Speech Acts Analysis of Ola Rotimi’s The gods are not to Blame

This study aims at analyzing speech acts and the classification of illocutionary speech acts that occurred in Ola Rotimi’s The gods are not to Blame. This was a descriptive, qualitative study. The data were analyzed based on the theory of speech acts proposed by Searle (1969) and Yule (1996). Findings of this study showed that there were 191 utterances of speech acts. The types of direct speech acts were 190 utterances (99.5%) while the type of indirect speech act was 1 utterance (0.5%). The five classifications of illocutionary speech acts found were 191 utterances analyzed as illocution: assertives were 38 utterances (20%), commissives, 2 utterances (1%), directives 95 utterances (49.5%), expressives 55 utterances (29%), and no declarative (0%). This study showed that Ola Rotimi utilized the direct speech acts more in his play, The gods are not to Blame, than the indirect speech act. Among the types of illocutionary speech acts, directives were the most dominant. Thus, the theory of speech acts can be explored to understand the speaker’s intention in literary texts. The reader can learn about pragmatics, especially speech acts by examining the dialogues and their context in every scene of the play. The importance of speech acts is recognized in keeping steady progression of the story lines of the play. This reveals that social interactions cannot be detached from human life because this is what keeps a smooth flow of communication. Hence, plays as literary texts portray this continuity in keeping steady tide in social interactions among humans. This research also contributes significantly to Speech Acts in Nigerian English and its interface with the Yoruba culture. This study recommends that pragmatics can be learnt and mastered within stylistics.

Keywords: Pragmatics Speech Acts The Gods Are Not to Blame

Author

• Tolulope Grace Ojo
  Mountain Top University, Department of Languages,
  Prayer City, Ogun State, Nigeria