Stylistico-semantic Study of Eyo Etim's Virtual Chants

Abstract

Scholars have made several studies to unravel how some playwrights and literary artists deploy language with their stylistic techniques to pass an intended message to their audience. However, none to my knowledge has examined the Stylistico-Semantic analysis of the use of language and literary aesthetics of 'Virtual Chants': a collection of poems by Eyo Etim. This study is an attempt to fill this gap. It uses pragmastylistics as a theoretical model, and eleven (11) poems were purposively selected, serving as data for the study. The researcher took cognizance of how the poet satisfactorily combines elements of both language and literature in his interpretations of the corpus. This work attests to how the literary artist or poet deploys those elements with the aid of certain linguistic devices to communicate effectively. The paper further affirms that authors who are style imbued intentionally borrow or deviate from the conventional way of writing in order to capture the main thrust or hidden message intended.