2.2. Exclamations
Emotive function is also expressed by the use of exclamations
in this novel. Basile Ngassaki (janvier 2006: 62) gives the following
definition:
«Exclamation is a category of discourse which shows
the natural and inner expressivity. A link is established between a thought and
a word or a linguistic structure which pulls it out.»
And Ngassaki adds:
«Exclamation is the most illustrative way to express
[...] emotion because the speech is launched involuntarily, caused by a past
experience which is stated rather than declared.»
Buchi Emecheta uses many exclamations marks (!) in The
Slave Girl to express her characters' feelings, emotions, and states. On
page 44 for instance, the narrator reports the major character's feelings to
point out her state of mind. As a result, Buchi Emecheta finishes the sentence
with an exclamation mark to express her characters' great emotions:
«So many people and so many different kinds of Ibo dialects!»
(Buchi Emecheta, 1977: 44). From this passage, it is relevant to assert
that Buchi Emecheta uses finally the exclamation mark to demonstrate how
Ojebeta is troubled by the crowd. Besides, exclamation marks can explain the
behaviour of some characters in the novel. It is the case with Miss Victoria
who ill- treats Ojebeta:
«Hey, you there!» Miss Victoria was soon
standing in the back veranda and shouting. «Hurry up, we have to catch an
early ferry. Ojebeta! Ojebeta! God, where is that girl?» (Buchi
Emecheta, 1977: 143)
It falls out from this passage that the use of the exclamation
in many places here reveals Miss Victoria cruelty. This puts across a great
expressivity. The use of exclamation is also observed through the following
utterances: «Hold her! Please hold her for, she is new- hold
her!» (Buchi Emecheta, 1977: 59). These utterances imply Chiago's
fear of letting Ojebeta runs away. «Hold her!» demonstrates the
speaker's emotions to get her.
Emotional expressions also occur in sentences featuring the
convincing lexical items. Accordingly the below narrator's report backs up the
point at issue:
Who is my sister, who generally came as visitor but has
decided to say? Come. Come and ride on your big mother's shoulders, like the
queen of the gods on the horse that is part human and part animal. Come!
(Buchi Emecheta, 1977: 36)
In the above example, the expression that explains the emotive
function is the use of the verb 'come' as an exclamation. It is employed here
to show Ma Palagada's hospitality to Ojebeta. This involves her emotion and
expressity to convince Ojebeta to be her 'slave'.
Apart from interjections and exclamations, some monologues in
The Slave Girl also express emotive function. In that case, characters
speak to themselves as if they were speaking to other people. For instance, in
the very end of the fourth part of The slave Girl, the narrator
reports Okolie's thoughts as follows:
He wondered why God had created so many people, and for
what reason. And why some of the people created could be as rich as this Ma
Palagada and her husband and others as poor as those in Ibuza where he came
from, so many farmers all struggling for survival. (Buchi Emecheta, 1977:
50)
Being a slave, it is very difficult for the author to express
her feelings overtly about equality between human beings. That is the reason
why he uses monologue to discharge all the psychological effect derives from
this phenomenon. Rich and poor people should be treated in the same way.
Lamentations and complaints are well expressed through monologues.
At the end of what precedes, the use of emotive actions
is the main feature of characters' chatting in The Slave Girl.
But expressions and social actions in real life are not always under conscious
control. It is certainly the reason why Buchi Emecheta's characters pull out
some affective features to express their emotions or feelings. Apart from
emotive function, metalingual function is also a linguistic feature which
characterizes language functions.
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