A Sociolinguistics Study of the Culture of Violence in Adeoye’s “The killers: A social drama”

Abstract

The society is replete with the flux of turbulences, complexities and encumbrances generated by violence. It is then significant to study the language used by a playwright to reflect the orgy of violence pervading the society, while the quagmire is strongly appealed against by the author. Such usage of language by Adeoye in The Killers (A social Drama) (2009), has been explored in this paper from the sociolinguistics standpoint of style or variation. Applying the qualitative method of analysis, it is shown that the author of the 65-page text, deploys language to portray the orgy of violence, and seriously denounce it through the scene of "Those who have ears", "Unionism as gangsterism", "Cant reason prevail" ,"Killing to sell God" and " Money the root of all evils". Furthermore, the interactions in the part two of the play, among the Messenger, Diviner, General Manager, Major-General, Director and Deputy Director reveal that there exist high versus low solidarity scale, superior versus subordinate status, formal versus semi formal settings, as well as the functional scale of greeting, informing, instructing, appreciating, declaring, determining, complaining, among others. The paper concludes that, apart from underlining the reality of violence in Nigeria, the play is a food for thought, urging all to desist from violence.