Attention of language scholars has been shifting from the structural pattern of language to language as a functional unit given the change of interest from the form of a language to its function. This study presents a stylistic analysis of a well-known poem by David Diop “Africa” and analyses the unique role that language plays in projecting the central theme of the poem. The poem Africa is one of the poems that laments the ill treatments that Africa suffered in the hands of its colonialists, but which quickly paints a picture of hope for the continent. The researchers used foregrounding both as a stylistic theory and a method to analyse the poem so as to investigate how linguistic deviations and parallel structures are employed to project the central theme of the poem. The study revealed that both linguistic deviations and parallel structures as well as figurative expressions abound in the poem. These linguistic tools have, in no doubt, contributed immensely to the projection of the overall meaning of the poem – Africa’s past glories, present predicaments of suffering and humiliation under colonialism and the future of hope and freedom embedded in Africa’s rebirth. The study concludes that language and literary works contribute in a unified manner to expose the rots in society and then project a future of hope. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0876/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

The study explores creativity and innovation in the song (music video) ‘Imagine Say,’ by Imrana, a young Ghanaian musician. Adopting various theories and principles of Stylistics, the study identifies such creativity and innovation as parallelism, deviation, contrast, and other figures of speech, and what they foreground, in order to examine how effectively they contribute to the overall meaning and message of the song. The result indicates that the artiste adopts multimodality to express the meaning and message of the song. The diction, background scenes and chorus, sound effects, personification, repetition Parallelism, deviation, metaphor, and other figures of speech highlight the theme and meaning of the song, and thus help the audience to get the message – Discrimination and injustice against those who come from the streets (the poor and vulnerable) must cease. It is not by choice that they come from the streets; coming from the street does not make one a criminal; if any street person can be charged for any crime s/he must be given a fair hearing at a court of competent jurisdiction, rather than subjecting him/her to mob/instant justice.