LANGUAGE AND ENVIRONMENT IN AYI KWEI ARMAH’S THE BEAUTYFUL ONES ARE NOT YET BORN

ABSTRACT

This long essay

proposes an analytic and a cross-analytic review of the language choice of

environment in Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born. The novel tells

the story of a character, simply called “the Man” who is surrounded by

corruption in a corrupt West African state, and how he (the Man) struggles to

keep out of the overpowering mess. It also presents the story of a man’s

loneliness and anguish at the physical and social filth around him, and about

which he could do little or nothing. He does not only encounter the craze for

corruption in the bus, the office, among friends, among the masses and at the

social places, but also within his family; there is also the blood strain of

corruption in his wife and his mother-in-law who wish to rise up to the moment

of the order of the day, “corruption”. However, the lexico-semantic language

choice employed by the author is more of foreign than parochial, which is

embellished with coarse, nauseating and vulgar expressions, just to mention but

a few. In totality, thus, Ayi Kwei Armah wrote a powerful, well-structured

novel which is rightfully rated among classics of modern African prose. He

couples chapters where the story is gripping with reflexives; and also

philosophical chapters where the story struggles a little. But when the tale

recovers, stronger and bursting with life, the less-than-a-200-page novel

portrays a writer who is not ashamed of telling tales about the rot and decay of

his society – elements of reality – in a grand fictional modernist style.

TABLE

OF CONTENTS

Title

Page

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------                    i

Declaration

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------                       ii

Certification

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------                       iii

Dedication

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------                       iv

Acknowledgements

------------------------------------------------------------------------                     v

Abstract

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------                       vi

Table

of Contents --------------------------------------------------------------------------                      vii                                                                                                                         

CHAPTER

ONE

GENERAL

INTRODUCTION

1.0    Preamble ------------------------------------------------------------------------------                      1

1.1    Background to the Study ----------------------------------------------------------                     1

1.2    Author’s Biography ----------------------------------------------------------------                      5

1.3


   Statement of the Problem -----------------------------------------------------------                   6

1.4


   Purpose of the Study

------------------------------------------------------------------                  6

1.5    Scope and Delimitation of the Study

----------------------------------------------                  7

1.6   Data Description ---------------------------------------------------------------------                      8

1.7


   Research Methodology

---------------------------------------------------------------                  10

1.8


   Significance of the Study

-------------------------------------------------------------                 10

CHAPTER

TWO

LITERATURE

REVIEW

2.0       Introduction

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------   12

2.1       The

Environmental Factors Language Competence and Performance ------  -----      12

2.1.1    Language Acquisition

& Learning -------------------------------------------         14

2.1.2    Language Comprehension

------------------------------------------------------------  15

2.2       Stylistics and Style: Definition and

Domain -------------------------------------   17

2.3      Levels of Stylistic Methodology in this

Research --------------------------------  19

2.4       African Literature as Characterised by

the African Sensibilities -------------- 20

2.5       The Canonisation of Modernism in African

Literature -------------------------  22

2.6       Armah’s Socio-Political and

Stylo-Literary Consciousness on the Disillusionment

of

the Post-Independence Ghana Society -------------------------------  --------------       24

2.7       Characterising the Stylistic Implicatures

of Societal Facts in Armah’s First Three

Novels

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   25

CHAPTER

THREE

DATA

PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

3.0     Introduction

--------------------------------------------------------------------------        ----       27

3.1    Succinct Summary and Review of Armah’s The Beautyful Ones… -----------   ----       27

3.2    Language

Choice of Environment in Armah’s The

Beautyful Ones… ---------  -----      31

3.3    Stylo-Linguistic Analysis of the Language

Use in Armah’s The Beautyful Ones…      32       

3.3.1    The Use of Progressive Tense

--------------------------------------------------------  32