Grapho-phonological Stylistic Devices in Select Tiv Novels

Abstract

Literary and non-literature texts have stylistically significant features that are analysed using descriptive linguistic levels such as graphology, phonology, morphology, lexicology, syntax and semantics. These levels have their immense contributions to the understanding of the entire texts. This study investigates the effective use of grapho-phonological devices in the select Nigerian novels: Shija’s (2005) Whispers of Distant Drums, Gar’s (2009) The Blood of the Ram, Kwaghchimin’s (2010) A Star of Hope, Tijah’s (2012) Slow Men at Work and Norya’s (2014) The Luminous Flame. It also investigates the roles of grapho-phonological deviations in the select novels. This study has adopted Leech’s (1969) model of Foregrounding. This theory is realised by the use of parallelisms (repetitions) and deviations in the select novels. This study used the above five select novels as primary sources and textbooks, journal articles and theses as documentary sources. As for data presentation and analysis, the authors read the select novels carefully, selected graphological and phonological devices, grouped them under graphology and phonology and related them to their artistic uses. It was discovered that graphological devices add aesthetic appeals to the select texts by using different font sizes such as eight, ten, eleven, typographical devices and orthographic features. Phonological devices breathe life into the dead mass of letters in the select novels, while grapho-phonological stylistic devices result in multi-modal stylistics hence graphic and phonic substances are used.