A CLAUSAL ANALYSIS OF SELECTED PAGES IN CHIMAMANDA NGOZI

ADICHIE'S PURPLE HIBISCUS

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY.

Grammar is rule-governed that is it is bound by rules and has a lot of technicalities involved in it.

Syntax and grammar go hand in hand. There are different definitions of grammar by various

scholars. The origin of grammar in Europe dates back to classical antiquity (Jespersen, 1959, p.

20).

Tomori (1997) gave four definitions of grammar. It is apposite to examine them here. They go

thus;

Grammar is used for the quality of the knowledge of a language possessed by a speaker, as

inferred from the nature of his utterances. It is the meaning of grammar that one has at the back

of one's mind when one refers to the utterance of a particular speaker as an example of poor

grammar. Noam Chomsky calls this competence and performance while Ferdinand de Saussure

calls it langue and parole. Ojo (2011) buttresses Tomori (1977) saying looking at it from the

perspective of a speaker's mastery of a language. It is, therefore, not uncommon to find a fluent

speaker of a language being described as a master of grammar

He also defined grammar to mean a book embodying the morphological and syntactic rules of a

particular language. The term is used in this sense when one refers to a book as the grammar of a

particular language. This is looking at grammar from the perspective of texts dealing with it.

Hence, we can isolate English Grammar, French Grammar, Latin Grammar, Yoruba Grammar

etc. (Ojo, 2011, p.6).

The term is used to mean the body of descriptive statements about the morphological and

syntactic structures of a language. When one is learning the grammar of English one is looking at

how statements are described in a language.

Lastly, the term is also used to mean the body of prescriptive statements about usages that are

considered acceptable and those that are considered unacceptable in a particular language. This is

the traditional grammar's perspective. Traditional Grammar was modelled after Latin which is

used as a yardstick to distinguish between good grammar and bad grammar (Lamidi, 2016, p.2).

There are many definitions of clauses in the literature. Most of the scholars and language experts

agreed that it is a string of words that contains a subject and a predicate of it’s own according to

the traditional grammarians. It forms a part of a sentence and has a finite or main or lexical verb.

Grammar is divided into two namely morphology and syntax. Morphology is the study of the

structures of words and the rules governing their formation (Tomori, 1977). It is the internal

structure of the arrangement of words. Syntax on the other hand is the study of the grammatical

structure of sentences as built up of words. Clauses are under syntax.

There are different definitions of clauses in the literature and they are related to each other. The

common definition of a clause is a group that has a subject and a predicate. A sentence can be a

clause. It could also have more than one clause in the case of a compound sentence, complex

sentence and compound complex sentence.

The word clause comes from the Medieval Latin word “clause” which means the end of a

conclusion, or the end of something. A clause is a group of words within a sentence that consists

of a subject and a predicate in grammar. There is the main clause or the independent clause and

the subordinate clause. Other types of clauses falls under the subordinate clause.
This research study is about the clausal analysis focusing on the ideational metafunction of

language in the Systemic Functional Grammar specifying the processes, participants and

circumstances. Ideational function of language have to organize the speaker' or writer's

experience of the real and imaginary world that is language refers to real and imagined person.

Language provides a theory of human experience, and certain of the resources of the Mexico

grammar of every language are dedicated to that function. It is called the ideational

metafunction. (Halliday, 2014, p.30). Systemic Functional Grammar would be explained later in

the course of this work.

The importance of clausal arrangement to good writing style and good communication cannot be

overemphasized. Bad clausal arrangement is inimical to good writing skill. A bad writer who has

bad clausal arrangement (bad syntax) in his work, such work loses credibility and most time

would not be published. The same thing goes for speaking. A person who has a good mastery of

English grammar have good competence in clauses would gain respect and would be the force to

be reckoned with in the society and the world at large.

Effective communication requires concerted effort on the part of the message encoder, the

appropriate choice of words, correct contextual application and simplicity. Communication is

traced to a Latin word “communis” meaning to share and that it is the activity of conveying

information through the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, visuals,

signals, writing or behaviour. Communication is also the transmission of experience from one

person to another, from one person to a group of people or from a group of people to another

group of people. Okunna (1996) sees communication as a complex process of sharing

information or a message which requires certain basic components.

Clause is a group of words stringed together that has a finite verb. It is a unit of grammatical

organization next below the sentence in rank and higher than the phrase. Clause is one of the

grammatical units in English. It includes the subject performing the action of a verb. According

to Ojo (2011), in the Systemic Functional Grammar, the clause is seen on the rank scale as the

structural unit next above the rank of the group bit next below that of a sentence.

There are different kinds of clauses in the English language. There is the noun clause, adjective

clause which is also the relative clause and the adverbial clause. All these are classified under the

subordinate clause. There is also the main clause which can stand on its own. The main clause is

technically called the alpha clause while the subordinate clause is called the beta clause

technically.

The central unit of analysis in SFL or SFG is the clause. There are three main functional

components to the grammar and these are integral to understanding the types of meaning

identified in the clause. The components are referred to as metafunctions within SFL (Fontaine,

2013, p.10).

According to Michael A.K. Halliday, the ideational function of language is also known as clause

as representation because it serves for the expression of content that is the speaker's experience

of the real world of his own consciousness. The interpersonal function of language is also known

as clause as exchange because it establishes good relations while the textual function is also

known as clause as message because it accounts for the thematic organization and the

information structure of the sentence.

The processes under the ideational function of language or the experential function are

dependent on the finite verb of the clause. It will determine the type of participant, the type of

process and the circumstances.

The idea of studying the clausal analysis using the novel “Purple Hibiscus” by Chimamanda

Ngozi Adichie is to know which of the processes in the ideational function of language is more

prominent and how contributes to clausal analysis.

ELEMENTS OF CLAUSE STRUCTURE

Osisanwo (1999, p.29) gave an example of a clause for analysis. Here is the example: //The

villagers killed the big snake immediately//.

According to him, the clause above is a sentence. Some of the words cling together easily to

form “The villagers”. So also are “the”, “big” and “snake” to form “the big snake”. These cling

together to form meaningful patterned stretches. Groups form clauses. The clause has four

groups.

//The villagers/killed/ the big snake/ immediately//

Another closer look at the clause can be taken. Studying the clause, it can be observed that the

four groups differ in their membership, patterning and roles in their clause. Taking the issue of

membership for instance, the first group has two words with “villagers” being the more

important of the two which makes it the head word. “Villager” is a noun therefore it is

technically called the nominal group.

In the second group, there is one word “killed” which is a verb. Members of this group therefore

have the name technically termed verbal group. The verb occupies the predicator position. No

other groups can occupy the predicator position aside the verb and it is the obligatory position.

groups

The third group with “snake” as the principal member is also a nominal group just like the first

group. The subject and complement contain the same group which is the nominal group. It is not

most of the time that the nominal group could fit into the subject and compl ement position.

Other group could fit those two too.

The fourth group is controlled by an adverb. The fourth group is the adjunct. In a sentence the

adjunct can be done without and it would still retain its meaning. It is called an adverbial group.

It is represented below;

//The villagers/ killed/ the big snake/ immediately//

Nominal. Verbal. Nominal Adverbial

Group. Group. Group. Group

Group Group