A Systemic Functional Analysis of Niyi Osundare’s "Village Voices"

Abstract

English language remains one of the influences of Colonialism Nigeria. Besides, it is the language of instruction across all Schools (NPE. 1977, p. 3). However, since grammar is an aspect of the English language, this study examines two selected poems in Osundare’s Village Voices with the aim of finding out how system functional grammar can be of immense benefit to the readers. In bid to do this, the systemic functional modules of the experiential features of language were used for the analysis of the poems. Two poems which are A Villager’s Protest and Killing without a Sword were directly selected in the collection of Village Voices. This Premised on the fact that they both have a common theme which the entire collection symbolises; the two poems are equally used to test. The use of experiential features of language in the analysis of poetry. The study revealed the significance of grammatical tools (experiential features of language) and its application to the study of poems to prove that poetry remains the laboratory where grammatical exercises can be experimented. It was also observe from the study, how sentences are divided into constituents or elements in the functional grammar.