Abstract
The late Hans Wolff may be considered as one of the pioneers of modern stylistic studies of Yoruba Poetry. In his article RArA: A Yoruba Chant,' he discussed the linguistic, literary, and social characteristics of the type of Yoruba poetry known as rArA. The present paper is concerned with a study of word play-a feature which is typical of Yoruba poetry in general. Three types of word play may be distinguished in Yoruba poetry: tonal, lexical, and semantic. Tonal word play consists of a variation of tone on the same lexical item; lexical word play is play on more than one lexical item with a variation of tone, or of tone and vowel; semantic word play is play on meaning or punning. Tonal word play consists of a variation of tone on the same lexical item without a
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