THE COMMUNICATIVE VALUE OF QUESTION FORMS IN NIYI OSUNDARE'S POETRY

Abstract

This essay is an exercise in stylistic analysis. It examines question forms, a dominant feature of the poetic production of one of Nigeria's most important poets, Niyi Osundare, using the poet's eight volumes for illustration. As it shows, question forms may look ordinary and may just be designed for what they are: to seek information from the addressee, but a poet could exploit them to advance the communicative value of his art. In the volumes under study, question forms not only provide an opportunity for Osundare to talk to his assumed listener; they also serve as avenues for him to engage the reader in important dialectics and push forward his own arguments. The question forms are, therefore, in this way ideational in function, while also being largely rhetorical.


(Humanities Review: 2002 2(1): 80-92)