The Grammar of Chaos: Analysis of Linguistic Deviation in Amos Tutuola’s The Palm-wine Drinkard and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

Author

Ouno Jackline Adhiambo


Abstract

 Amos Tutuola’s The Palm-Wine Drinkard and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts challenge conventional English grammar through a vibrant fusion of Yoruba oral tradition and postcolonial linguistic subversion. Employing a stylistic and linguistic approach, which is a subset of postcolonial stylistic theory, this study interrogates the unconventional syntax in Amos Tutuola’s two novels as a deliberate ‘grammar of chaos’ that mirrors cyclical Yoruba cosmology and mythic realism. From a textual analytical prism, this study focuses on non-standard English, translation aesthetics, and oral narrative structures that are utilised to foreground key themes, such as linguistic hybridity (blending Yoruba idioms with English creates a distinct postcolonial voice), mythic time and space, where grammar breaks down linear Western chronology to reflect a timeless spirit world, and subverts authority by manipulating the coloniser's language to reclaim indigenous storytelling power. This paper concludes that Tutuola constructs a literary chaos that redefines English grammar. The novels establish a foundational text for African literature in English by prioritising myth over rigid linguistic rules.



Keywords

Grammar, Chaos, Linguistic Deviation, stylistics, Non-standard English, Foregrounding



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References


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