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TEXT LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF OFO AWURE By DR. BADE AJAYI Department of Linguistics and Nigeria Languages University of llorin Ilorin, Nigeria. 1. Introduction Ofo, the Yoruba incantatory poetry, is a verbal aspect of African magic, used to procure non-therapeutic needs of man (of. Dopamu 1977). Ofo is the spoken word believed by Africans to produce magical effects, when used by man to control the world around him. An Ofo may be good or bad. The good incantations such as, the incantation for attracting clients (afero), for escaping from calamity or misfortune (afore), for poison antedotes (opore), for activiating memory (isoye), for (aporo) self-defence (madaarikan), for good luck/fortune (awure) are used to procure the total well-being of man while the bad incantations such as ogede and aasan are used to kill, harm or cause misfortune to people in the society. Essentially, Ofo is used in almost every sphere of human activities - social, economic, political and medical. Textlinguistics is an application of linguistic principles to the study of a text (written or spoke). Apart from textlinguistics, other approaches to literary studies include socio-logical, sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic and speech acts theories, while a sociolinguist, sociologist or psycholinguist will be interested M studying the social uses of text or the pragmatic activities of the speaker or hearer, "Speech Acts" theory is noted for its identification and classification of types and dimensions or functions speech (cf. Austin 1962, Searle 1969 and 1976). A textual analyst, on the other hand will be more .interested in analyzing the communicative function(s) and message as well as the mode of conveying the information. The primary objective of this paper, therefore, is a description of that

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category of the Yoruba Ofo called awure, with a view to identifying its stylistic features and functional values. 2. Theoretical Framework Every description of language should be grounded on theory, whether it describes language form or language use (cf. Lamb, 1966). A study on language may be founded on an existing theory or a modification of such a theory or formulation of a new one. It is even possible for a study of texts to involve two or more models. But if a study intends to make any appreciable mark on language use within a limited scope and space, it should restrict itself to a particular model. For the purpose of this study, therefore, integrated theory of textlinguistics (ITME) proposed by Awoyale (1991) offers the most convenient model for us to employ in our investigation. The four major principles of integrated theory of textlinguistics are grouping, prominence, cohesion and semantic interpretation. The principle of grouping concerns the selection and assemblege of events, participants and language elements, the major ingredients employed by a literary artist. In grouping also is considered how much information to put together into one sentence and how to group sentences into larger units of paragraph and episode. Prominence is a concept that is of great importance in textual anaysis. Halliday (1973:113) conceives of prominence as linguistic highlighting, a phenomenon whereby some features of the language of a text stand out in some way. And like any other language, Yoruba has some stylistic devices for signaling that one item is of more significance than its neighbours, the devices include rate of information, space allocation, depth of treatment, location or placement of an event, a participant or a language element. The prominent participant and event will be presented more vividly in graphical form. Cohesion on the other hand, concerns the ways in which the components of surface text are mutually connected within a sequence. In particular, cohesion concerns how the major ingredients (participants, events and language elements) in a text relate to other ingredients already mentioned in the discourse.

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3. Textlinguistic Analysis of Ofo Awure Apart from the medicinal preparations or charms, the Yoruba use Ofo awure to possess money, children, wives, love of people, to make good sales and to secure some other blessings that make life worthy of living. Simply put,.Ofo awure means an incantation or charm used for good-luck or fortune. Our representative text to be used to probe the textlinguistic features that characterize this category of the Yoruba incantation is here below: S. 1 S. 2 S. 3 FC PI P2 S. 6 P3 FC S. 7 S. 8 S. 9 S. 10 S. I 1 S. 12 S. 13 S. 14 S. I5 S. 16 S.4 S. 5 Agbe ni i gbe're k'Olokun 1 Aluko ni i gbe're k'Olosa 2 Odidere-Moba-Odo Omo Agbegbaaje-ka ni 3 naa ni i gbe're k'Oluwoo; Ela-lwori, .gbere pade lona dandan Olojo-Esinminrin-kuntelu-telu Je k' Aje wa ku sile bayii Ibiokabasi, Igba eranko ni ba nibe ti i je; Ifa ere kii-je k' ebi ko Oju kan tesa 6 ba'jokoo si Laa gbe' re tiree wa ba He ni ataso 7 n joko t'okerekere i wo to lleTatapo ijokode'di: Ajigbore ni t'aatan; Ojumo kii mo k'aatan 9 mo gbore Olojo-oni tatemi lore Gbogbo omi 10 ni i fori fOlokun;l5 Gbogbo abata ni i fori fOlodo, '' Ise gbogbo agbara l2 ba se Olodo ni i fi sin;

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P5

S. 17 S. 18 S. 19 S. 20 S. 21

Osin lo ni ki won wa sin Aso alapo loga 14 i gba; Ti gbo ti'ju ni j gbonwu eegun Omode ilu, agba ilu, e waa fire gbogbo sin mi o Ire gbogbo lagbara fi sin olodo. Ire gbogbo

(Fabunmi, 1972:13-14) It is the Agbe 3 bird that carries blessing to Olokun4; it is the Aluko ' bird that carries blessings to Olosa It is the Parrot of Moba river, the-offspring of the one carrying calabash of trade who carries good forune to the king of Iwo;7 Ela-fwo re 2, carry good fortune to me on my way The owner of Esinminrm river full to the brim; Let wealth come to my residence now! Wherever the Oka snake hides, it meets two hundred preys there to feed on The manner of crawling of the python does not make it go hungry; It is where Esu 8 stays permanently that his own blessings; are brought to him 10 It is the house that the weaver stays at while the Okerekere 9 moves to him It is at the house that the seat awaits the sitting-buttock; The dump-pit is a perpectual beneficiary There is no day the dump-pit does not receive its own gift Mighty Creator please gives me my own blessing/gift 15 All Waters pay homage to the Olokun All swampy lands pay homage to the river deity

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All the labour that erosion ends up doing It is the river deity that is the beneficiary It is Osin 10 that commands them\ to serve me; It is anybody's clothes that a chamelion wears; Both the forest and the jungle team up to spin the Eegun " cotton wool; Both the young and old in the town, come and serve me with all blessings; For the erosion serves the river deity with all blessings, All blessings. 3.1 Grouping The first task before a text analyst is to identify and group the ingredients employed by the writer or speaker. Tables and b below show the identified participants and events respectively.

Table A. Grouping of Identified Participants Serial Number Participants 1. 2 3. 4. 5. Eye Olodo Oluwoo Orisa Apofo No. of Occurrence 3 5 1 5 6 No. of Lines 3 5" I 4 6

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6, 7. 8. 9. 10 11 12. 13. 14. 15.

Ejo Alaso Eroja ihunso Atapo idi Olojo oni Omi Oga Tigbo-tiju Ara ilu

4 2 3 1 1 1 3 1 1 4

3 1 3 1 1 1 3 1 1 2

We would have further grouped related participants to compact me above table but we found that such grouping will not enable us realise the accurate number of occurrence and line occupied by each participant .

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Table B: Grouping of Identified Events Serial Number 1. Events Ipe fun ire (Call for blessings) 2. Ipe fun aje (Call for money) 3. Ipe fun ifa (Call for advantages) 4. Ipe fun ore (Call for gifts/presents) 5. Ipe fun sinsin (Call for people to serve) 8 8 3 3 5 5 I 2 4 4 No. of Sentence No. of Lines

In table a the first identified participant is Agbe bird which occurs only once in one line. Olokun (the divinity of the ocean) the next participant, in order of sequence occurs two times in two lines. And as it can be clearly seen on the table. Apofo (the ofo reciter) signalled by persona, pronouns is the protagenist or major participant because his name has the greatest number of occurrence and space. The functional Participants are Olokun, ere, olodo, Esu, alaso, omode ilu and agba as the

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table shows. All other participants (21 in number) each of which occurs once in a single line, are minor participants (see table a for details) Several events occur in the text such that almost every sentence has its own event. But all the events have been grouped to compact them into larger units (see table b above). By this means we are able to show the most prominent event on the theme-line. s The text/ contains 25 lines, 21 sentences and 5 identifiable paragraphs. Fourteen of the sentences are focus constructions, 2 Kii negative construction and 4 imperative clauses (all marked on the original text). Relative clauses are embedded in a few of the focus contractions to limit the scope of the topicalized NP objects oju kan and Ise gbogbo respectively. These constructions are interwoven for artistic value. The text starts with focus sentences followed by imperative clauses and then kii - negative sentences as we have them in lines 1 - 8. Essentially, the focus constructions and negative constructions express affirmative statements which the reciter uses as a point of argument. As it has been shown on table b above, five unified events are identified. The first events are identified. The first event is a call for general blessings, the second events is a call for blessing of money, the third for an unexpected blessing, the fourth for blessing of gifts while the last event is a prayer that he (the reciter) might be served by the generality of people. The reciter enumerates some indisputable statements such as: Agbe ni i gbere k'Olokun Aluko ni i gbere k'Olosa; Odidere-Moba odo omo Agbegbaaje-ka - ka ri naa ni i gbere k'Oluwoo; It is the agbe bird thet carries blessings to Olokun (owner of the ocean); It is the aluko bird that carries blessings to Olosa (owner of the lagoon). It is the parrot of moba river, the off-spring of the one carrying calabash of trade who carries good fortune to the king of Iwo;

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The birds agbe, aluko and odidere are traditionally believed to be agents of good fortune. Hence they are named in the Yoruba incantation meant to bring good fortune. It is on this assertion that the reciter of the above Ofo bases his intention, stated in the topic sentence: Ela-Iwori. gbere pade mi lona dandan Ela-lwori, carry good fortune to me on my way. Three other sentences that supplement and emphasize the topic sentence are: Line 6 Je k Aje wa ku siie mi bayii i Let money be surplus in my house Line 15 Olojo-oni! Ta mi lore temi, Mighty creator, please give me my own blessing Line 23 Omode ilu agba ilu, e wa fire gbogbo fun mi. Both young and old, in the town, come and give to me all blessings. The text contains several verbs but the primary verb and event that assigns roles to the participants is the compound verb gbere (to bring / carry blessings). The verb occurs 5times in 5 lines. It is used in the habitual aspect as in : Agbe ni i gbere k' Olokun Aluko ni i gbere k'Olosa 3.2 Prominence In our effort to group the participants as on table 'a' above, 29 participants are identified. Of these participants, the Ofo reciter (apo fo) appears to be in a prominent position. The pronouns and pronominal that refer to the reciter occur the greatest number of times'" and occupy the largest space.lj Beloware two graphs: graph la showing the rate of occurrence and the significance of the participants and graph Ib is the chronological arrangement.of the participants. Scale:1/2 cm - i occurrence 1 /4 cm - 1 line

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Eye olodo oluwoo orisa apofo ejo alaso alo ihunso atapb idi omi oga tigbo-tiju ara ilu Number of occurrence Number of line 1a Graph of participants in Narrative sequence Scale: 1/2cm - I occurrence 1 /4 cm - 1 line Apofo olodo orisa ejo ara ilu eye elo ihunso alaso oluwoo atapo idi olojo oni oga tigbo-tiju Number of occurrence Ib Graph of participants in Narrative sequence Graph 2a below reveals that the story starts from the beginning and ends well. This is evident in the theme-line which beings and ends on the baseline. Scale: '/2 cm - 1 unit Ipe fun ire Ipe fun Aje Ipe fun ire ifa Ipe fun ore Ipe fun sinsin Number of line Number of Sentence 2a Graph of Events in Sequential Prominence 1 /2 cm - 1 unit Ipe fun ire Ipe fuii aje Ipe fun ifa Ipa fun ore Ipe fun sinsin Number of lines 2b Graph of Theme-line Events Number of Sentence Since the reciter has used chronological pattern to build up the text we shall<no more take the trouble to redraw the event graphs 2a and 2b As revealed in graphs 1 and 2 the prominent participant is the reciter (apofo) himself. The wish of the reciter that he be served by the generality of people around him is the prominent event. The reoccurrence of the item gbere (to bring/carry blessings) in the first three lines of the discourse is thematic, and does not move the story

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forward. Nevertheless the thematic reoccurrence aims at showing the significiance of the verb gbere in the context. 3.3 Cohesion: . Apart from the birds agbe, aluko, odidere and the snakes oka are ere, the NPs numbered 1 - 15 in the text do not seem to relate nor follow a hierarchy. What the participants have in common is that they are all blessed or gifted in their own ways and/or by different agents. For example, the agbe and aluko are the agents that bring blessings to Olokun and Olosa respectively, so the reciter's choice of lexical items shows a cohesive device. Similarly, the structural similarity of the first two lines of the text exemplifies sentence cohesion. In the text pronouns and pronominals are used to bring about a cohesive relation. For instance in: Oju kan [ t'Esu RC ba jokoo si] la a gbere tire ba a Ile ni alaso n joko tokerekere I wo to o It is where Esu stays permanently that His own blessings are brought to his the pronouns re (his) and a (him) and o (him) respectively refer to Esu and alaso on the same line. Similarly, the pronominal emi (mine) as well as the pronoun mi (my) in one of the topic sentences: Olojo-oni ta mi lore temi. Mighty creator! please give me my own blessing" refer to the reciter of the incantation. So, apart from avoiding unnecessary repetition which gives room for boredom, there is cohesion in the pronouns/pronomials and their referents. The pronouns, pronominals and the nouns they refer to are co-referential in the text. Consider the following example. Oju asa kii ribi Oju awodi kii roran An eagle does not experience evil A hawk does not experience litigation. Why does the reciter choose asa and awodi and not any other bird? Asa and awodi are birds of the same species and they feed on chicks. Except by accident the birds (asa and awodi) are not easily caught because they

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move at a very high speed. Hunters rarely kill them on the trees. A hawk preys on chicks in the presence of people and before one takes note it would have caught a chick and flown away. Just as an eagle or a hawk is not easily attacked by hunters and some other people, the reciter uses arobi charm and incantations so that he could outlive his opponents. 3.4 Semiotics of Ofo Awure The text contains some utterances wnieh need to be decoded for a better understanding of the discourse. The first three lines of the above Ofo awure reads: Agbe ni 1 gbere k'Olokun; Aluko ni 1 gbe're k'Olsoa; Odidere ... ni i gbe're k'Oluwoo; It is the agbe bird that carries blessings to Olokun It is the aluko bird that carries blessings to Olosa It is the parrot that carries blessings to Oluwoo Why does the reciter use the birds agbe, ahiko and odidere and not some other birds? What is the Yoruba world view of this utterance? The expressions, cited above connote that either the head, leg or the feather(s) of each bird are parts of the ingredients for awure preparation. Ela-Iwori symbol or configuration is to be printed on the medicinal preparations before reciting the ofo. Here Eki-Iwori spirit carries good fortune to the reciter on his way. Whereas in arobi incantatory type, Ela-Iwori might be evoked so that it can remove evil from the reciter's way completely. The implication of this dual role of some spiritual powers like Efa-Iwori Esu and iya mi, is that each of them can be employed as an agent of fortune and misfortune. 4. Findings Using some of the principles of textlinguistic model the following are realised to be distinguishing features of ofo awure (a) The events, participants and language elements are carefully selected and grouped by the reciter

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(b) The text uses focus, negative and relative constructions to express indisputable statements of fact in Yoruba cosmology. (c) The topic sentence is repeated four times in the text for emphasis. Each of the sentences is a complete thought. (d) Based on the number of occurrence and space allotted, the reciter the prominent Participant. (e) Imperative clauses characterize the ofo text (f) Cohesive relations are shown between pronouns/pronominals and their referents, as well as sentence structures. (g) The primary verb gbere has to do with the title of this category of incantation Awure It should however be noted that some of the identified features are general while others are specific. For example the stylistic features itemized in a, c and perhaps are peculiar to ofo awure while the features summarized in a, b, d and e are general to the Yoruba ofo, as discovered in this study and larger work (Ajayi 1995) from \\hich this paper is drawn. Essentially, this paper reveals some of the stylistic features that distinguish the Yoruba incantations from all other forms of Yoruba oral poetry.
NOTES

1.

Event is an occurrence which changes a situation or a state within a situation. Simply, an event is the predicate or proposition that happens in the world of the participant.

2. Participant is a term that implies an animate, inanimate objects or an idea that is directly involved in the activities taking place in a literary text. 3. A kind of woodcock that controls the ocean

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4. Owner of the ocean 5. Another species of woodcock in control of the lagoon

6. Owner of the lagoon 7. 8. A town in the present Osun State of Nigeria The Yoruba messenger sod, bailiff, demon

9. An instrument to which the weaving thread is tied, outside the weaving boot 10. Meaningless utterance, merely played upon 11. A kind of cotton that crows in the jungles 12. The word "time" (as used in this study) is a limited stretch or space of continued existence as the interval between two successive events or acts. Time may also be described as a temporal position of events or participants. 13. Space is a line or distance and an interval between two or more points or objects. In the context of this study, space indicates the number of lines in which a participant or its referent and /or an event appears in a given text. 14. Ela-Iwori and Eji koko Iwori are two of the nicknames of Iwora Meji (the third principal odu in ifa corpus) the ifa priests evoke during divinatory and incantatory sessions.

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REFERENCES Adejare O. (1992) Language and Style in Soyinka; A Systemic Textlinguistic Study of a Literary Idiolect, Ibadan Heihemann, Nigeria. Ajayi, Y.A. The Statistical study of Literary style and its implication for Yoruba incantatory Poetry" to appear in Oyo Journal of Language and Applied Linguistics Special College of Education, Oyo. (Ojolal) Vol. 1 No 2. (1995) Ofo (The Yoruba Incantations): A Textlinguistic Analysis, Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Ilorin. Austin, J.I, (1962) How to do Things withWords. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Awoyale, Yiwola (1989) "Awulo ofin Ofo ninu Itupale Ise Litireso Yoruba: Ipade lmo Eda Ede ati Litireso" in Adebajo, Sola (ed.) Senina ni Iranti J.S.Odimjinn Ogun State University Ago-Iwoye, pp. 141 - 168 (1991) "Towards an Integrated Theory of Textlinguistics Life: African Languages and Literatures (in Honour of Prof. Ayo Bamgbose) Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-lfe, pp. 48 51. Beaugrande. R.A. and Dressier. W.U. (1981) Introduction to Textlinguistics, London: Longman. Beekman J.M and Callow, J. (1974) Translating'the word of God, enderran Publishing House Michigan Dopamu, P.A. (1979) " Yoruba Magic and Medicine and their Relevance for today "Religious: A Journal of the Nigerian Association for the Study of Religions Vol. 4pp. 3-20 Fabunmi, M.A. (\912)Ayajo: Ijinle Ohim Ife, Oonibon-Oje Press. Ibadan.

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Halliday, M.A.K. (1973) Exploration in the functions of Language London: Edward Arnold Lamb. S. (1966). "Epilegomena to a Theory of Language" Romance Philology 19:531 -73 Olatunji, O.O. (1984) Features of Yoruba Oral Poetry, University Press, Ibadan. Searle, J.R. (1969) Speech Acts: An Essay in the philosophy of Language, Cambridge University Press. (1976) "A Classification of Illocutionary Acts" Language in Society, Vol. 5 No I, pp. 1 23.

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