Lexico-Grammatical Analysis of Yellow-Yellow by Kaine Agary with a Focus on Experiential and Textual Meanings

Abstract

The field of Functional Linguistics applied to Anglophone literature goes along with its method of studies which draws on the application of linguistic theories to corpuses. Based on language theories, it can help to analyze, explain, criticize, interpret and even discuss pieces of texts. Among these theories, ranges Systemic Functional Grammar (henceforth SFG) or Systemic Functional Linguistics (hereafter SFL) with regard to the current growing linguistic trend in the field of literary studies. This article seeks to apply the Lexico-grammar theory drawn from SFG or SFL, with a special emphasis on Transitivity and Theme. According to systemic scholars (Halliday, 1971; Eggins, 2004; Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004; and Halliday and Matthiessen, 2006, etc.), the exploration of the Transitivity properties (process types, participants, and circumstances) in/of a text can give a full insight into how the writer encodes experiential meaning therein. They also hold that the analysis of the Theme patterns (topical (or experiential), interpersonal, structural and textual) in/of a text can reveal how its language is organized to embody texture or textual meaning. Given the importance of texture in the making of text, Koussouhon and Allagbe (2013) contend that the analysis of textual meaning can give an insight into the mechanisms that create a meaningful text. By applying the Lexico-grammar theory to one of the new millennium novels, viz., Kaine Agary’s Yellow-Yellow (2006), the current article aims to gain a full insight into how the writer encodes her experience (or fictional reality) via the medium of language, on the one hand, and how she organizes her language to achieve this, on the other. Above all, the article aims to prove the relevance of this theory to the reading and interpretation of contemporary Anglophone African prose works.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n23p2430