Contrastive and Degenerative Transitivity as Thematic Reinforcement in Selected J. P. Clark Poetry
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1301.04Keywords:
J. P. Clark, degenerative transitivity, lexico-semantic featuresAbstract
This article examines the stylistic implications of transitivity in selected poems by J.P. Clark, a foremost Nigerian poet. Transitivity is engaged from the perspective of Halliday’s ideational meta-function of language use, with attention paid to the participants and the processes. Twelve randomly selected poems from Clark’s (2010) Full Tide are analyzed. It is observed that, in some of these poems, there is deliberate foregrounding of the sequence or location of lexical forms, especially those pertaining to participants and processes. This foregrounding is established in what manifests as a negative shift in lexico-semantic forms that suggests degenerative essence. The placement of words as well as the sequence of these words evokes a secondary reading beyond what the text ordinarily expresses.
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