Women’s quest: A study of the language of education and empowerment in Rosecolette Ewurum’s <i>Sedulous</i>

Abstract

Eventful and fulfilled lives of women remain a plausible advantage to sustainable development of a society. Education and empowerment of women  determine the level of progress sustainability. This study explores the language use in women‟s ordinate quest for self-actualization and accomplishment  in Ewurum‟s Sedulous. As the saying goes “train a woman and you train the whole nation”. This study utilizes J.L Austin‟s (1962) and Searle‟s (1999) Speech Acts Theories to analyze language use for Education and empowerment. Fifty excerpts from the study text constitute the data for  analysis. The five categories of Austin‟s performatives; verdictives, exercitives, behabitives, commissives and expositives as well as Searle‟s classifications  reveals the women‟s plight due to circumstances beyond their control to ensure self-actualization. Appropriate linguistic expressions yield positive results  in women‟s ordinate pursuit. It is recommended that women should be empowered through Education to maximize their endowed potentials for  sustainable development.