Browsing by Author "Adefolaju Adefunke Adedayo"

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    A semiotic analysis of linguistic and visual features of statues of selected legendary figures in Yorubaland
    (Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Obafemi Awolowo University., 2015) Adefolaju Adefunke Adedayo
    The study identified the semiotic components of some Yoruba legendary statues. It analysed the linguistic and visual anchorages that accompany the statues. It further described the social values, cultural and political identities and stances expressed by the linguistic and visual features of the statues. All these were done with a view to enriching the knowledge of statues as a phenomenon of language and foregrounding the discourse wealth of statues as semiotic signifiers of socio-historical significance. The study employed both primary and secondary sources of data. The primary source comprised eleven statues which were purposively selected from six cities in Yorubaland. The selected cities were Ondo, Ile-Ife, Oke-mesi, Ibadan and Abeokuta. The selected statues were closely read with particular attention to their linguistic and non-linguistic meaning making modes. The secondary sources included books, journal articles and the Internet. The analysis of the data was guided by van Leeuwen's Social semiotics and Martins and White's Appraisal theory. The findings showed that the selected statues were composed of primary and secondary signifiers. The study also found that the statues were accompanied by such verbal anchorages as epithets of appreciation and affective memory, nominal signifiers of heroism, positive terms of address, verb signifiers of impressive attitude and local configuration/eulogies. There were also visual anchorages such as warfare symbolism, religion symbols, animal and material signifiers. All these served as indices of affective evaluation. The findings further showed that the statues portrayed such social values as bravery, courage, hard work, enterprise, integrity and patriotism. It was found that legendary statues inscribed leadership, power, social and economic identities, and that their producers also utilised the products to construct stances of positive alignment and judgement which pointed to their attachment to the values which the statues signify. The study concluded that statues of Yoruba legendary figures are discourse products because they elucidated the concepts of power, identity and ideology, which were the subjects of modern day discourse. It also concluded that the statues were semiotic signifiers of the Yoruba socio-cultural realities.