Stylistic Analysis of Nominal Choices in Selected Biographies

Abstract

This paper stylistically accounts for the use of nominal choices in the biographies of distinguished African biographees like Achebe, Dangote, and Mandela as written by Ezenwa-Ohaeto, Moshood Ademola Fayenwo and Margie Marie Neal, and Peter Limb respectively. The study is predicated on the descriptive and thematic analysis forms of qualitative research method, and Leech and Short’s (2007) theoretical platform of Style as Choice. The analysis crucially reveals that these nominal elements in the purposively sampled biographies are stylistically used to extol, acknowledge and evaluate the laudable qualities, personality traits and positive impacts/achievements and ideological insinuations of the outstanding African biographical subjects in a manner that the choices generally belong to the semantic field of praise and positive evaluation for the purposes of inspiring the readers. This is particularly achieved through the biographers’ manner of expression involving the use of proper nouns to depict the biograhees as agents of positive change, use of abstract nouns to portray their unique abstract qualities, use of concrete nouns to foreground their tangible achievements, and use of noun phrases to portray their enviable identities and implicit ideological positions. The paper thus encourages its readers to exert positive impacts on their generation if they must be celebrated like these distinguished African personages.