A Stylistic Analysis of Foregrounding in Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba’s Public Speeches

Abstract

The present study attempts to analyse the rhetorical devices, personal pronouns (subjective) and the sentence types (according to functions) which Lumumba has used as stylistic devices to foreground his work. The analysis is done using the SFL idea of metafunction of language particularly experiential and interpersonal metafunctions. The rhetorical devices are analysed using the experiential metafunction whereas the objective functional pronouns and sentence types analysis is carried out using the interpersonal metafunction.This study aims to pinpoint how the linguistic features (subjective personal pronouns, rhetorical devices, and sentence types) helps Lumumba to foreground his work.The study also intends to show how this linguistic feature characterise Lumumba .The findings indicate that rhetorical devices,the subjective personal pronouns and sentence types (according to functions )are used by Lumumba to foreground his message to the audience .The rhetorical devices provoke the audience to think and memorise the information relayed .The subjective personal pronoun ‘I’ is used to emphasis Lumumba’s authority and good qualities i.e opinionated and confident.The personal pronoun ‘we’ is used to involve himself and sometimes exclude himself .Personal pronoun ‘you’ is used in reference to a specific group when he wants to show a separation of one group from the other revealing his character trait as responsible .The personal pronoun ‘they’ is used to exclude himself .These features helped him to relay his message.