Abstract

Previous studies on J.P. Clark-Bekederemo’s poetry have concentrated on literary and some linguistic features, highlighting the nexus between theme and figuration in the works. However, such studies have not paid attention to the role deictics play in foregrounding stylistic functions in the texts, which is absolutely essential for a comprehensive description and interpretation of the poet’s idiolect. This study, therefore, investigates the stylistic value of deictic words in encoding or reinforcing aspects of meaning and aesthetics in the poetry under study. Specifically, with M.A.K. Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics as the analytical platform, the study demonstrates that the deployment of personal pronouns ‘I,’ ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘me’; locative adverbs ‘here’, ‘there/elsewhere’ and temporal adverbs ‘now’ and ‘then’, helps the poet to relate his experiences, visions and propositions within specific spatial or temporal frameworks. The aim is to show that lexico-grammatical patterns of language use such as deictics have the potentials to combine with other elements of language to convey textual message and also achieve artistic beauty.

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