Beyond the law of transitivity : a functional stylistic study of maya angelou's i know why the caged bird sings

Abstract EN

The dominant critical focus on Maya Angelou’s writings has been on the thematic features of her texts.

Linguistic and stylistic appraisals on her works are generally sparse.

This paper is a stylistic study of Maya Angelou’s autobiographical novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

It aims at examining the stylistic features of the text vis-à-vis the semantic Law of Transitivity so as to investigate the features that contribute in the discourse’s trespassing the sphere of informing to the sphere of interaction and influence.

The paper starts with brief notes on stylistics in relation to semantics.

This is followed by a discussion of the Law of Transitivity, frequent references are made to John R.

Searle’s patterns of metaphor.

The varied forms of the relations between the signified or the source (the vehicle) and the signifier or the target (the tenor) in relation to the sign (the common ground) are discussed in the light of the figurative devices employed by the author and the functions achieved in revealing the ideological issues of race and gender in the book.

The study attempts also at positioning the formal and psychological elements within a sociocultural context in order to promote the reader’s understanding of the purposes and functions to which certain linguistic choices are made.