A Stylo-Pragmatic Analysis of Selected English Gospel Songs in Nigeria (Published)
This paper explores the stylo-pragmatic properties of English gospel songs in Nigeria. This is an area where researchers have not really beamed their searchlights on despite wide-spread and general acceptability of Christian gospel songs in Nigeria. The aim of this study is, however, to utilise parodic strategies, as promoted by Morson (1989) and Bakhtin (1981), to explore some Christian lyrics in Nigeria. Three songs are purposively selected to reflect the linguistic multiplicity of Nigeria. They are: Pernam Percy Paul’s Bring Down Your Glory, Osinachi Joseph’s You Are Able and Dunsin Oyekan’s Open Up. The paper is able to show that Christian songs in Nigeria portray deeper meanings than what the lyrics present at the points of rendition. There are underlining parodies in which the alternate interpretation of a lyrics opens up deeper meaning that may probably suggest the intention of the song writer.
Keywords: Nigeria, Stylo-pragmatics, gospel songs, linguistic multiplicity, parodic strategies