Stylistic analysis of Tivisms in select Nigerian novels

Abstract

The culture of a given people is reflected in their literature and language is a medium through which such a culture is expressed. Stylistic analysis of Tange’s The Legitimate Candidate, Shija’s Whispers of Distant Drums, Gar’s The Blood of the Ram, Kwaghchimin’s A Star of Hope, Tijah’s Slow Men at Work and Norya’s The Luminous Flame resonates with unique expressions which express Tivness. The study investigates the significance of semantic devices in the select novels using Style as a Manner of Expression Model. Methodologically, this study used primary and secondary sources of data. The data for analysis are Tivisms in the select novels. Tivisms refer to Tiv words, expressions, exclamations or interjections, phrases and sentences, unique narrative, dramatic and poetic techniques that are used in literary works talk about Tiv people, culture and language. The study shows that Tivisms serve the following purposes: identity construction, multimodality, beautification, speech flavour and local colour. The paper contributes the literature on language use in Nigerian or African literature.