A SOCIOLINGUISTIC EXPLORATION OF LANGUAGE AND THE NARRATIVE OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN ROY C’S “PEEPING THROUGH THE WINDOW
Authors: Samuel Edem and Patience O. Solomon-Etefia
Publication Details
Published: June 14, 2024
Reference: Volume 8, Issue 2
Abstract
From a sociolinguistic perspective, this paper analyzes language and the narrative of personal experience in Roy C’s “Peeping through the Window”. Through the grammatical patterning of words, the study shows, first, that Labov and Waletzky’s (1967) oral narrative schema is a relevant linguistic framework for analyzing diverse narrative types. Second, it unveils the linguistic choices deployed by the narrator in recounting experience through the schemas. With this, the schemas become substantial linguistic frames on which the writer’s personal experience of marital perfidy is reflected in the music genre. Findings indicate that actions, behaviours and situations are driven by diverse linguistic choices such as deixis, verbs, phrasal verbs, and metaphors among others to foreground a sexually pervaded setting as well as impart us with semantic knowledge of diverse contextual discontents. Sixty-nine texts were selected for analysis using Labov and Waletzky's sociolinguistic model of the oral version of personal narrative. The study deployed ‘slanted lines’ and ‘numerals’ to indicate units of clauses meant for analysis and to convey a logical account of the narrative structure that underscores the significance of clause-level grammatical choices. The analysis of texts cuts across different narrative units such as the orientation, the complication, the evaluation and the coda characterised by actions and events appropriated to enhance meaning construction. The model proved to be insightful in advancing readers’ knowledge of the form and functional properties of a narrative genre of this kind.
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How to Cite
Samuel Edem and Patience O. Solomon-Etefia. (2024). A SOCIOLINGUISTIC EXPLORATION OF LANGUAGE AND THE NARRATIVE OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN ROY C’S “PEEPING THROUGH THE WINDOW. ABIA JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES , Volume 8 (2) .