Theses and Dissertation collection from the Department of English
Permanent URI for this collection
Browse
Recent Submissions
Item ECOCRITICAL MOTIF AND CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES IN ZAKES MDA’S NOVELS(UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN, 2018-06) OJEDOJA, Sanjo SundayIssues on development have taken the central stage in post-apartheid literature in South Africa. Writers have tried to preempt developmental needs to cushion the adverse effect of apartheid. Zakes Mda is one of the leading novelists in this regard. Out of his popular works on various thematic concerns of post-apartheid South Africa, three were selected for this study, viz The Heart of Redness, Ways of Dying and The Whale Caller. This study aimed at exploring post-apartheid developmental challenges explored in the selected novels and the possible consequences of the options available on the environment using ecocriticism. The objectives of the study were to: (i) explain the centrality of nature in the exposition of Xhosa’s culture in Mda’s novels; (ii) examine how metaphor of land is central to the socio-economic challenges of modern South Africa explored in the novels; (iii) assess the divergence on the type of development suitable to post-apartheid South Africa; (iv) interrogate how Mda mediates between nature and modernity to canvass a new approach to peaceful co-existence in South Africa and; and (v) evaluate how human characters in Mda’s selected novels relate to other natural phenomena. The methodology was descriptive; mainly textual analysis. The study therefore adopted deep ecology model propounded by Naess, Devall and Sessions to bring out how literature and the environment relate in Mda’s literary works. The researcher sourced for information from the internet and the library. The choice of Mda’s novels were based on the novelist exploration of modern challenges encountered in post-apartheid South Africa and the centrality of natural resources on issues related to development in South Africa. The findings of this study were that: i. Mda portrays Xhosa peoples’ socio-economic and belief systems as products of their interaction with the natural environment; ii. land issues created the two conflicting groups of believers in the traditional ethos and unbelievers which originated from the colonial era; iii. Mda portrays Zim and Qukezwa as upholders of traditional culture (believers) while Bhonco and Xoliswa (unbelievers) represent foreign concept; iv. the novelist creates an interface between the two extreme groups of believers and unbelievers to channel a course for an ecological friendly development for South Africa; and v. Mda metaphorically reunites human and non-human characters of nature through dialogue to achieve an all-encompassing development. The study concluded that to facilitate a nature friendly development as Mda canvasses a conscious adoption of the values Africans attach to the environment (they dwell in) should not be compromised. This is imperative because any replication of the apartheid wanton abuse of the environment for commercial appropriation shall portend worst consequences than the despotic regime. The study thus recommended that in order to mitigate the effect of the apartheid experience on South Africans, the reviewers of African novels should emphasise cultural based development in the regionItem MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF TELEVISION ADVERTISEMENTS OF SELECTED BANKS IN NIGERIA(UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN, 2020-09) AJEPE, IFE FIYINFOLUTelevision advertisement has been a medium used by banks in Nigeria to convey advertising messages to their existing and potential customers through visual images, colours, sounds, written or spoken texts, which co-articulate at the same time. In spite of the importance of television advertisements, significant attention has not been given to all these modes using a Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA). Therefore, this study examined different modes in television advertisements of selected banks in Nigeria. The objectives were to: (i) identify the visual images, verbal and linguistic elements in the television advertisements of the selected banks; (ii) interpret the linguistic resources used by the advertisers; (iii)examine how the hidden meanings from the visual images, verbal and linguistic modes in the advertisements co-articulate; (iv) evaluate the extent to which verbal and linguistic elements in the television advertisements conform to the language in use in the Nigerian context; and (v) examine the impact of visual images, verbal and linguistic elements in the television advertisements on viewers‟ behaviour. The study has adopted a descriptive method. Observations and questionnaires were used for data gathering. Television advertisements were collected from ten banks using stratified random sampling technique. Three hundred questionnaires were administered in six cities across the country.The study adopted a combination of Halliday‟s(1994) meta-functions of language and Kress and van Leeuwen‟s (2001) Multimodal Theory of Communication as a conceptual framework. The findings were that: (i) topical themes were more predominant in the structure of clauses in advertisement messages; (ii) the material process was predominantly used at 51.25% compared to other processes and what the banks stand for was largely expressed using the declarative mood; (iii) respondents strongly agreed that sounds in banks‟ television advertisements captivated the attention of the audience as noted by 46.9% of the respondents, and 44.8% of the respondents also affirmed that images in banks‟ television advertisements make messages in the advert more understandable; (iv) respondents agreed that verbal and linguistic elements in the television advertisements conform to the language in use in the Nigerian context. They affirmed that the meanings of the words in the banks‟ television advertisements conveyed were clear; and (v) 44.5% of the respondents strongly agreed that contents of messages in the banks‟ television advertisements has a strong impact on them as it enhances their patronage, product recall, product preference and conviction. The study concluded that banks‟ television advertisement resources have a positive impact on the viewers. They evaluate meanings of the various meaning-making modes such linguistic choices, sounds, colours and visual images co-articulate to communicate to the viewers in Nigeria. It was therefore recommended that banks should continue to portray social relevance by using simple and understandable modes in the course of packaging their advertisements for more effectiveness.Item CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF THE LANGUAGE OF RAPE REPORTAGE IN NIGERIAN NEWSPAPERS(UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN, 2021-02) LEGEMAH, E. J.Item MOOD ANALYSIS OF SELECTED CASES OF STUDENT DISCIPLINARY INTERROGATIONS IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES(University of Ilorin, 2017) DAHUNSI, Toyese NajeemStudent Investigative and Disciplinary Interrogations (SIDIs) are a global and constant social practice in higher educational institutions. In spite of their strategic roles in the maintenance of peace and order in the society, SIDIs have not been scholarly explored to understand the inherent language dynamics, structure and peculiarities in Nigeria. This study was aimed at conducting a structural analysis of the discourse of SIDIs with a view to identifying the syntactic patterns and determining how grammatical systems and structures were used to achieve different communicative purposes. The objectives of the study were to: (i) conduct a structural analysis of SIDIs to identify the various types of questions asked by interrogators; (ii) investigate the specific purposes that the identified question types served in the interrogations; (iii) examine interrogators’ preferences for the identified question types; (iv) verify whether the identified question types have inhibitive effect on interrogatees’ choices and lengths of answers; and (v) determine whether interrogatees were at any disadvantage occasioned by interrogators’ questions. The methodology was mainly descriptive and analytical. The data were transcripts of SIDIs from three public universities in Nigeria: The University of Ilorin, the Federal University of Technology, Akure, and, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko. Five SIDIs, each containing about 30 question-answer adjacency pairs (QAPs), were selected per university (a total of 15 cases, 450 question-answer adjacency pairs). Mood analysis, an aspect of the Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) was carried out for the questions and answers. The variation of the modal elements in each QAP led to the emergence of different clausal configurations and functions. Answers to the questions were further analysed into short and long types. The findings of the study were that: i. four question types were asked by interrogators in the discourses. These were yes/no interrogatives, declarative questions, Wh-interrogatives and moodless constructions. Interrogatees’ answers were predominantly declarative, an indication that interrogators’ role was information elicitation through questioning while interrogatees’ role was information provision through narratives; ii. different questions served different purposes in the discourses: yes/no interrogatives and declarative functions served propositional confirmation-refutation functions; some yes/no interrogatives served the purpose of subtle commands; Wh-interrogatives served information gap-filling purposes; while moodless constructions served discourse continuity purposes; iii. interrogators’ highest preference was for yes/no interrogatives across cases, followed by declarative questions. These were propositional confirmation-refutation questions, and were structurally restrictive; iv. structurally restrictive questions took more long answers than short answers, an indication that though the questions were restrictive in form, they were non-restrictive in function; and v. interrogatees were not found to be disadvantaged by interrogators’ questions because the restrictive force of most questions had no observable effect on interrogatees’ answers in most cases. The study concluded that the QAP is evidently the main language resource for eliciting evidence in SIDIs and that although interrogators’ questions in SIDIs were predominantly and structurally restrictive, they were functionally non-restrictive. The study thus recommended the QAP as a reliable device for information elicitation in SIDIs.Item A PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF OLUSEGUN OBASANJO’S MEMOIR(2017) AJALA, Adeola Toyosi