INTRODUCTION
Language is the distinctive quality unique to man. It is what enables man to express him/herself and communicate with his/her fellow man, and it is acquired naturally. According to Fromkin et al “…language is the source of human life and power” (3). They also state that “we use language to convey information to others…, ask questions…, give command…, and express wishes” (173). There are two specific media of using language: oral – which is by words of mouth; and written – which is a graphic representation of words on paper.
It is in the use of language that style comes in. Style shows the difference between one piece of writing and the other. According to Adejare, “style is an ambiguous term…” (1). He further states that the term style means different things to different professions. Some examples are: to a psychologist, style is a form of behaviour, to the critic, style is individuality and to the linguist, it is the formal structures in function (1).
Stylistics is the study of oral and written texts. It is the description of the linguistic characteristics (which means features of linguistics) of all situationally restricted uses of language. Linguistics is the scientific study of language or of a particular language. Linguistics is scientific because it applies the method of objective observation, collection, classification and application of facts to the study of language.
Stylistics focuses on texts and gives much attention to the devices, parts of speech and figures of speech. It goes further to look into the effects of the use of the devices on the reader.
Talking about the scope of stylistics, Onwukwe Ekwutosi gave four distinctive types of stylistics and they are:
1.General stylistics
2. Literary stylistics
3.Stylo-stylistics
4.Phono-stylistics
General stylistics deals with the non-dialectical varieties found within a language. In other words, it deals with situational or contextual use of language, that is, variation according to use. It also includes variation of language according to field of discourse, variation according to mode of discourse and finally, variation according to style of discourse.
Literary stylistics deals with language use in literature, that is, variations, characteristics of individual writer that made mark in literature. Often, we hear people talk about the style of Shakespeare, Milton, Achebe or Soyinka.
TABLE OF CONTENT
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
1.6 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 MEANING OF STYLISTICS AND STYLE
2.1.1 REVIEW OF SOME WORKS ON STYLISTIC ANALYSIS
2.2 WHAT OTHER CRITICS SAID ABOUT NGUGI WA THIONG’O
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN
3.3 THE POPULATION FOR THE STUDY
3.4 SAMPLING PROCEDURE
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 DATA PRESENTATION AND TEXTUAL ANALYSIS
4.1 INTRODUCTION
4.2 BOOK 1 – POWER DAEMONS
4.3 BOOK 2 – QUEUING DAEMONS
4.4 BOOK 3 – FEMALE DAEMONS
4.5 BOOK 4 - MALE DAEMONS
4.6 REBEL DAEMONS
4.7 BOOKING 6 – BEARDED DAEMONS
4.8 TABLE SHOWING TOTAL FREQUENCY OF THE DEVICES
4.9 WHAT THE DEVICES ARE USED FOR IN THE NOVEL
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY
CONCLUSION
RECOMMENDATION
WORKS CITED
UNPUBLISHED WORKS