ABSTRACT Background: Children imitate, and model adult speech as noted in Skinner’s theory (Skinner, 1957) of language acquisition and so knowing what the children say and for what they say the words are important. Aim: The aim of the study is to identify ten early words expressed by infants aged 12 to 18 months born to Twi speaking parents. Method: Survey data was collected from 100 mothers each with her child aged 12 to 18 months, recruited from three towns (Obadan, Abotakye and Atuobikro...
Abstract: This study seeks to study narrative distance in Henry James’ The Portrait of a Lady. It analyzes the narrative to show how information is dramatically presented to minimize authorial intrusion. The study uses Gerard Genette’s Narrative Discourse on the narrative as the instrument for determining how the narrative achieves narrator distance. Henry James is one of the key proponents of dramatic method of narration in the early 20th century, and his experiment with this technique ...
ABSTRACT Spousal communication, a feature of language, which unravels certain sociolinguistic characteristics of a husband and his wife, is a dominant feature of African novels by female writers. Previous studies on Emecheta and Adimora-Ezeigbo were theme-based, with little attention paid to spousal communication in their novels. This study investigated the dimensions of husband-wife linguistic and paralinguistic practices in two select novels of Emecheta and Adimora-Ezeigbo, with a view to ...
ABSTRACT Crime, an act that contravenes societal values, and punishment, the penalty attracted by such act, are issues that abound in modern African novels. Previous studies on these novels have often examined the authors‟ thematic pre-occupations such as poor governance and political disillusionment, without adequate attention to the novelists‟ depiction of criminal acts and the consequent punishment. This study, therefore, examined the portrayal of these crimes and the punishment they ...
ABSTRACT Proverbs describe, classify and judge a given situation with emphasis on moral/ethical recommendations. They also point to the life patterns of the society from which they are derived. Many studies have been undertaken on classification and definition of proverbs from various cultures and disciplines. Much attention has also been drawn to Ola Rotimi‘s proverbs from the point of view of pragmatics and sociolinguistics, but enough scholarly attention has not been given to the contex...
ABSTRACT Discourse devices are the linguistic tools employed to address inherent problems in conversation for health purposes. Doctor-patient verbal interactions face major problems in clinical discourse due to differences in linguistic, sociolinguistic, cultural backgrounds as well as professional and communicative styles of doctors and patients. Pragmatic and sociolinguistic studies on doctor-patient verbal interactions have observed relevant socio-psychological and contextual factors, but...
ABSTRACT Using students from two Libyan private schools of English as the source 0 f information, this study focused on grammatical errors committed by some Libyan students of English, which in the view of this dissertation have not received the attention that they deserve as far as grammar teaching and research are concerned. The data for this research were collected from one main source, namely, written scripts of students. The research then employed the descriptive survey design by making ...
ABSTRACT Nigerian plays are replete with narration of crime and punishment as prime factor in socioeconomic conflict and resolution. Critical studies of these plays have so far focused on the views of the political class with little attention paid to the views of the masses, which are critical to the thematic engagement of the playwrights. Consequently, this study focuses attention on the views of the masses in order to expound the insights of crime and punishment in Nigeria. The study adopt...
ABSTRACT The major problem investigated in this study is the difficulties senior high school two students of Islamic and Wa senior high schools encounter in the use of concord in English grammar. The purpose of the study was to identify these concord learning challenges, find out why those challenges exist and find appropriate ways to help the students. The instruments used to collect data were intervention tests. The research design included pre-intervention, intervention and post-intervent...
ABSTRACT Official interactions between government ministers and the public are common political discourse events in democratic Nigeria. Previous studies on political discourse have examined language forms such as metaphor, which function as persuasive devices in ceremonial speeches, campaigns, manifestos and parliamentary debates, without adequate attention paid to the persuasiveness of discourse strategies in government minister-public interactions. This study, therefore, examined discursiv...
ABSTRACT The acquisition and learning of a language involves understanding and mastery of what constitutes its grammar. The research analyzes the uses of prepositions in two selected Lagos schools, Eva Adelaja Senior Girls Grammar School and Eben Noble College. The sample of the study consisted of 40 students. The data elicitation instrument was a writing task in which students were asked to write an argumentative essay. The quantitative findings showed 12 prepositions (to, on, about, in, of,...