A stylistic account of lexical reiteration in Kiswahili plays

This study explores lexical reiteration in Kiswahili plays and attempt to demonstrate the role that lexical cohesion plays in text interpretation. For this task four (4) samples were selected from the following plays: Hukoo Darisalama by M. Muba (1980), Heshima yangu by P. Mhando (1974) Machozi ya mwanamke by I.S Ngozi (1977), and Giza Limeingia by E. Mbogo(1980). The extracts were analysed based on the parameters of types, frequencies and distance of lexical cohesive items. Such analysis adopted Holliday and Hasan framework suggested in their classical work: Cohesion in English (1976). All sentences in the extracts were numbered, important cohesive items identified and put I bold print, followed by thorough analysis of those occurrences by types, frequencies and distances. Such results were summarized in the form of tables. The research findings indicate that lexical cohesion analysis can be a useful tool in providing statistical evidence on the topics forward in the texts through dominant chains identification. Thus, a promising technique to bridge the gap between qualitative and quantitative analyse of the texts.