Language and Environment: A Lexico-Semantic Reading of Chimeka Garricks' Tomorrow Died Yesterday

the miraculous feeding of the multitude with bread and fish by Jesus. This highlights that, unlike Jesus, he does not possess the supernatural power to provide sustenance to his men without the funds they acquire from abducting expatriates. Excerpt three can be said to be the base of Garricks' text, profoundly influencing the lives of his characters. This underlying backstory weaves its way through all the chapters. In Chapters 28 and 29, the voices of Kaniye and Amaibi resonate as they narrate the events that took place in Asiama Town on Sunday, 10th August, 1997. In an attempt to capture the incident in Asiama, Garricks indirectly references the Odi massacre. Through historical allusion, he delves into the tragic Odi massacre that shook Bayelsa State on November 20, 1999. This horrific incident, stemming from the loss of a few soldiers, resulted in the senseless killing of numerous innocent civilians and the burning of houses by the Nigerian military. Conclusion The analysis demonstrated that the selected text employ vivid imagery and emotive language to convey the dire consequences of environmental damage and military brutality through metaphorical language. Garricks' Tomorrow Died Yesterday employs more dialogues and gothic descriptive passages to evoke his message. The study found that the author adeptly utilized rhetorical strategies such as rhetorical questions and repetition, allusions, imagery created through metaphor, personification and simile, to expose how decades of exploitation and neglect have impoverished the people and degraded the environment of the Niger Delta region. The study also demonstrated how the applicability of Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar, particularly the metafunctions of language are deployed to examine language use in literature since they enable the analyst to dig deep into the inherent stylistic and linguistic elements and nuances the author has used to impart meaning and aesthetics. From the findings above, the study concludes that the text address environmental themes through a range of stylistic elements, such as figurative expressions and rhetorical strategies. These elements are central stylistic devices employed by the authors to construct meaning and evoke emotion influencing the reader's engagement with the issues in distinct ways. References Almahameed, Y. S. (2020). A stylistic analysis of the short story the little match girl. International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change, 14(12) jicc.net Bradford, R. (1997). Stylistics: The new critical idiom. Routledge. Garricks, C. (2010). Tomorrow died yesterday. Paperworth Books Limited. Halliday, M. A. K., & Matthiesen, C. M. I. M. (2014). Halliday's introduction to functional grammar (4th ed.) Routledge. Nurhadi, M., & Marsih, L. (2022). Stylistic analysis of Earle Birney’s The bear on the Delhi road. A Journal Article Parafrase 22(1) Mei. https://doi.org/10.30996/ O’Grady, W., & Archibald, J. (Eds.). (2016). Contemporary linguistic analysis: An introduction. (8th ed.). Pearson. Syal, P., & Jindal, D.V. (2007). An introduction to linguistics, language, grammar and semantics. (2nd ed.). PHI Learning and Private Limited. Teich, E. (1999). Systemic functional grammar in natural language generation. Linguistic description and computational representation. Cassell. Varghese, L. M. (2012). Stylistic analysis of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering heights. Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 2(5), 46-50 https://doi.org/10.9790/0837-0254650 Yeibo, E. (2012). Figurative language and stylistic function in J. P. Clark-Bekederemo's poetry. Journal of Language Teaching and Research 3(11), 180-187 https://doi.org/10.4304/jltr.31