An investigation into the theme patterns in selected extracts from Adichie’s Half of a yellow sun: a systemic functional approach

Abstract

This paper deals with Theme patterns analysis in the Nigerian female novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun using the Hallidayan Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). Such an approach postulates that the study of language (written or spoken) can involve three functional labels such as experiential, interpersonal, and textual meanings/metafunctions (Halliday, 1985; Eggins, 2004; Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004/2014, etc.). The present study aims at describing, analysing, and interpreting the different linguistic features which connote Themes in three selected excerpts from the novel under study through a descriptive method which implies a quantitative and qualitative approach. The salient patterns of Themes are discussed in the last section of the paper to gain an insight, not only, into the mechanisms that create a meaningful text in Half of a Yellow Sun, but also, into the way the linguistic properties (especially the thematic ones) have helped Adichie to weave her text as a message of denunciation of a cultural and/or collective hypocrisy in a postcolonial Nigeria.

Keywords: Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), Textual Meaning, Theme, Rheme, Clause, Discourse Analysis