LINGUISTIC AMBIGUITY IN YORÙBÁ POETIC DISCOURSE

Abstract

Ambiguity, the occurrence of double or multiple meanings, is a natural language universal. Existing studies in the application of linguistics to Yorùbá literary discourse have focused on Yorùbá proverbs, incantations, figurative andidiomatic expressions with little attention paid to linguistic ambiguity. This study was, therefore, designed to investigate linguistic ambiguity in Yorùbá poetic discourse, with a view to describing the types and sources of ambiguity, their communicative potential and stylistic relevance.

Noam Chomsky’s Government and Binding Theory complemented with Louis Hjelmslev’s Componential Analysis was adopted as framework. Interpretive design was used. Sixteen texts from the works of eleven poets were purposively sampled based on sufficiency of ambiguity: Ọlátúnde Ọlátúnjí’sEwì Adébáyọ̀ Fálétí apá kíní atì kejì; Afọlábí Ọlábímtán’s Àádọ́ta Àròfọ̀, Àkójọpọ̀ Ewì àbáláyé àti Ewì Apilẹ̀kọ, Ewì Oríṣiríṣi; Àtàrí Àjànàkú’s Orin Ewúro; Akinwùmí Ìṣọ̀lá’s Àfàìmọ̀ àti àwọn àròfọ̀ míràn; Débọ̀Awẹ́’s Ẹkún Elédùmarè; Ọlátúbọ̀sún Ọládàpọ̀’s Àròyé Akéwì Apá kíní àti kejì, Ẹ̀mí Ìn Mi Ẹ̀mí Rẹ; Olúránkinṣẹ́ Ọlánipẹ̀kun’s Ìjì Ayé; Dénrelé Ọbasá’s Àwọn Akéwì Apá kejì; Ṣayọ̀ Àlàgbé’s Ìjálá Ògúndáre Fọ́yánmu, Sulaiman Rájí’s Igi Ń Dáand Wándé Abímbọ́lá’s Ìjìnlẹ̀ Ohùn Ẹnu IfáApá kíní àti kejì. Data were subjected to syntactic andcontent analyses.

Six types of ambiguity were identified in the texts: lexical, structural, morpho-phonological, pragmatic, pun and scope. Lexical ambiguity is the most prevalent in Yorùbá poetry: olùyà, a photographer/an artist or a worthless person. In structural ambiguity, the complement/adjunctrelation in phrase structure shows the distinction between the shades of meaning portrayed in the utterance: ẹ lọ yà wọ́n; may mean separate them ortake their photograph. Morpho-phonological ambiguity is often mapped to multiple distinct set of sounds that can be interpreted in more than one way: dawocan be interpreted as betrayed the initiate or become an initiate.Pragmatic ambiguity is associated with two different speech acts performed by a linguistic expression: Kòfẹ́sọ̀ could mean a professor or sit-tight ruler. The play on words with close phonological relationship leads to pun ambiguity; the play on the noun phrasesẹ̀wà(beans) and ẹwà(beauty)inẸlẹ́wà (beautiful one/beans seller),results in pun ambiguity. Scope ambiguity involves operators and quantifiers: ọmọ ọ̀dọ̀ àgbà,could mean the child who lives with the elderly man, the older house help,or a wise/clever or mature child.Sources of ambiguity are homonym, idiomatization, irony, metaphor, polysemy and a range of a word’s meaning. The stylistic relevance of the various types of ambiguity include comic effect, humour, mockery and entertainment. For instance, kí ọkọ̀ pa wá pọ̀ (may we board the same vehicle/we die together). It demonstrates creativity and originality on the part of the poet, as few words are used in communicating many ideas and information.

Linguistic ambiguity, derived largely from homonyms is deployed for comic, mockery, criticism and communicative effects in Yorùbá poetic discourse.