The Grammar of Interpersonal Meaning in Wole Soyinka’s A Play of Giants

Innocent Sourou Koutchadé

doi:10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n5p299

Abstract

The aim of this article is to use the analytic and linguistic tools drawn from Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to inquire into the language of Wole Soyinka’s play entitled: A Play of Giants. In order to stress how the protagonists interact with one another, the paper focuses on the study of interpersonal meaning. The method of analysis is that of sampling. The data, thus, includes two excerpts selected and analyzed through the linguistic features of mood, modality and adjuncts. The findings reveal that the two texts display various mood-types, mainly declarative, interrogative and imperative mood, as well as features of modality, including modulation and modalisation, which are combined with adjunct features to contribute to the realization of interpersonal function and to decode the tenor of discourse in the play. The work concludes that interpersonal meaning is an important theory as it has made it easy to decode the language and style of the writer and account for how the writer has satirized the characters of the play to address some of the political issues confronting contemporary Africa. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n5p299

Highlights

One important way of analyzing literary texts successfully is to use linguistic methods
To provide a relevant investigation of some aspects of the message conveyed by Wole Soyinka, this research paper carries out a stylistic analysis of this writer’s play entitled A Play of Giants through the approach devised by Systemic Functional Linguists
In order to facilitate the analysis of linguistic features related to mood, modalities and adjuncts, the sampling method used has consisted in selecting some excerpts from the play under study

Summary

Introduction

One important way of analyzing literary texts successfully is to use linguistic methods. This is probably one of the major goals set up by stylistics which is commonly viewed as the study of style. To provide a relevant investigation of some aspects of the message conveyed by Wole Soyinka, this research paper carries out a stylistic analysis of this writer’s play entitled A Play of Giants through the approach devised by Systemic Functional Linguists. As a matter of fact, Wole Soyinka is one of the most prolific West African literary scholars. As a matter of fact, A Play of Giants focuses on themes around the subject of power In this play, Soyinka describes the authoritarian and dictatorial regimes which have arisen in Africa in the days following the independence. The theoretical approach related to mood, modality and tenor of discourse is accounted for and, second, a clause-to-clause analysis is provided so that the main linguistic features are studied to make it easy to find out some instances of meanings being made in the play under study

Theoretical Foundation

The Analysis

Statistical analysis of text 1

Statistical analysis of text2

Findings

Discussion and Conclusion