LINGUISTIC-STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF ONOMATOPOEIAS IN HAROLD SONNY LADOO’S NO PAIN LIKE THIS BODY

Abstract

Every author has a unique style that features prominently in his or her work. A close reading of Ladoo’s novel identifies onomatopoeias as a prominent stylistic device that describes setting, themes, characters and points-of-view. This study investigates the linguistic-stylistic analysis of onomatopoeias in Ladoo’s No Pain Like This Body. The study classifies onomatopoeias, states the phonological characteristics of onomatopoeias and discusses the functions of onomatopoeias. This study has adopted Peirce’s Theory of Sign or Iconicity. The relevance of Peircean Theory of Iconicity is that these icons are capable of describing shapes, textures, sounds, sight, movements, odour and sizes of objects in the select novel. The study uses Ladoo’s No Pain Like This Body as a primary source of data. As for data presentation, this study selects onomatopoeias in the select novel, classified onomatopoeias, described phonological characteristics of onomatopoeias and discussed the functions of onomatopoeias. It has been discovered that onomatopoeias add musicality, memorability, isomorphism and parallelism in the select novels. This study establishes that onomatopoeia is more than a figure of speech, word-formation process and mimetic device. The preponderance of onomatopoeias in the novels helps in establishing the settings, advancement of plot, characterisation and thematic pre-occupations. Linguists, grammarians, stylisticians and literary critics will immensely benefit from this study.  Semioticians, rhetoricians, phonologists and semanticists will find this study as an invaluable material that shows the interface between phonology and semantics