Citation: Isa Muhammad INUWA (2020). Critical Stylistic Analysis of ‘Implying’ in the Language of Newspaper Column. Yobe Journal of Language, Literature and Culture (YOJOLLAC), Vol. .8 Department of African Languages and Linguistics, Yobe State University, Damaturu, Nigeria. ISSN 2449-0660
CRITICAL STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF ‘IMPLYING’ IN THE
LANGUAGE OF NEWSPAPER COLUMN
Isa Muhammad INUWA
(Ph.D)
Abstract
Stylistics explores aspects of language choice and language use that is
characteristics of a particular writer, a group of writers or a particular
genre or discourse pattern. It also focuses on the traditional role of
stylistics analysis of aesthetic patterns and deviation from norms of language
use. However, this paper applies Critical Stylistics, and studies instances of
embedding ideology in the text, by their (text) producers, with a view to
influence readers. The Critical Analysis model, states that the producer of any
text is under pressure to choose those terms with which he frames his text. The
paper tries to identify those ideological cases of ‘implying’ or ‘implicature’
used in the Weekly Trust Newspaper column, written by Bala Muhammad. A purposive
method is used in sampling copies of the newspapers containing Bala Muhammad’s
column. Thus, the model is a new approach to stylistics, whose focus shifts
from aesthetic effects to ideological ones on the mind of hearers or readers of
texts. Thus, the paper reveals that the media (newspaper) language embeds
different shades of ideology, through various forms of ‘implying’, for a final
possible effect on readers. These shades of ideology include social, economic
as well as political ones, aimed at influencing readers’ attention and opinion.
1.0 Introduction
Stylistics as
field of study, developed in different forms through ages, from classical
period of the ancient Greek around 800-500 BC. It later emerged from the art of
literary criticism, Rhetoric to different modern approaches to both written and
oral text analysis. Scholars have come up with various definitions of
Stylistics as it studies various styles in both written and oral texts by a
given person, texts in a given context, and for a given purpose. This includes
artistic function in an individual’s work like ‘deviation from the norm’, etc.
(Widdowson 1975; Leech 2007; Mukhtar 2010; Simpson 2014).
Also the field
went through different transformations on the theory of literary and linguistic
analysis, with influence from structuralism, transformational generative
theory, systematic theory and functionalism (Mukhtar 2010). A disciple of
Ferdinand de Saussure, Bally (1952), in his ‘Traite de Stylistique Francaise’, A Treatise of French Stylistics,
introduced stylistics into the field of linguistics, from the hitherto sole
focus on analysis of literary texts (Mukhtar ibid). This paper employs one of
the modern approaches to Critical Stylistic Analysis, to critically analyze
media text, from Bala Muhammad’s Column in the Weekly Trust. The research particularly dwells on some parts of his
write-up explains the style he deployed to achieve ideology in the text. The
paper also utilizes the aspects of’ Implying and Assuming’ of the CSA model to
explicitly unmask ideological strategies involved in the text. The paper
restricts on ‘Implying’ in finding instances of ideology in the texts.
2.1 Literature Review
Grice (1975, 1978)
proposes conversational maxims; ‘Maxim of Quality’, ‘Maxim of Quantity’, ‘Maxim
of Relation/Relevance’ and ‘Maxim of Manner/Clarity’, the violation of any of
which leads to the pragmatic ‘implicature’. This is later extended into the Critical
Stylistics, to serve as tool of analysis for ‘implying’. In this case,
violation of these maxims serves as marker of ideological ‘implying’ in the
text and considered as embedding elements of ideology therein.
The Maxim of Quality, demands that – Do not say what you believe is false
and ‘Do not say for which you lack adequate evidence.
Maxim of Quantity, states that – Make your contribution as informative
as required for the current purposes of the exchange and - Do not make tour
contribution more informative than is required.
Maxim of Relation
or Relevance, says – Be
relevant.
Maxim of Manner or
Clarity, demands that –
Avoid obscurity of expression, avoid ambiguity, be brief and be orderly.
In this case,
breaking any of these maxims could result to implicature. That is to say
whichever of these maxims is flouted in the text, implicature might be
involved, more so that “many conversational implicatures are of this
metaphorical kind, when the maxim of quality is flouted”. Consider the
following examples:
1. a) Adamu is a
lion.
b) Hauwa is a queen.
Sentence 1(a) can
be seen to have violated the maxim of truth, since the speaker himself believes
that statement is in reality, not so. He might however be understood to imply
(metaphorically) that ‘Ado is a great man’ based on the analogy that ‘lion is a
great animal’ in the wild. Likewise sentence 1(b) is a violation of the truth,
if the speaker believes in reality that the statement was false. Yet by
implication, he might mean ‘Hauwa is graceful’ just as the ‘Queen is graceful’.
It is simply assumed that what speakers or writers ‘imply’ or ‘assume’ in their
speech or writing are effective in creating impact on or influencing the
opinion of listeners and readers of the text.
In this light,
Yule (1997) described Pragmatics as “the study of invisible meaning or how we
recognize what is meant even when it isn’t actually said or written. For
instance, consider the following sentences:
2. a)
The laziness of Kate has not changed even after her marriage
(Presupposition)
b)
Nigerian Senators are financially buoyant (Implicature)
Sentence 2(a)
presupposes that ‘Kate was lazy since before her marriage’. But this message or
meaning is not physically there in the sentence; rather, it is implicit and is
only inferred or deducted from the nature of message in the sentence. On the
other hand, sentence 2(b) implies that ‘Nigerian Senators are being heavily
paid’. Hence, we shall examine how elements of Presupposition and Implicature
in the writer’s articles in the Weekly
Trust trigger or generate ideologies to pose effects on readers.
Implicature refers
to what the speaker or writer implies as distinct from what he says or writes
in the literal sense. That is to say what is usually implied by the
communicator differs from what is physically seen in writing or actually heard
in speech. There are two types of implicature; (thing which is left implicit).
Osisanwo (2011)
identifies two types of implicature, Conventional Implicature and
Conversational Implicature. Mey (2006, p. 45) notes that “conversational
implicature involves implying something in conversation, which is left implicit
in actual language use”. Hence, this pragmatic concept of implicature, hence
‘implying’, is used here, to unearth hidden ideology in text.
Burke (2014, p.
368 and 408), explains the link between Gricean ‘Coversational Maxims’ and
stylistics, arguing that the notion of implicature provides solution to the
discrepancies between sentence-meaning and speaker-meaning, “which allow
language to imply or express more than it explicitly entails”. He adds that
Critical Stylistics arises from CDA. He seems to concur with Jefferies and
McIntyr, that the main focus of stylistics remains “the text itself”. He notes
further that the main target of critical stylistics is to unearth ideology in
the text.
O’Keeffe (2006),
views the media language as specialized genre, different from everyday
language. She argues that though the two share things in common, she sees the
media language more from the angle of ‘casual conversation’, vividly inclining
more towards the broadcast or electronic media. She therefore considers the
genre as ‘interactional’ rather than ‘representational’ of ‘critical’.
Contrarily however, the print media (newspaper and magazine) language could be
more of representational and critical, than interactional. It is agreed though,
that each media uses various linguistic aspects and formats under different
situations.
Djik (2009), holds
the notion of ‘cultural context’ (in CDA), similar to Jefferies’ concept of
ideology, as “those ideas shared in the society”. For him, cultural context
entails members of a whole community, in terms of their fundamental properties,
such as “knowledge, norms and values”.
Jefferies and
McIntyr (2010), assert that the unavoidable basis of all stylistics remains the
text, in its stylistic appreciation and analysis of both critical and literary
types. They add that the tools needed for all kinds of analysis are all the
same (for both literary and non-literary texts).
3.1 Theoretical Framework
The Critical
Stylistic model proposed by Jefferies (2010), developed in reaction to the rise
of critical discourse analysis that influences approach to ideology in
languages. It posits that the producer of any text is subject to the pressure
of choosing the exact terms in which he frames the text. It adds that the
choice whether consciously or unconsciously, is always ideologically loaded and
may also be ideologically manipulative. The CSA model tries to determine how
texts and their producers behave in such a way that they generate some possible
ideology to the readers. Jefferies (2010) says ‘ideology means those ideas
shared in community or society, which are also a very important aspect of the
world that we live in. She further claims that ideologies can be explicit, such
as in ‘I hate foreigners’ or implicit
as in ‘These horrible foreigners are back
again’.
It is worth
pointing here that while CDA focuses on language as social practice and the
basic relationship between language and power, on the other hand, CSL dwells
more on the behavior of text and its producer, towards triggering possible
ideology therein.
4.1 Method for Data Collection
Purposive sampling
method of is used in selecting copies from collections of Weekly Trust newspapers carrying pieces of articles by Bala
Muhammad in his column, usually published at the back page of the newspaper
every Saturday. This is the type of sampling in which the researcher goes
directly to what is supposedly the appropriate population or variable in the
research exercise, with a view to attain the expected or assumed out-come. The
rationale behind adopting purposive sampling, is because research of this
nature focuses on analysis of linguistic data, which has specific features.
Therefore,
purposive sampling allows the researcher to choose from the available data, the
ones that possess the right features and best suit the purpose for analysis.
The following texts are purposively sampled: Weekly Trust, Saturday, 5 May, 2012; Weekly Trust, Saturday, 27 September, 2012; Weekly Trust, Saturday, 7 July, 2012; Weekly Trust, Saturday, 1 July, 2012; Weekly Trust, Saturday, 14 April, 2012; Weekly Trust, Saturday, 5 May, 2012, respectively.
5.1 Data Analysis
The data is duly
analyzed, using one of the tools of critical stylistic analysis, i.e.,
‘Implying’, as replica of the pragmatic ‘implicature’, adopted by the Critical
Stylistic model, hence applied in this particular analysis. The analysis of
various texts written in the writer’s Weekly
Trust column goes as below:
5.1.1 Violation of Maxim of Truth/Quality
The maxim of truth
or quality demands that ‘do not say what you believe to be false, hence its
violation means saying what on the surface, appears false, unless there is
interpretation. The examples below are such statements that violate this maxim.
3.
You have spoken and Nigeria has heard you, indeed, you have every right
to be angry and frustrated.
4.
Any criminal Hausaman arrested in Saudi Arabia for pick-pocketing or black-magic-ing,
announce his name, his father’s village, his province, name him, shame him.
In example 3 above
the implicature lies at the beginning of the sentence, where the writer, the
writer states “You have spoken and Nigeria has heard you”. The implied meaning
in this statement differs from the physical expression, ascribed to the object ‘Nigeria’
(+ singular, - animate) in which it is personified and given the feature of a
living being (+animate), which is ‘hearing’ from analysis, while in actual
sense it is inappropriate. This violates the maxim of truth and of quality.
However, the writer could only be understood when explanation is made that
‘Nigerians’ metaphorically denotes ‘Nigerian people’. The ideology here is that
the writer, who was well acquainted with the personality in question, wanted
readers to know the public standing or position of the personality and accept
him as such.
This is because
the expression “You have spoken and Nigeria has heard you”, indicates that the
person’s voice is strong enough for the Nigerian authorities or Nigerian people
to listen to him, because he is not ordinary citizen. The writer’s earlier statements
in the text “you are one of Africa’s leading medical practitioners…” and “one
of the best doctors Nigeria ever produced” have buttressed the importance of
the personality.
The compound verbs
‘pick-pocketing’ and ‘black-magic-ing’ in example 4, though derived from the
nouns ‘pick-pocket’ and ‘black-magic’, are contextually performed implicature
function because the person known as ‘pick-pocket’ is not actually ‘picking’
the pocket, nor ‘pocketing’ the pick, but he is actually picking the content of
the pocket. Similarly, we know ‘black-magic’ as an act of sorcery that has to
do with evil spirits, yet that act cannot in reality be seen as black or red.
It might have been tagged so because of the degree of its harmful effect or its
effective power. The ideology here is engendered in the writer’s categorization
of these acts as bad, immoral, evil, unholy, abhorred and criminal and wanted
readers to accept them as such.
5.1.2 Violation of Maxim of Quantity/Information
This maxim demands
that – ‘Make your contribution as brief as possible for the current purpose of
exchange; do not make your contribution more informative than required’. Hence
making one’s contribution more or less informative violates this maxim, as exemplified
below:
5.
Tahrir Square has done it! And
now over to Eagle!
6.
The people who should make Yankari
and Obudu worth their names prefer to jet out to other countries.
In example 5
above, the two noun phrases ‘Tahrir Square’ and ‘Eagle’ imply names of places
in two different countries. However, there is no such explanation in the text
and it is left for readers to use their background knowledge of the world, to
know the places. This indicates that the text producer flouted the maxim of
quantity or information. Likewise, such a statement is an example of
conventional implicature, whereby the reader or listener is expected to use
some conventional information to interpret or understand the exact meaning or
implication in the text.
Therefore, when
the author wrote “Tahrir Square has done it” he implied (expecting readers to
use their knowledge to understand) that ‘Tahrir Square’, is a field or an
avenue for public gatherings in Egyptian capital city of Al-Qahira. Similarly,
when he writes “And now over to eagle”, he meant that now it is the turn of
Eagle Square, another avenue for public gatherings in Nigeria’s capital city of
Abuja. But the statements can only be understood via explanation of its
metaphoric state, as both ‘Tahrir Square and Eagle’ are given human or animate
quality of ‘doing’, while they are ‘non-human and inanimate’. Hence, the actual
interpretation or implication would be that the Egyptians have done it
(revolution) through their various protests at Tahrir Square. The writer would
like or expected Nigerians to also do the same at Eagle Square.
The ideological
implication here is that seemed to have believed and welcomed the incident of
change of government in Egypt and also saw that as desirable and applicable in
Nigeria. He also seemed to have believed that power lies with the people, so
long the people would stand up and voice out their demand, they are bound to
heard and ultimately be victorious. The writer was not only expressing that,
but he would also like his readers to understand and accept that.
In example 6, he
wrote two noun phrases and objects ‘Yankari’ and ‘Obudu’ in a sentence, without
adequate explanation on what those two objects were. This violates the maxim of
quantity or information. However, the writer might have expected readers to rely
on prior knowledge of his earlier explanation of the two objects, both being
game reserves in two different states in Nigeria. This also constitutes or
serves as conventional implicature, as readers rely on prior or conventional
knowledge to unseal what is implied in the text. Therefore, in his statement
“The people who should make Yankari and Obudu worth their names
prefer to jet out to other countries”.
The writer thus
accuses “the people” (top government officials in Nigeria), who he thought
supposed to patronize the two game reserves in Yakari, Bauchi state and Obudu,
Rivers state in Nigeria, but preferred to travel and visit similar tourism
attractions in countries abroad. The ideology here is that the writer seemed to
have been pointing at the attitude of some senior elites or even the general
attitude of Nigerians, reflected in their government officials, of favouring
and patronizing foreign sites and products, to the detriment of their own
homemade or locally made things. Far from just mentioning that, but the writer
also wanted readers to see where the fault lies in terms of deterioration and
retrogression in the country.
5.1.3 Violation of Maxim of Clarity
The maxim of
clarity demands that avoid obscurity of expression, avoid ambiguity and be
brief and be orderly. The examples below can be seen to have violated this
maxim, as they appear obscure or ambiguous.
7.
A few, such as scientific and functional
illiteracy have even resulted in the death of some unfortunate people.
8.
On the most valuable lessons I learnt
from you is that you are tough. Only those who know you so closely can
understand how tough. You are a hard ‘task-master’.
In example 7
above, the expression ‘some unfortunate people’ written by Bala Muhammad isn’t
clear enough to indicate exactly who those ‘unfortunate people’ are. This is
fact that the context wasn’t specific about them and they can be any people
that might be affected by the “scientific and functional illiteracy”. The
writer is thus seen to have violated the maxim of clarity and therefore the
expression is seen to have concealed some implicit message, susceptible to
triggering ideological effect. Although it could be said that lack of clarity
and flouting the maxim of clarity seems to be common characteristics of all
types of implicature, other types of implicature have their additional
specifications. The writer here seems to imply that scientific and functional
illiteracy is so risky that it doesn’t stop only on the illiterate, to the
extent that some “unfortunate people” fall victims to it. Hence the ideological
implication is that the writer is not only enlightening readers of the
existence this type of illiteracy, but also about how dangerous it can be in
causing public harm.
In example 8
above, the expressions ‘you are tough’ and ‘you are a hard task master’ written
by the text producer while addressing an important personality, lacks clarity.
This is because he failed to say how tough what kind of hard task master was
the personality he considers as his mentor. Hence the expression has violated
the maxim of clarity. However, the implicature here could mean that the
personality in question is ‘tough’ and a ‘hard task master’ when it comes to
telling the truth and standing by the truth. Hence the writer seemed to
appreciate to readers the truthful posture of his mentor and his stiff posture
on the truth. He thereby seems to be convincing an admonition for readers to go
by the same attitude.
6.0 Conclusion
Through its
investigation of ideological ‘Implying’ in the newspaper column by Bala
Muhammad, the paper reveals different strands of ideology. The manifestation of
various shapes of ideology in the media text could be adduced to such reasons
as the general world view, the writer’s personal viewpoint, his experiential
judgment, as well as the socio-cultural beliefs in the writer’s immediate
environment. Thus, the paper identifies ideological instances in the text,
which include; social, economic as well as political issues, such as image
making/personality rating, abhorring immoral acts by some Nigerians in the
diaspora, and public mobilization for patriotic national concern. Other
ideological issues raised are hinting the risk of illiteracy on both individual
and collective basis and accusing un-patriotic tendencies of some elites and
leaders against national development.
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APPENDIX
1. Weekly Trust,
Saturday, 5 May, 2012
2. Weekly Trust,
Saturday, 27 September, 2012
3. Weekly Trust,
Saturday, 7 July, 2012
4. Weekly Trust,
Saturday, 1 July, 2012
5. Weekly Trust,
Saturday, 14 April, 2012
6. Weekly Trust,
Saturday, 5 May, 2012
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