An Evaluation of Aspects of Culture and Grammatical Metaphors in Selected Tunde Kelani’s Films

Abstract

This paper analyses aspects of culture and grammatical metaphor in Tunde Kelani’s films. Both primary and secondary sources of data are employed for the analysis of this study. The primary source includes five purposively selected films of Tunde Kelani. The study is restricted to only five of Kelani’s films because of their richness in grammatical metaphor. Books, journals, articles and the internet form the secondary source of data. Data were analysed within the provision of Halliday’s theoretical notion of grammatical metaphor introduced in 1985 within his Systemic Functional Grammar. The results show that Tunde Kelani employs interrogative construction for statement to clear the interrogator’s doubt, to achieve diplomacy, to suggest lack of direction, to dodge subsequent question, etc. Second, the analysis of grammatical metaphor in the films reveals that Kelani utilizes statement in the directive mood for politeness purpose. Third, the study shows that statement could be used to express the directive mood. This reflects indecision from the part of the speaker. It also reflects the power relation between the interlocutors involved. In conclusion, the complexity of the information in Nigeria’s films is as a result of the different forms of grammatical metaphors used. In a nut shell, grammatical metaphor creates tension, suspense and dramatic irony in Tunde Kelani’s films, thereby making them interesting enough. Therefore, the aspects of grammatical metaphor of Nigeria’s films should be studied to get the whole thematic concerns therein. In this paper it is suggested that further studies be carried out with some attentions on stylistic analyses in order to have a holistic understanding of Tunde Kelani’s films.

Keywords: Culture, metafunctions, grammatical metaphor, results, films