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Reflection 2

This reflection analyzes the linguistic features of an extract from Amos Tutuola's novel "The Palm-Wine Drinkard" compared to American Standard English. The extract exhibits influences from Tutuola's native Yoruba language, such as the use of indigenous terms like "palm-wine" and "parlour." Grammatically, there is a lack of auxiliary verbs and limited marking of past tense. While pronunciation cannot be analyzed from written text, Tutuola's spoken English was likely influenced by Yoruba phonetic patterns. The repetitive phrases and storytelling style also differ from standard English conventions. Overall, the extract demonstrates Tutuola created a distinct variety of English through influences from his cultural background and

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82 views2 pages

Reflection 2

This reflection analyzes the linguistic features of an extract from Amos Tutuola's novel "The Palm-Wine Drinkard" compared to American Standard English. The extract exhibits influences from Tutuola's native Yoruba language, such as the use of indigenous terms like "palm-wine" and "parlour." Grammatically, there is a lack of auxiliary verbs and limited marking of past tense. While pronunciation cannot be analyzed from written text, Tutuola's spoken English was likely influenced by Yoruba phonetic patterns. The repetitive phrases and storytelling style also differ from standard English conventions. Overall, the extract demonstrates Tutuola created a distinct variety of English through influences from his cultural background and

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Lê Phan Bảo Như
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Name: Lê Phan Bảo Như – ENENIU21131

EL021IU Group 2

Reflection 2
Extract 7:
“When it was early in the morning of the next day, I had not palm-wine to drink at all, and
throughout that day I felt not so happy as before; I was seriously sat down in my parlour,
but when it was the third day that I had no palm-wine at all, all my friends did not come to
my house again, they left me there alone, because there was no palm-wine for them to
drink.”
Try to pick out any features of lexis, grammar, pronunciation, or discourse style that
characterise the variety in each extract.

Extract 7 was written by Amos Tutuola, which captivates readers with his imaginative and
culturally infused novel, "The Palm-Wine Drinkard." According to the key, his English
shows influences from his mother tongue, Yoruba, an indigenous Nigerian language, and
incorporates certain features found in pidgin and creole varieties. However, his writing
style showcases a distinct variety of English, rather than classifying it as a creole language.
This essay aims to analyze the features of lexis, grammar, pronunciation, and discourse
style in the extract compared with American Standard English.
One distinguishing aspect of Tutuola's variety of English lies in his choice of lexis, most
of which are borrowed from the indigenous Nigerian language. For example, the inclusion
of indigenous Nigerian terms, such as "palm-wine,” which is an alcoholic beverage from
the sap of a palm tree, reflects his cultural background and immerses readers in a specific
setting, while Standard English would typically use more general terms like "alcohol" or
"wine." Also, the use of an indigenous term like "parlour" has reflected Tutuola's cultural
context and regional variations in vocabulary, as opposed to "living room" or "sitting room"
in common Standard English use.
Besides, Tutuola's variety of English exhibits notable grammatical features that deviate
from American Standard English. The use of non-standard negation is apparent in the
phrase "all my friends did not come," compared with the phrase "none of my friends came,"
which would sound more natural. Furthermore, there is a lack of auxiliary verbs in the case
"I had not" instead of "I did not have" or “I felt not” rather than “I did not feel.” It can be
associated with certain characteristics found in pidgin and creole languages, that is, the
simplification or the reduction of complex grammatical structures following standard rules
(Wardhaugh, 2006: 61). Likewise, the limited marking of verbs for the past tense is
indicated in phrases like “I had not palm-wine to drink” and “I had no palm-wine at all.”
In Standard English, the past tense is typically marked by adding "-ed" to regular verbs or
using irregular forms for irregular verbs. However, in some varieties of pidgin and creole
languages, the past tense is marked with a single auxiliary verb or a distinct marker,
resulting in simplified verb conjugation patterns.
Although we cannot analyze specific pronunciation features since the extract was in written
form, it is reasonable to assume that Tutuola’s spoken English would exhibit influences
from his mother tongue, potentially affecting rhythm, intonation, and accent. Standard
English pronunciation, on the other hand, follows the conventions of the variety spoken by
native speakers. In addition, Yoruba has a system of speech sounds that differs from
English, so Tutuola's pronunciation may reflect Yoruba phonetic patterns to some extent
(Okanlawon, 2016). Moreover, his writing exhibits a characteristic of oral storytelling
traditions. For instance, the use of repetitive phrases like “I had not palm-wine to drink at
all” and “I had no palm-wine at all.” While standard English typically employs a broader
range of sentence structures and avoids excessive repetition, Tutuola intentionally
harnesses this technique to engage readers.
Through the analysis of the features of lexis, grammar, pronunciation, and discourse style
in Extract 7, we have observed deviations from American Standard English. The use of
indigenous Nigerian terms, non-standard negation, simplification of complex grammatical
structures, and repetitive phrases have contributed to the distinctiveness of his variety of
English. Tutuola's work stands as a testament to the power of language diversity and the
ability to create compelling literature that transcends linguistic boundaries.

References
Okanlawon, J. (2016). AN ANALYSIS OF THE YORUBA LANGUAGE WITH ENGLISH.
Retrieved from Northeastern University: https://cos.northeastern.edu/wp-
content/uploads/2018/09/Jolaade-Okanlawon-An-Analysis-of-Yoruba-with-
English.pdf
Wardhaugh, R. (2006), An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, (5th edition), Blackwell
Publishing, USA.

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