EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPT IN CONVERSATION: A CASE STUDY OF OSOFISAN'S TEGONNI

Abstract

Interactants pass across different messages to each other during social interactions – some of which may be intentional while some may be inadvertent. However, when interlocutors of different cultural background, different social status and unequal power relations are conversing especially with a sort of veiled hostility between them, then, it is not unlikely that they will show contempt for each other using both verbal and non-verbal means of communication. It is on the basis of the above assertion that the paper examines various ways through which characters express contempt for each other when interacting using Osofisan's play – Tegonni as the source of our data. The paper makes use of insight from Conversation Analysis in analyzing the data. Among others, the authors discovered that interactants can exhibit contempt for each other in discourse through deliberate using of inappropriate lexical items to refer to each other; refusal to answer questions at the first instance, refusal to apologize for something being accused of and through non-verbal means which have been explained in the work.