Orality in Osundare’s Poetry: “WH-ASK” and “NP-WH-LET” Constructions

Abstract

Two rhetorical structural types, characterised as WH-ASK and NPWH-LET constructions, derived from the Yoruba praise and incantatory poetic tradition, are identified in Niyi Osundare’s poetry. The syntax, though distinct and unique, does not violate the combinatory possibilities of English. Breaking no rules of the syntax of English, the syntagmatic patterns inevitably draw attention to themselves as characteristic habits of thought and modes of expression of the Yoruba people. The syntactorhetorical borrowing from Yoruba poetry represents the poet’s efforts at “domesticating” English or making it carry the “weight” of his Yoruba experience.

The paper identifies a profound and highly rewarding interaction between the lexical and syntactic arrangements in the poet’s creative works, pointing out that no investigation of the oral dimension of his poetry should ignore the structural paradigm.