12 research outputs found
‘Na Wa o for African Men’: Pragmatic acting in Sir Shina Peters’ Shinamania
Music performs different functions besides entertainment. This paper explores the sensitising and advocating functions of music with particular focus on Sir Shina Peters’ album Shinamania. I employ Jacob Mey’s pragmeme, a pragmatic analytical tool, to identify the pragmatic acts that are performed in the album. The analysis reveals that, with the practs of ordering, Sir Peters compares the attitudes of African men to African women and advocates women empowerment, predicating his advocacy on the fact that women are beautiful and intelligent. He presents them as more humane and considerate than men. He also eulogises the virtues of women, taking them almost to the pedestal of saints. He uses the pract of warning to balance his presentation, but he appears subjective on the side of women. Consequently, the paper concludes that Sir Shina Peters deploys this album as his commentary on cultural and socio-political peculiarities of Africa
Relevance-Based Analysis of Aphasic Speech
The aphasics constitute an important segment of our population. Interacting with them requires special procedures. Some of the caregivers of the aphasics and some other members of society often dismiss the speech of the aphasics as irrelevant and incoherent. This attitude towards the aphasics is counter-productive, as the interlocutors as well as the aphasics get frustrated during interactions. Against this background, this paper examined interactions with three Yoruba-English bilingual aphasics, using the relevance theory, with a view to revealing the systematic ways the meanings of the utterances of aphasics can be decoded by somebody who is not present when such a speech was recorded. The paper concludes that a better way of making inferences from the discourse of aphasics is to enter their worlds of experience, show interest in their discourses, make assumptions about their ostensions. In most cases, the discourses of aphasics fulfil at least one of the Extent Conditions. This implies that the discourses of aphasics are relevant and the effort expended in processing them can be reduced if the interlocutor/analyst appropriately deplores the necessary contextual cues and clues.Key words: Yoruba-English bilingual aphasics; Extent conditions; Relevance theory; Ostensions; Caregiver
The global burden of cancer attributable to risk factors, 2010-19 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019
Background Understanding the magnitude of cancer burden attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors is crucial for development of effective prevention and mitigation strategies. We analysed results from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 to inform cancer control planning efforts globally. Methods The GBD 2019 comparative risk assessment framework was used to estimate cancer burden attributable to behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risk factors. A total of 82 risk-outcome pairs were included on the basis of the World Cancer Research Fund criteria. Estimated cancer deaths and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) in 2019 and change in these measures between 2010 and 2019 are presented. Findings Globally, in 2019, the risk factors included in this analysis accounted for 4.45 million (95% uncertainty interval 4.01-4.94) deaths and 105 million (95.0-116) DALYs for both sexes combined, representing 44.4% (41.3-48.4) of all cancer deaths and 42.0% (39.1-45.6) of all DALYs. There were 2.88 million (2.60-3.18) risk-attributable cancer deaths in males (50.6% [47.8-54.1] of all male cancer deaths) and 1.58 million (1.36-1.84) risk-attributable cancer deaths in females (36.3% [32.5-41.3] of all female cancer deaths). The leading risk factors at the most detailed level globally for risk-attributable cancer deaths and DALYs in 2019 for both sexes combined were smoking, followed by alcohol use and high BMI. Risk-attributable cancer burden varied by world region and Socio-demographic Index (SDI), with smoking, unsafe sex, and alcohol use being the three leading risk factors for risk-attributable cancer DALYs in low SDI locations in 2019, whereas DALYs in high SDI locations mirrored the top three global risk factor rankings. From 2010 to 2019, global risk-attributable cancer deaths increased by 20.4% (12.6-28.4) and DALYs by 16.8% (8.8-25.0), with the greatest percentage increase in metabolic risks (34.7% [27.9-42.8] and 33.3% [25.8-42.0]). Interpretation The leading risk factors contributing to global cancer burden in 2019 were behavioural, whereas metabolic risk factors saw the largest increases between 2010 and 2019. Reducing exposure to these modifiable risk factors would decrease cancer mortality and DALY rates worldwide, and policies should be tailored appropriately to local cancer risk factor burden. Copyright (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.Peer reviewe
The Segmentals of Bilingual Nigerian Adult Broca’s Aphasics
This paper examined the segmental phonology of 25 purposively sampled bilingual Nigerian adult Broca’s aphasics from a Nigerian teaching hospital. Data were collected by tape-recording the speech of each of the aphasic. The data were analysed perceptually, complemented with frequency count and simple percentage. The way the subjects ranked constraints were then examined, using Optimality Theory. Three main forms of deviation were noticed in their speech: deletion, substitution and epenthesis, with substitution having the highest frequency, followed by deletion. The deviation affected consonants more than vowels. Plosives and alveolars were more affected by the brain damage than any other sound. Some of the effects of Nigerian English on the speech of the subjects were still retained after the brain damage. The Broca’s aphasics sampled ranked constraints in such a way that markedness dominated faithfulness.
The Segmentals of Bilingual Nigerian Adult Broca’s Aphasics
This paper examined the segmental phonology of 25 purposively sampled bilingual Nigerian adult Broca’s aphasics from a Nigerian teaching hospital. Data were collected by tape-recording the speech of each of the aphasic. The data were analysed perceptually, complemented with frequency count and simple percentage. The way the subjects ranked constraints were then examined, using Optimality Theory. Three main forms of deviation were noticed in their speech: deletion, substitution and epenthesis, with substitution having the highest frequency, followed by deletion. The deviation affected consonants more than vowels. Plosives and alveolars were more affected by the brain damage than any other sound. Some of the effects of Nigerian English on the speech of the subjects were still retained after the brain damage. The Broca’s aphasics sampled ranked constraints in such a way that markedness dominated faithfulness
Features of Tone in Nigerian English Stress Pattern
Nigerian English (NE) has a distinct stress pattern that is often credited to influences from the tone of the Nigerian indigenous languages. This study examined the extent of the influence of tone and the characteristics of stress in NE. Three hundred NE speakers were purposively sampled. The data collected through tape-recording of their renditions of a prepared text was subjected to acoustic analysis, complemented by descriptive statistics. The results showed that stress was assigned in a tone-influenced manner; stress was determined by the presence and the position of the high tone. This suggests that NE should be classified as a pitch-accent language. Therefore, prominence in NE words is better discussed in terms of both tone and stress, rather than as either only tone or only stress
Generic Structure Potential Analysis of Feature Articles in Nigerian Newspapers
This paper investigated the generic structure potential of feature articles in four Nigerian newspapers: The Punch, The Nation, Vanguard and Nigerian Tribune. Halliday and Hassan’s concept of Generic Structure Potential served as the theoretical framework. The feature articles analysed had three obligatory elements: Headline, Orientation and Addressing the Issue, and three optional elements: Feature Lead, Proffering a Solution and Moral Lesson. A Nigerian newspaper feature article typically starts with a headline that may or may not be followed by a feature lead. This is followed by an orientation, an issue to be addressed, which is then followed by either a suggested solution or a moral lesson. The study posited that the GSP of feature articles in Nigerian newspapers can be catalogued as H^ [(FL) ^O^][AI^(PS).(ML.)]