AN EXAMINATION OF SENTENCES AND THEIR APPROPRIATENESS IN SELECTED NIGERIAN CHILDREN’S NOVELS

AN EXAMINATION OF SENTENCES AND THEIR APPROPRIATENESS IN SELECTED NIGERIAN CHILDREN’S NOVELS

Abstract:

This thesis has examined sentences and their appropriateness in selected Nigerian children‟s novels. The novels include An African Night Entertainment by Cyprian Ekwensi, Tales out of School by Nkem Nwankwo, Akpan and the Smugglers by Rosemary Uwemedimo and Adventures of Souza by Kola Onadipe. Using the Traditional Grammar model, sentences from these texts were classified according to structure and according to function and then analysed. It was found that there is a preponderant use of simple, compound and complex sentences, while the use of the compound complex sentence is very minimal. It was also found that sentence fragments were only used in dialogue situations. Also in the course of the research, children between ages 9 to 11 selected from five public schools and five private schools in Kaduna metropolis were asked to read and interpret the various types of sentences elicited from the selected novels and it was found that while the simple, compound and complex sentences were easily read and understood, the longer compound complex sentences posed a problem to the children

AN EXAMINATION OF SENTENCES AND THEIR APPROPRIATENESS IN SELECTED NIGERIAN CHILDREN’S NOVELS