LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 12 : 10 October 2012
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIAL

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2012
M. S. Thirumalai
Custom Search

Linguistic Obfuscation in the Name of Legislation: A Stylistic Analysis of 234next Online Magazine Op-Ed of 21st January, 2011

OLUSAANU, James Boaner, M. A.

Abstract

This paper examines the stylistic analysis of the article titled: Excuse Me, Igodomigodo Must Not Comatose, written by Victor Ehikhamenor about the erstwhile magniloquent member of the House of Assembly in the last political dispensation, Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon whose style of communication on the floor of the Lower House could be best described as ‘linguistic obfuscation in the name of legislation’. The article under analysis is an online Op-Ed of the 234NEXT Magazine published by Timbuktu Media Ltd., Lagos. The paper examines the notion of style and stylistics as a sub-discipline of linguistics, it looks at language as used in the political arena and the theoretical framework on which the work is predicated is Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics and Register Configuration. The issue of communication is also critically examined against backdrop the socio-cultural context of the article as every text is a product of a specific context. The lexical density of this 879-word article is also used to evaluate its level of difficulty and readability. This makes us come to the conclusion that the text is relatively obfuscating in its diction but wittily and aesthetically interesting in its satirising posture. Other literary and stylistic aesthetics employed by the author to embellish the piece are also examined.

Introduction

Style has been traditional defined as the manner of linguistic expression in prose or verse – as how speakers or writers say whatever it is that they say. The style specific to a particular work or writer, or else distinctive of a type of writing, has been analysed in such terms as the rhetorical situation and aim; the characteristic diction, or choice of words; the type of sentence structure and syntax and the density and kinds of figurative language. A very large number of loosely descriptive terms have been used to characterise kinds of style, such as “pure,” “ornate,” “florid,” “gay,” “sober,” “simple,” “elaborate,” etc. Lawal (2003) identifies the different ways in which the notion of style has been perceived.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

OLUSAANU, James Boaner, M. A.
Department of English
University of Ibadan
Ibadan
Nigeria
jamesboaner@yahoo.co.uk
Postal Address: P. O. Box 334, Ondo. Ondo – State. Nigeria 351001
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.