Exploring the Paradigmatic Thinking and Representation in R. E. Obeng’s Eighteenpence: Beyond Plot
Issue:
Volume 4, Issue 3, September 2019
Pages:
61-69
Received:
22 May 2019
Accepted:
10 July 2019
Published:
23 July 2019
Abstract: When narratives are mentioned, the first thing that springs to mind is plot. Plot is important because of its reference to development and process, which make possible the outlining and enacting of the forms of life that shape up around a particular time and structure. Meaning-making in a narrative is generally dependent on this arrangement and the forms of life it creates from it. Nonetheless, in producing meaning, plot is not the only way of designing a narrative. One other significant way of structuring or designing narratives and creating meaning in narratives is through a pattern: juxtapositioning, parallelism and contrasts. In these meaning making processes of either plot or pattern, time is significant. Plot depends upon a linear sequential process implicating process and development and therefore a beginning, a middle and an end, or time in progression, whereas pattern depends upon time that is held static in a paradigmatic structure of an eternal present, conflating past, present and future. Pattern can occur at the level of words, but also at the level of phrases and sentences (stylistics), or at the level of scenes, chapters, and in parts or divisions. The most essential thing to recognize about all this, however, is that the pursuit and crucial aspect of a narrative is that it seeks to create its own world through the process of packaging what it is creating through a design. The underlying principle of this packaging is ‘tying together’. Hence narratives tie together people, objects and facts. And they tie them together in a manner that is stylistically and grammatically acceptable. By tying together objects and facts, and tying people together, and by doing so through stylistic and grammatical means, the argument of the narrative is conveyed at a more implicit level than through an explicit level such as for plot; that is, through the very textual organization of accounts. Using R. E. Obeng’s Eighteenpence as example, this paper investigates the significance and effectiveness of creating consequence and meaning through the design patterns of juxtapositioning, parallelism and contrast for narratives which foreground the textual and structural organization of accounts to convey their meaning and arguments. Obeng’s Eighteenpence is the first full-length Ghanaian novel (1967), preceding Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968).
Abstract: When narratives are mentioned, the first thing that springs to mind is plot. Plot is important because of its reference to development and process, which make possible the outlining and enacting of the forms of life that shape up around a particular time and structure. Meaning-making in a narrative is generally dependent on this arrangement and the...
Show More
Exploring Factors Which Affect Quality of the English Language Teacher Training Programme for Primary Schools in Zambézia
Issue:
Volume 4, Issue 3, September 2019
Pages:
70-77
Received:
6 January 2019
Accepted:
6 September 2019
Published:
21 September 2019
Abstract: Several factors may affect the quality of the English language teaching and learning process and teacher training as well. This paper seeks to discuss eight factors which influence positive or negatively in the English language teacher training programme for primary schools in Zambézia province. Heyworth is the great scholar, who discusses issues around quality management in English language teaching as a foreign language. His views have inspired the researcher to think over issues, which can foster or undermine the quality of the English language teacher training programme for primary schools in Zambézia province. The researcher stresses that quality of the English language teacher depends mostly of the quality of the management process, through its positive elements and excellent performance of the teacher trainers, the existing teaching and learning materials, motivation by teacher trainees and teacher trainers, and positive attitudes which can be shown by strong professionalism. The qualitative approach was chosen for this study based on discussions and review of authors who have discussed about factors affecting teacher education with focus on English language teacher training. The current study concludes that training English language teachers in a context, where English is taught and learnt as a foreign language demands the disposition of knowledge, skills, competence, motivation, quality of school infrastructure, professionalism and teacher trainers competence which can impact positively in the English language teacher trainee, the future English language teacher.
Abstract: Several factors may affect the quality of the English language teaching and learning process and teacher training as well. This paper seeks to discuss eight factors which influence positive or negatively in the English language teacher training programme for primary schools in Zambézia province. Heyworth is the great scholar, who discusses issues a...
Show More
Familiarity and Unfamiliarity Factor: A Variable in the Cognition of Proverbs
Issue:
Volume 4, Issue 3, September 2019
Pages:
78-82
Received:
28 August 2019
Accepted:
11 September 2019
Published:
25 September 2019
Abstract: Proverbs are a very common linguistic tool that provides a mechanism for understanding the general in terms of the specific. Their usage reveals the state of mind and mutual cognitive environment of the discourse participants in a linguistic exchange. The interpretation of a proverb involves a mapping process leading the hearer to search for a correspondence between the literal statement and its meaning within a context (Gibbs 1994). My paper aims at studying how familiarity and unfamiliarity factor of a proverb acts as a variable in the cognition of proverbs. It will examine how familiar proverbs are understood in a non-literal fashion more quickly than unfamiliar proverbs. For example, ‘a rolling stone gathers no moss’ will use less processing effort than a comparatively less familiar proverb like ‘the used key is always bright’ andit will expose how ultimately greater cognitive benefits are achieved from its processing. Once the proverb is confirmed as a fixed conceptual frame, the literal and non-literal senses equally integrate into an emerging meaning structure. It will also observe how expressions of these underlying conceptual relationships in the form of verbal metaphors quickly become a part of the culture’s stock truismsand folk wisdom and how ‘conceptual integration’ and ‘frame shifting’ also depend on the familiarity and unfamiliarity of a proverb.
Abstract: Proverbs are a very common linguistic tool that provides a mechanism for understanding the general in terms of the specific. Their usage reveals the state of mind and mutual cognitive environment of the discourse participants in a linguistic exchange. The interpretation of a proverb involves a mapping process leading the hearer to search for a corr...
Show More
