The Linguistic Aesthetics of Epitaphs at Lang’ata Cemetery, Nairobi County

Abstract

This research attempts an aesthetic linguistic analysis of epitaphs found at Lang’ata cemetery, Nairobi, Kenya. It uses the Relevance Theory proposed by Sperber and Wilson (1995). The study is based on three research questions: What genres and stylistic devices can be found on epitaphs at Lang’ata cemetery? What kind of explicatures and implicatures are found on epitaphs at Lang’ata cemetery? How do the identified explicatures and implicatures enhance the relevance of the messages on the epitaphs at Lang’ata cemetery? The data was collected from actual visits to the cemetery and taking the photographs of tombstones. The work is divided into four chapters dealing with: introductory issues, the genres and stylistic devices found on epitaphs, the explicatures and implicatures and how they enhance relevance and finally the conclusive remarks. This research found a small amount of poetic writings and a lot of prose texts on the epitaphs. These genres are presented in about forty different stylistic devices. The data is presented both orthographically and photographically. The study combines research question number two and number three into one chapter thus presenting the explicatures and implicatures and their role in enhancing the relevance of the messages on the epitaphs. The study concludes with a number of issues recommended for further research: there is very scanty poetry on the epitaphs while we have high prevalence of plain texts, biblical quotations and allusions, code mixing and code switching, and the use of indigenous languages; how do the literary genres and devices at Lang’ata cemetery compare with those in other cemeteries in Kenya and other parts of the world?