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Title: A SPEECH ACT ANALYSIS OF MARGARET OGOLA'S THE RIVER AND THE SOURCE AND I SWEAR BY APOLLO
Authors: Nicholas Onyango Oloo, Prof Francis Owino Rew, Dr Robert Onyango Ochieng'
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Nicholas Onyango Oloo, Prof Francis Owino Rew, Dr Robert Onyango Ochieng' Department of Languages, Linguistics and Literature, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology, Kenya
MLA 8 Oloo, Nicholas Onyango, et al. "A SPEECH ACT ANALYSIS OF MARGARET OGOLA'S THE RIVER AND THE SOURCE AND I SWEAR BY APOLLO." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, vol. 4, no. 6, June 2019, pp. 4736-4747, ijsser.org/more2019.php?id=364. Accessed June 2019. APA Oloo, N., Rew, P., & Ochieng, D. (2019, June). A SPEECH ACT ANALYSIS OF MARGARET OGOLA'S THE RIVER AND THE SOURCE AND I SWEAR BY APOLLO. Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, 4(6), 4736-4747. Retrieved from ijsser.org/more2019.php?id=364 Chicago Oloo, Nicholas Onyango, Prof Francis Owino Rew, and Dr Robert Onyango Ochieng. "A SPEECH ACT ANALYSIS OF MARGARET OGOLA'S THE RIVER AND THE SOURCE AND I SWEAR BY APOLLO." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research 4, no. 6 (June 2019), 4736-4747. Accessed June, 2019. ijsser.org/more2019.php?id=364.
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Abstract: Despite the 21st century having witnessed considerable research on the application of pragmatic theory and principles in the analysis of novels, most scholars have studied Ogola's novels using literary theories or stylistics. This study is hinged on the premise that there is paucity of discourse studies of Ogola's novels from the point of view of pragmatics. This study examines speech acts in Margaret Ogola's two novels; The River and the Source (1994) and I swear by Apollo (2002).In this regard, the objective of this study is to describe the types of speech acts used by the writer in the novels. Austin (1962) Speech Act Theory guided this study. The study employed an analytical research design. A mixed method approach is used to analyze the data. Qualitative method is used to present the data in form of description whereas quantitative is used to count the total number of the speech acts used by the main characters. The findings indicate that every utterance used by a character performs three simultaneous acts namely; a locutionary, an illocutionary and perlocutionary. In addition, the study shows that every utterance produced by a character in the novels could be categorized under one of the five major categories speech acts proposed by Searle; representatives, expressive, directives, commisives or declarations. The study found that all these five major speech acts were used by the writer in the novels with the representative being the most dominant in both novels and the declarations the least. The study also reveals that each major speech act contains a wide range of sub acts or illocutionary forces which are distinguished based on their felicity conditions. For this reason, the findings show that the writer used thirty six sub acts in the two novels with the act of asserting having the highest frequency and declarations the least. The study therefore proposes that speech act analysis be adopted as an effective tool in the analysis of the characters' verbal interactions in novels. In addition, this study recommends further research could be conducted on speech act analysis of novels by other writers.

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