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.
