Sa’idu Faru and His Subordinate Mu’azu in the Song Wakar Mamman Sarkin Kudu: A Multilogue Implicature in a Dialogue

Citation: Aminu, A., Jibrin, B.D. & Al-Hassan, B.S.Y. (2024). Sa’idu Faru and His Subordinate Mu’azu in the Song Waƙar Mamman Sarkin Kudu: A Multilogue Implicature in a Dialogue. Four Decades of Hausa Royal Songs: Proceedings from the International Conference on the Life and Songs of Makaɗa Sa'idu Faru, 3(3), 431-436. www.doi.org/10.36349/tjllc.2024.v03i03.059.

Sa’idu Faru and His Subordinate Mu’azu in the Song Waƙar Mamman Sarkin Kudu: A Multilogue Implicature in a Dialogue

By

Abdulmalik Aminu, Ph D

Department of African Languages and Cultures,
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria
aaminu@abu.edu.ng, abdulmalik.aminu@gmail.com
08138402892

and

Jibrin Bala Dambo Ph D

Institute of Education
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria
08023758352

and

B.S.Y. Al-Hassan
Department of African Languages and Cultures
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria
08032171723

Abstract

This is pragmatic research which focuses on the implicature in Sa’idu Faru’s song. The song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The song may be performed by a solo singer, a lead singer supported by background singers (backing vocalists) a duet, a trio, or more voices singing in harmony. Apart from the melody that the voices carry in songs, meanings in the conversations in a song play a crucial role in identifying an implicature. Implicature are utterances and what is understood from them. As it is known in all his songs, Sa’idu Faru is the lead in his songs as in the song Waƙar Mamman Sarkin Kudu supported by vocalists, one of them is Mu’azu. However, in this song, as provided in some lines, Mu’azu is as important as the lead singer, which also, the vocalists are part that provides vocal harmony with the lead singer. If Mu’azu can be a vocalist like any other, then it is a dialogue between the lead and the vocalists but in this case where Mu’azu takes control in the conversation, then the song may be termed a duet. The conversational implicature in the song guided the researcher to understand that the song is a duet. The paper attempts to answer questions such as how are successive utterances related, who controls the discourse, how he does it and, how other participants take control. Gricean Maxims are adopted in the analyses of this paper.   

Keywords: Song, Implicature, Dialogue, Multilogue, Vocalist, Conversation  

1.      Introduction

Language is not just a medium of communication, but also an ‘object’ used side by side with musical instruments for entertainment. The song as a musical composition is performed by the human voice which carries the melody. The singer is concerned with the careful selection of words, and the arrangements of the words to form phrases, clauses and sentences that can suit the melody of his voice in his song. The literary critic is thus concerned with what is the theme of the song, the style used and the structure of the song, while the semantician is concerned with the meanings in the utterances. The pragmatist is concerned with the functions of linguistic utterances and the propositions that are expressed by them, depending upon their use in specific situations (Trauth and Kazzazi 1998: 926).

Pragmatics is a subdiscipline of linguistics developed from different linguistic, philosophical and sociological traditions that studies the relationships between natural language expressions and their uses in specific situations (Trauth and Kazzazi 1998: 926). Pragmatics concerning music might be strange to some scholars of literature because they see the two as unrelated and doubt if there is a way the pragmatics will fit into songs, especially oral songs. However, there is a very interesting area for concern by pragmatists in the whole conversations that take place between the singer and his vocalists regardless of the beatings of the instruments or the melody of the voices. Vocalizing in a song is the speech by the subordinate in a song (Gusau, 2003: 38). The vocalist is, therefore, a subordinate of a lead singer who makes a speech in a song. The vocalists are subordinates of the lead singer who respond to the speeches of the lead singer. The dialogue between the lead singer and the vocalists in the performance is key in determining the theme the style and even the category of the song. Not only that, the dialogue also determines the ‘communicative acts’ between the lead singer and his subordinate. There are four levels of joint actions in communicative acts as stipulated by Clark (2006:368) as follows:

    

In the above table, about oral songs, Speaker A may be considered as the lead singer while Addressee B may be considered as the vocalist(s). Level four is a situation where the singer proposes a joint project to the vocalists and the vocalists consider the lead singer’s proposal, that is to say, the lead singer sang and the vocalists replied. Conversely, if the lead singer considers one of the vocalist’s proposals, then the direction of the communicative act has changed. Hence, the conversation is not a dialogue any longer but a multilogue, in which case, the direction of A to B, B to A is moved further to A to B, C, B to A, and C to A.

A dialogue that changes to a multilogue in an oral song changes the category of the song from lead singer and vocalists to a category of ‘duet’. A Duet is a song performed by two singers. It is the opposite of Solo which is performed by one singer. A duet is found in animals as well, where bird species combine to produce coordinated duets. Bispham (2006: 128) stated that in about 6% of birds species pairs, combine to produce coordinated duets. In some species, two birds coordinate alternating calls with such precision that it is impossible to tell that two birds are involved from the auditory signal alone. He further explained duets in human music, the mechanisms used to achieve coordination between individuals, as though not yet understood. However, observations of the duet do suggest that there a strong relationships that exist between the rate of hoots, levels of kinesthetic movement and degrees of emotional excitement in both animates. Thus, in Pragmatics, one of the mechanisms used to achieve coordination between individuals in songs is Implicature. Therefore, this paper aims to describe how conversational implicature is used to change the category of Sa’idu Faru’s song Waƙar Mamman Sarkin Kudu from the usual Lead and Vocalists to Duet.

2.      Implicature

Implicature is called by Grice in Horn and Ward (2006: xii) as the aspect of speaker meaning that distinguishes what is (strictly) said from what is (more broadly) meant. Horn (2006:3) defines Implicature as “a component of speaker meaning that constitutes an aspect of what is meant in a speaker’s utterance without being part of what is said”. Simply, implicature is the understanding of the meaning of what is said by either the speaker or the listener. From table four above, implicature plays a role in the dialogue between speaker A and speaker B in the communicative act at level three. The speaker means something to the listener and the listener understands what the speaker means. If not, the listener may not consider the speaker’s proposal in level four of the communicative act. For instance in the song, the lead singer Sa’idu and the vocalists, without being part of the lead utterance, the vocalists understood what he meant and continued with the statement without hesitation as follows:

Sa’idu: Alhamdulillahi…

‘praise be to Allah…’

Vocalists: Shukurni…

‘I thank…’

Rabbil Alamina ni nau nufi.

‘the creator I meant.’

Sa’idu: Ka san…

‘You know…’

Vocalists: Kiɗi ba karatu ba na

‘song is not a study’

Mui astangafari in mun gama

‘we seek forgiveness after we finished’

Sa’idu: Ka san kiɗi…

‘You know song…’

Vocalists: Ba karatu ba na

‘is not a study’

Mui astangafari in mun gama

‘we seek forgiveness after we finished’

From the above lines, one can deduce the meaning and understanding between the lead and the vocalists’ conversation respectively. The component of Sa’idu’s meaning constitutes an aspect of what is meant in his utterance without being part of what is said. The vocalists infer that Sa’idu had intended to convey what he vocalized. In this instance, it is called ‘a particularized conversational implicature’.  Particularized Implicature is where a speaker conveys a message which is inferred by a listener who responds accordingly. Alternatively, a generalized implicature is a sentence implicature with its regular meaning. The particularized and generalized are two fronts of implicature that regulate meaning in conversation. Albeit, whether generalized or particularized, conversational implicature derives from the shared presumption that the speaker and hearer are interacting rationally and cooperatively to reach a common goal (Horn, 2006:6).

3.      Dialogue

Dialogue is a conversation between two people or a person and a group of people. In any given speech, the speaker may either converse with a listener and the listener responds or the speaker makes a speech that requires no response from the listener. Meyer (2009:85) provided the following figure:

From the above figure, a speech can be divided into two: Monologue and Dialogue. The monologue is an instance whereby the speaker makes a speech that requires no response from the listener while in the dialogue, the speaker converses with a listener and the listener responds. The dialogue is a way of conversation while the monologue is one-way speech. In oral songs, a singer may be solo, singing and using his musical instruments alone; or a lead singer and vocalist(s), having a dialogue; or a duet, two singers having a proportionate conversation with or without vocalist(s). Alhaji Ɗanmaraya Jos is a typical example of a solo singer in Hausa land who sings and uses musical instruments without company. He requires no response from a listener and therefore his song in this context is termed Monologue. On the other hand, Alhaji Mamman Shata’s songs are a case of a dialogue between him and his subordinates. Although, more often than not, the vocalists repeat a chorus from the beginning of the song to the end with no conversation. Also, a song with no dialogue is the song of Abdu Karen Gusau, for instance in the song Tsakanin Ɗan adam da Kuɗi where all through the song, the vocalists answer the same chorus.

Typical songs with dialogues are songs of Alhaji Sa’idu Faru and the songs of Ɗanƙwairo whereby in almost every two to three lines, the vocalists collectively respond to the lead singer and even collectively initiate a conversation which is responded to by the lead. For instance, in some lines 4-7 in the song of Waƙar Mamman Sarkin Kudu as follows:

Sa’idu: Na sarkin Gobir Amadu,

‘a friend to the emir of Gobir Amadu’

 

Karɓi: Na sarkin Gobir Amadu

‘a friend to the emir of Gobir Amadu’

 

Sa’idu: Na sarkin Gobir Amadu,

‘a friend to the emir of Gobir Amadu’

 

Karɓi: Ci-fansa gagon Sarkin Ƙaya.

‘Revenge, the hero of the emir of Ƙaya’. 

From the above lines, one will determine the dialogue between the lead and the vocalists is bidirectional. To some extent, the vocalists even initiated a conversation to complement or qualify the lead as shown in the last line. In some of the oral songs like the Ɗanƙwairo and the likes, apart from the vocalists in the group initiating a conversation, individual vocalists also initiate a conversation which would be complemented by the vocalists, in such cases, it is called multilogue.       

4.      Multilogue

Multilogue is a situation whereby more than two individuals or groups of people have a conversation by which one is the initiator, and two or more individuals or groups are the correspondents.   As it was mentioned earlier, a monologue is solo, dialogue is lead and vocalist(s), and then a multilogue may be referred to as a duet. A dialogue that changes to a multilogue in an oral song changes the category of the song from lead singer and vocalists to a category of ‘duet’. A Duet is a song performed by two singers of equal rank. A duet in some instances might consist of two singers of equal ranks with corresponding vocalists complementing the two singers. If anything, Sa’idu Faru’s song Waƙar Mamman Sarkin Kudu is qualified to be called a duet because of the importance of the conversation between the Lead and one of the vocalists known as Mu’azu. The following are some of the conversations in the song:

Sa’idu: Mai roƙon…

‘a beggar of’

 

Karɓi: Riga ‘yaddiga,

‘a dignified cloth’

 

In an ba shi kore amsa yakai.

‘he will accept if given a useless one’

 

Mu’azu: Babban mutum mai da gaba buki

a big man that turns competition into a ceremony’

 

Kada kai buki in da burtuttuki

‘do not celebrate where there is chaos’

 

Sa’idu: Haka nan fa…

‘certainly’

 

Mu’azu: Idan fasiƙi gun baraukin buki,

‘if a coward disregards a ceremony’

 

Wada dut Sarki yaƙ ƙasura

‘Whoever that the king cursed’

 

Wada dut Sarki ya’ gunguma

‘whoever that the king rejected’

 

Karɓi: In ba alheri yai yi ba…

‘if he has not done generosity…’

 

Daudu ko yai Magana ƙarya shikai.

‘Daudu if he talk he lies

 

Sa’idu: In ba alhe…

‘if he is not gene…

 

Karɓi: ri yai yi ba,

‘ous he has done,’

 

Daudu ko yai Magana maisai gara.

‘Daudu even if he talks take him as a fool’

From the above lines, Mu’azu has taken over the conversation from the lead Sa’idu Faru on two occasions. Not only the number of times that he has taken over that matters but he also served as the initiator of the conversation. Therefore, three groups are conversing with one another. The first is Sa’idu, the second is Mu’azu and the third is the vocalists. They are all guided by cooperative principles in taking over the conversation from one another. In cooperative principles, a set of assumptions guides someone in conversation (Amrullah, 2015). Every conversation must obey the four maxims of conversation presented by Grice (1975).

5.      Grice (1975) Maxims and Sa’idu Faru’s Song

What is said that is different from what is meant is termed by Grice as Conventional Implicature. What is said that is very obviously distinct from what is being said is also termed Non-conventional Implicature. Grice (1975:43) stated that Conversational Implicature is a subclass of non-conventional implicature which has the aspect of conventionality in it, and it is essentially connected with general features of discourse. The general features of discourse arise as a result of the cooperative principle. The Cooperative Principle states that “if our talk exchanges are to be rational, they must consist of utterances which are in some way connected”. To comply with this principle, speakers need to follow many maxims as follows:

i.                    Maxim of Quantity;

ii.                 Maxim of Quality;

iii.              Maxim Relevance; and

iv.               Maxim of Manner

The Maxim of Quantity relates to the amount of information to be provided that is not more than required. The Maxim of Quality relates to the statements that are truthful with facts. The Maxim of Relevance is to be relevant by providing new information with background knowledge. The Maxim of Manner is concerned with what is said as much as how it is said, such as being brief, being orderly, avoiding ambiguity, and avoiding obscurity.  

i.        In the song of Waƙar Mamman Sarkin Kudu, Mu’azu has provided an information that is not more than what is required as in the lines 58, 60, and 62 as follows:

 

Mu’azu: Ɗan gauraka ko kunkumi,

Waɗanda salla kullum sukai

Sa’idu: Haka nan fa

Mu’azu: Ɗan tankarki ko hasbiya

Waɗanda salla kullum sukai

Sa’idu: Haka nan fa

Mu’azu: Don ka ga yammoli da shamuwa,

Waɗanda sallah kullum sukai

Sa’idu: Haka nan fa

Translated, sourced from Yakawada’s archives as follows:

Mu’azu: As for the crested crane or the white ibis

Those ones pray every day

Sa’idiu: That is right!

Mu’azu: As for the black-billed buzzard or the wild pigeon

Those ones pray every day

Sa’idu: That is right

Mu’azu: Just look at the ‘yammoli bird and the white-billed stork

Those ones pray every day

From the above lines, one can understand that Mu’azu has given adequate and required information through some metaphors which Sa’idu has accepted and agreed with the statements. The information given by Mu’azu is adequate and not more than what is required.

ii.  Statements that are truthful with facts are stated by Mu’azu in lines 31 and 33 as follows:

Mu’azu: tun ran da Allahu yai duniya

Sa’idu: haka nan fa!

Mu’azu: tun ran da Allahu yai duniya

Nan yay yi mutum mai ƙokari

Nan yay yi mutum mai samu

Kuma yay yi mutum busasshe

Sannan yay yi mutum mai haske

Kuma yay yi mutum mai dauni

Sannan yay yi mutum mai kyawo

Kuma yay yi mutum mummuna

Nan yay yi mutum ɗan sarki

Kuma ya aza bawan sarki

Sannan yay yi mutum mai iko

Kuma ya aza mai roƙo nai

Translated, sourced from Yakawada’s archives as follows:

Mu’azu: from the day that God created the world

Sa’idu: that is right

Mu’azu: from the day that God created the world

It was then he created hardworking

It was then he created a rich man

It was then he created a poor man

It was then he created a shining man

And he created a perspiring man

And he created a good-looking man

And he created an ugly man

It was then he created a prince

And he created the king's servant

And he created an aristocrat

And he made the one who will beg of him

From the above lines, one will understand the statements made by Mu’azu are truthful with facts drawn from the Qur’an, Sunnah and other religious books.

iii.  Mu’azu has provided new information with background knowledge in line 29, where he qualified the statements of the lead and the vocalists in line 28 as follows:

Sa’idu: Gurbin giwa…

Karɓi: sai ɗanta

Zomo anka aza yab bar gidan

Mu’azu: shugaban Gwambe da Bauci da Ankara

Translated, sourced from Yakawada’s archives as follows:

Sa’idu: Elephants place

Vocalists: benefit only its offspring

Mu’azu: the leader of Gwambe, Bauchi and Ankara

From the above lines, one will understand that Mu’azu had a background knowledge of these leaders mentioned which may be related to the information obtained from the lead and the vocalists on the character of an elephant with its children, personified to the leaders.

iv.   From the interpretations of the three maxims above using the song Waƙar Mamman Sarkin Kudu, one will understand that Mu’azu had been brief, orderly, avoided ambiguity, and avoided obscurity in his utterances. By so doing Mu’azu, who is the subordinate of Sa’idu has played a vital role in the conversation of the song.

 

6.      Conclusion

In the song Waƙar Mamman Sarkin Kudu, Sa’idu Faru who is the lead singer has been in conversation with one of his subordinates Mu’azu. Mu’azu has also not only been in conversation with Sa’idu but also with the rest of the vocalists collectively. Hitherto, the conversational implicature deduced that the dialogue between the lead and his vocalists has moved to a level of lead, the vocalists and mu’azu, a multilogue. It is observed that Sa’idu and Mu’azu have become the two leads with vocalists. It is then observed that the song, thus, the song has moved from lead and vocalists to a duet. Conclusively, Sa’idu Faru’s song Waƙar Mamman Sarkin Kudu is a Duet, considering the importance and the status of Mu’azu in the song.

References

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2.      Clark, H. H. (2006). Pragmatics of Language Performance. In R. L. Horn & G. Ward (Eds.), The Handbook of Pragmatics. Malden: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

3.      Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic and Conversation. In P. Cole & J. L. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and Semantics, 3: Speech Acts. New York: Academic Press.

4.      Gusau, S. M. (2003). Jagoran Nazarin Waƙar Baka. Kano: Benchmark Publishers Limited.

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8.      Yakawada, M.T. Archives. Department of African Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Arts, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna state.

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