Achebe’s manipulation of the English language: a stylistic study of girls at war and other stories

Abstract

This study attempts to analyze Chinua Achebe's short stories within Leech (1969) and Leech and Short (1981) theoretical framework. Consequently, the work is divided into the levels of form, realization, the semantic level as well as ancillary branches. In chapter one, we have an introduction to the study. This covers background information to the study. Such information includes Achebe's views on language, stylistic criticism vis a vis literary criticism, the statement of the problem, objectives hypothesis, theoretical framework, justification and methodology. Chapter two deals with style at the graphological and phonological levels. The chapter covers the use of space, ellipsis and the creation of rhythmic effects. Chapter three provides an analysis of syntactic aspects of style and the rnam Issues discussed are the lexicon and syntactic structures. In chapter four, the main semantic features of style are discussed. These include direct translations, neologism and figures of speech. Chapter five deals with register and Pidgin English while in chapter six, summary and the conclusions made from the various levels of our analysis have been given