Exploring the Connect between Language and Literature: A Stylistic Analysis of Ademola Omobewaji Dasylva’s GOLOBA

Abstract

It is noted that scholars of linguistics have argued and proved that stylistics is a two-faced sub-linguistic field. In essence, stylistics is relevant in the study of both linguistic and literary texts which serves as the basis for distinguishing linguistic stylistics from literary stylistics. Literary texts are usually analysed to bring to fore the essence of focusing on the language of literature but to also demonstrate the concerns of literary-stylisticians as they set definite boundaries in analysing literary texts. In this paper, a poem titled “Goloba” by Ademola Dasylva is analysed to justify the claim that linguistic stylistics is a veritable approach for analysing and interpreting literary texts, by looking into the graphological features, phonological features, lexico-syntactic features and lexico-semantic features inherent in the poem. These linguistic features are distinctive in interpreting literary texts and the distinctions between linguistic stylistics and literary stylistics have been highlighted. Thus, the paper concludes that literary texts are not only the subject of literary critics but stylisticians.