Abstract:
The thesis seeks to examine the Borbor Mfantse Funeral Libation Text
to ascertain how the content gains extra effectiveness through the utilisation of
repetitive constructions and figurative expressions in communicating the
intended message.
In realising this objective, funeral libation texts were recorded from
funeral celebrations from ten towns and villages in the Nkusukum Traditional
Area of the Mfantseman Municipality. The texts were transcribed and
translated into English and analysed.
The study revealed that the Borbor Mfantse Funeral Libation text
demonstrates a mix of repetitive constructions such as anaphora, anadiplosis,
epistrophe, antis(rophe, parallelism and free repetition in imbuing the content with emotion and intensification; and figurative expressions such as euphemism, synecdoche, hyperbole, metaphor and metonymy which
succeeded in ameliorating the effect of the loss on the bereaved family.
Predominantly, metaphor, euphemism, parallelism, anaphora and
epistrophe featured prominently in the texts. The creative use of Schemes and
Tropes thus places the Borbor Mfantse Funeral Libation Texts in the realm of
oral poetry.
