Research Papers/Topics in English Language

Literary Representations Of Socio-Political Issues In The Namibian Society In Philander’s The Namibian Stage Chronicles And King Of The Dump And Other Plays

Abstract The study is a critical analysis of the literary representations of socio-political issues in the Namibian society as portrayed in Philander’s two anthologies: The Namibian Stage Chronicles (2010) and King of the Dump and Other Plays (2005). Namibia attained independence in 1990 and socio-political issues such as unemployment, violence against women and children, nepotism, corruption, poverty, injustice and economic window dressing dominate life. The chosen plays from the two anth...

Sexualisation Of The Feminine In Perfume Advertisements In Vogue And Her Magazines From December 2017- December 2018: A Semiotic And Poststructural Feminist Approach

ABSTRACT In the contemporary world of advertising, the highly sexualised feminine figure sells products (Haugg, 1998). The study examines, through the theoretical lenses of Poststructural Feminism and Semiotic Theories, how women are projected sexually in mass media advertisements, specifically, pictorial perfume advertisements in Her and Vogue magazines. It examines how such ‘sexualised’ images and (re)presentations of the feminine shape public opinions and perceptions on/about gender a...

An Investigation Of Linguistic Cross- Pollination Between English And Silozi Among Silozi Speakers At Tertiary Institutions In Windhoek

ABSTRACT This study critically investigated linguistic cross-pollination, or linguistic inter-influence, that took place when two mutually unintelligible languages (Silozi and English) came into contact for an extended period of time. The study specifically analysed how such contact affected both English and Silozi at the level of phonology, morphology and lexicon, as they were used interchangeably by Silozi speakers at tertiary institutions (IUM, NUST, and UNAM) in Windhoek. The study used ...

A Stylistic Analysis Of Diescho's Dictums

ABSTRACT  This study analysed the stylistic features of foregrounding and figurative language as used by Diescho in his “Dictums” published in the New Era newspaper between January 2014 and December 2015, using the formalist theory. The researcher selected 20 of these dictums that dealt with social and political issues. Though Diescho is an author of several works, a political analyst and a commentator on various issues who is articulate and creative in style, especially when it com...

Sexual Discourse Among Students In Selected Tertiary Institutions In Lagos State, Nigeria

ABSTRACT Sexual discourse refers to sex-related verbal activities that many Nigerian tertiary institution students engage in. Existing studies have addressed sexual discourse from socio-cultural, sociolinguistic and critical linguistic perspectives but have not adequately studied its pragmatic import, especially in relation to encounters centering on sexual intercourse. This study, therefore, investigates the discourse forms, contextual features, pragmatic functions, and attitudes to and perc...

An Analysis of Code Switching in The Namibian Parliament

Abstract The focus of this study was on code-switching that occurred in the Namibian Parliament as observed from the volumes of parliamentary Hansards from the year 2015 to 2017. This was a desktop study that employed a qualitative design to determine the patterns and reasons for code-switching in the Namibian Parliament. Content analysis was used to analyse data collected from the 10 volumes of printed parliamentary Hansards. Data was further interpreted using Myers-Scotton's Matrix Languag...

A Critical Exploration of Political Violence in Selected Literary Works: A Case of Tagwiras The Uncertainty of Hope And Owuors Dust

ABSTRACT Even though there are several studies in the field of literature that looked at violence, most researches did not necessarily concern political violence which cast across any human being. Political and electoral violence are pernicious vices that continue to afflict most African states, with Kenya and Zimbabwe, included. It is a truism that these two are mother and baby, with political violence being the umbrella under which electoral violence shoots itself. The motivation behind th...

Humour Strategies And Acts In Nigerian Stand-Up Comedy

Abstract Humour, which is associated with amusement and laughter, is produced in comic performances, particularly stand-up comedy; and Nigerian stand-up comedians (NSCs) use language to evoke humour and correct social vices. Existing studies have conceptualised humour, its use and sub-genres but have not given adequate attention to intentionality in Nigerian stand-up joking contexts. This study, therefore, investigated humour strategies and context in Nigerian stand-up comedy, in order to ide...

Ideology And Discourse Strategies In Selected Radio News Of Osun State Broadcasting Corporation, Nigeria

ABSTRACT Previous studies on news in electronic media in Nigeria have mostly concentrated on linguistic and stylistic features with little attention on discourse strategies and underlying ideological factors considered to be significant in the construction and full understanding of radio news. There is need for more attention to be paid to ideologies and discourse strategies in media discourse as they enhance the comprehension of radio news. This study, therefore, investigated the discourse s...

Hyperfictional Language In Michael Joyce’s Afternoon, A Story And Megan Heyward’s Of Day, Of Night

ABSTRACT The hypertext, a relatively new digital genre, structures texts into links and nodes. This results in textual plasticity which gives room for different forms of stylistic experimentations by the authors of the texts. While scholars have focused on the structural composition and general nature of hypertexts, they have not adequately attended to their distinctive features. This study addresses this neglect by examining the style of the language of hyperfiction. The study adopts Hallida...

Linguistic Tagging And Ideology In Selected English-Medium Nigerian And Cameroonian Newspaper Reports On The Bakassi Peninsula Border Conflict

ABSTRACT Linguistic tagging, the labelling of people and their actions with particular sociopolitically- grounded values, is an ideological denominator that plays a significant role in media framing of conflict. Despite this significance, existing studies on the Nigeria-Cameroon Bakassi Peninsula border conflict, which had concentrated on the historical, political, legal and sociolinguistic dimensions, largely neglected an exploration of the dynamics of linguistic tagging. Therefore, this stu...

A Post-Colonial Ecocritical Analysis Of Selected African Texts: A Case Of Lessing’s The Grass Is Singing And Mungoshi’s Waiting For The Rain

Abstract This thesis analyses The Grass is Singing (1950) by Doris Lessing and Waiting for the Rain (1975) by Charles Mungoshi from a post-colonial ecocritical perspective. Ecocriticism unifies humanity and nature, whilst post-colonialism focuses on issues pertaining to power, religion and culture, with regards to humanity. The research aimed at elucidating on the remarkable relationship between human beings and nature as presented in literary texts. Applying post-colonialism to the analysis...

Investigating The Portrayal Of Social Issues In Namibian Post-Independence Poetry Written In English

ABSTRACT The main focus of this thesis was to examine how social issues are conceived and articulated in a representative selection of Namibian post-independence poetry written in English. Couched on and guided by socio-historicism and postcolonialism, this qualitative study elucidated the socio-political, socio-economic and socio-cultural factors that militate against Namibia’s total liberation as depicted in the selected poems. The study found that the Namibian post-independence experien...

The Eloquent Woman: A Contemporary Feminine Rhetorical Analysis Of Selected Speeches By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

 ABSTRACT Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is best known for her literary works and literary achievements. The Nigerian novelist is also a public rhetor whose orations are easily accessible on the internet, YouTube and other sites. Adichie’s public speaking gained much recognition after her TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talk titled “The danger of a single story,” in which she openly discussed stereotypes and their power to dehumanise and malign people. She has since then delivered t...

An Analysis Of Linguistic Features Of Male Cosmetics Advertisements From Fhm (For Him) And Gq (Gentlemen’s Quarterly) Magazines

ABSTRACT The world of cosmetics has predominantly been a woman‟s sphere, but in recent years there seems to be an increase in the number of men who use cosmetic products. Cosmetic companies have responded to this by manufacturing and advertising various products. Advertisers design their advertisements incorporating various persuasive features, such as deviant language, images and colours, to mention just a few, to attract men and persuade them to buy the products being advertised. This qu...


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