Abstract
This paper explores the textual metafunctional patterns in two fictional versions of a Biblical Parable in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s novel Devil on the Cross (1982) in order to find the similarities and differences between their compositional features. It critically draws on the theory of systemic functional linguistics expounded by specialists like Halliday (1994), Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) and Eggins (2004) to overview the theoretical background to the study, with focus on the grammar of textual meaning, proposes a new Theme classification and uses it to analyze the Thematic structure and taxis system of the two extracts. The researcher has come to the conclusion that, though they are initially spoken, these texts show such interesting textual-meaning properties as the density of ellipsis, of circumstantial and interpersonal thematization, of taxis and rank shift that they should be qualified to belong to both spoken and written mode of discourse.
Highlights
It is well-known that the Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o heavily draws on the Bible for his literary composition, namely in terms of characterization by description and speech (Ngara, 1985; Amoussou, 2011, 2015)
It critically draws on the theory of systemic functional linguistics expounded by specialists like Halliday (1994), Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) and Eggins (2004) to overview the theoretical background to the study, with focus on the grammar of textual meaning, proposes a new Theme classification and uses it to analyze the Thematic structure and taxis system of the two extracts
Of the three language functions –the experiential, the interpersonal, and the textual– advocated in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL)– the last one plays a vital part in the expression of the first two
Summary
It is well-known that the Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o heavily draws on the Bible for his literary composition, namely in terms of characterization by description and speech (Ngara, 1985; Amoussou, 2011, 2015). In most of his novels, the writer enrolls his characters after figures from the Bible and Kenyan politics by making them talk or think the Bible without any forewarning to the readers. This is exactly what happens in his fifth novel Devil on the Cross (1982) when two fictional characters, a socialist-inclined one (text1) and a capitalist-inclined one (text2), draw on Matthew 25: 14-46 to speak, first to a group taxi-boarders and to an assembly of ‘robbers’ or ‘capitalists’. This article analyses the Theme patterns and logical relations in the two texts in order to reveal their major characteristics Such an endeavor falls within the realm of the grammar of textual meaning/THEME. Following the tradition of the Prague School linguists, the word ‘Theme/Thematic’ is written with a capital initial as a label for ‘the textual functional constituent’ (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004: 64) but it is fully capitalized when it refers to the whole grammar or when used to display the ‘Thematic structure’ of clauses (Eggins, 1994)
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