style is the manner in which texts respond to the demands of the functional objects. Functional style is dependent on the specific conditions of communication in different situations.

The main problem on which linguists do not agree is whether or not there are different styles in the spoken English language. Another problem is the classification of functional styles. O.K. Denisova and L.P. Pozniak (2014:110) say that there are linguists such as R.G. Piotrovsky (1975), Y.S. Steponov (1986) who state that there are no functional styles at all. However, functional styles have been divided into specific groups by some other scholars. According to I. V. Arnold as cited by T.A. Znamenskaya et al (2005:136-137) styles can be divided into two groups:

1. Colloquial Styles: (literary colloquial; familiar colloquial; common colloquial).

2. Literary Bookish Styles: (scientific; official documents; publicistic newspaper; oratorical; poetic).

According to I. R. Galperin (1981) as cited by Denisova and Pozniak et al (2014:110)

the set of style classes include:

a) official business style; b) scientific professional style; c) publicistic style;

d) literary colloquial style; e) familiar colloquial style.

In order to get better understanding of the classification of functional styles, the linguists give the more explicit subdivision. Denisova and Pozniak represent the different position towards the problem of functional styles. Their classification is presented below (Ibid):

a) Literary or bookish style;

b) Free or colloquial style;

The literary or bookish class includes: 1) publicistic; 2) scientific; 3) official documets style. The free or colloquial style is subdivided into: 1) literary colloquial and 2) familiar colloquial style. The scholars do not classify neither poetry nor imaginative prose (fiction), stating that they are non-homogeneous.

Functional styles are subsystems of language and each of them has its own features concerning vocabulary means, syntactical constructions or phonetics. The use of a certain functional style is connected to the particular situations of communication in different spheres of life.

Having reviewed the main aspects of functional styles, the conclusion that functional styles are the subsystems of language with distinctive lexical, syntactical and phonetic features can be drawn. The following chapter will briefly introduce the main features of the English publicistic style.

THE PUBLICISTIC STYLE OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Publicistic style is used in newspaper or magazine articles, public speeches, essays, radio or TV comments. Denisova and Pozniak (2014:111) state that the function of publicistic style is to influence the public opinion. The main feature of the usage of this style is the combination of logical argumentation and emotional appeal to the audience, i.e. readers and listeners. Moreover, the special elements from scientific as well as from emotive prose are found in publicistic style.

The newspaper is the most readable source of information throughout the world. The facts in the newspaper are presented objectively and fairly. The language is clear and acceptable. One of the main functions which publicistic style has to contain is that the information in the newspaper should be relevant. To put into R. Fowler‘s words (1991:13): ―The news media select events for reporting according to a complex set of criteria of news worthiness; so news is not simply that which happens, but that which can be regarded and presented as newsworthy.― In other words news does not have to be just simple description of events, but also has to be meaningful. Another feature that plays a huge role on the news is the use of colloquialisms, incomplete sentences, questions and a varied typography suggesting variations of emphasis, the written text mimics a speaking voice, as of a person talking informally but with passionate indignation (Fowler, 1991:39). In addition, Denisova and Pozniak (2014:119) note that the publicistic style takes some features from emotive prose: the use of stylistic devices and imagery as well as brevity and expression. The scientific elements found in publicistic style include the logical structure of the news presentation, clear paragraphing and consecutiveness.

To conclude this chapter it could be stated that specific linguistic means used in the writings of the publicistic style (in this case newspapers) have strong meaning in creating the language attractive, interesting and informative to the reader as much as possible. The following part will be based on the features of the newspaper style.

THE FEATURES OF THE NEWSPAPER STYLE

The word newspaper suggests that its main function is to give news. Despite this, it is used to educate, enlighten or entertain people. The newspaper also seeks to influence public opinion on political, economic and other matters. Newspapers can provide a medium of information to those who do not have television, radio or the internet. According to J. Tunstall (1996) as cited by D. Reah et al (1998:2) there are three types of newspapers:

1. The broadsheet newspapers (e.g., the Telegraph, the Independent, the Times and the Guardian);

2. The middle-range tabloids (e.g., the Express and the Daily Mail);

3. Tabloids (e.g., the Sun, the Mirror, the Star).

The tabloids and broadsheet newspapers have different functions to perform. As The New British Politics (2007:301) states, tabloids are less serious (popular) daily or Sunday papers so called because of their smaller size. It is added that the broadsheets now publish in a tabloid format, but are still known as broadsheets, or quality papers. It should be mentioned that tabloids tend to focus on personalities and gossip, stories found in these newspapers are smaller comparing to broadsheets, the writing style is less formal and slangy, more pictures are found. While the broadsheets are described as serious (quality) national daily or Sunday papers so called because of their size (Ibid). It is generally believed that broadsheets contain more serious news than tabloids and are read by more educated people. Information in the middle-range tabloids focuses on the sensational stories as well as on the important news events.

There are two types of news that can be found in broadsheets or tabloids: hard news and soft news. C. Rich (2010:17) points out that ―hard news― include stories of a timely nature about events or conflicts that have just happened or are about to happen such as fires, crimes, meetings, protest rallies, speeches and testimony in court cases. Hard news has little value after 24-48 hours. The news of such themes found in broadsheet newspapers tend to focus on the main and the most important details related to the story. Another type of news is called soft news and Rich (Ibid) states that ―soft news― entertains or informs, with an emphasis on human interests and novelty and less immediacy than hard news. Unlike the hard news, soft news pay attention to the things related to the minor things of the story e.g. personal life, work, etc.

It should be mentioned that the distinction between the two types of newspapers disappears as broadsheets tend to entertain more and tabloids include more serious articles. However, the use of gimmicks, allusions, pictures and images for entertainment purpose in broadsheet newspapers are rather of educational nature.

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