A Discourse Analysis Of Naira Has No Gender By Olu Obafemi

There have been interests over ages in studying how people communicate during interaction. This interest has lead to the emergence of discourse analysis which has the aim of studying how people communicate using sentence or clauses. In view of this, Naira has no gender, a play by Olu Obafemi, was selected in order to study and interpret how speeches were formed in the conversation between and among interlocutors in the play. Six transactions, which serve as our data were selected from the book for proper discourse investigation. Our Analysis revealed that role sharing, implicature, presupposition are important factors during interaction and affect inference. Therefore during discourse the linguistic properties of utterances or sentences are not only the determining factor for inference, rather, other factors that are not linguistic are also important in analyzing discourse.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Contents                Page 

Title page         i

Certification         ii

Dedication         iii

Acknowledgements       iv

Abstract         v

Table of contents        vi

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction       1

1.2 Aims and Objectives      3

1.3 Justification       4

1.4 Scope and Delimitation of Study    5

 

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0  Preamble        6

2.1  Definitions of Discourse      7 

2.2  Pragmatics in Discourse      12

2.2.1 Speech Acts        13

2.2.2 Classification of Speech Acts     16

2.3   Tools in Discourse Analysis     19

2.3.1 Context        23

2.3.2 Implicature         25

2.4 Conclusion        27

 

CHAPTER THREE 

DATA ANALYSIS 

3.0 Introduction        28

3.1 Data Analysis        28 

3.2 Conclusion         55

CHAPTER FOUR

SUMMARY, FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION

4.0 Summary        56

4.1 Findings        57

4.2 Conclusion         58

4.3 Bibliography        60

   

Discourse to the discourse analysts means actual instances of communicative action in the medium of language.

According to Blommert (2005:2) as cited in Johnstone (2008:2) discourse is the meaningful symbolic behavior in any mode. Discourse is not totally focused on language as an abstract system. Instead discourse is interested in what happens when people apply the knowledge they have got from language that is based on their memories of things they have seen or heard.

Discourse is also a conversation that is formal in nature. It can be in a written form or a spoken form of expression. Discourse analysis deals with spoken language, which occurs naturally and this can be found in interviews, conversations, speeches and commentaries. It also deals with the structure of written language which can be found in essays, chapters, road sings and notices.

Discourse is also seen as a linguistic communication and a transaction between a speaker and a hearer involved in an interpersonal activity in which its form is determined by its social purpose. 

However, discourse analysis as a relation to a more traditional form of linguistics which is focused on the constituent units and structure of the sentence and which does not concern  itself with an analysis of language use. Discourse analysis in contrast to formal linguistics, is concerned with translating the notion of structure, from the level of the sentences i e grammatical relations such as subject –verb – object, to the level of longer text.

Conversation generally involves an exchange between two or more people in which each participant may produce more than one utterance and each contribution builds upon previous contributions either directly or in directly.

Discourse analysis focuses on the analytical process in a relatively explicit way. What differentiates discourse analysis from other sorts of study that bear on human language and communication is not found in the way they try to answer them. That is, they analyse discourse by examining aspects of the structure and functions of language in use.

Longer stretches of discourse can be divided into parts using various criteria and then particular characteristics of each part can be looked in to by the discourse analyst.

 Division in discourse analysis can be made according to who is talking, for example where the paragraph boundaries are, when a new topic arise, or where the subject ends and the predicate begins.

 Olu Obafemi’s Naira has no Gender being a dramatic piece of work will be subjected to adequate discourse analysis which is the focus of this research work.