ENYI, PERPETUA UKAMAKA...Linguistics Theory by Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday were used because they are functional and contextually-based. In order to do this effectively, the

ENYI, PERPETUA UKAMAKA PG/MA/12/62658

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF ACHEBE’S THINGS FALL APART AND ADICHIE’S HALF OF A YELLOW SUN

ENGLISH AND LITERARY STUDIES

FACULTY OF ARTS

Ebere Omeje Digitally Signed by: Content manager’s Name

DN : CN = Webmaster’s name

O= University of Nigeria, Nsukka

OU = Innovation Centre

UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA NSUKKA FACULTY OF ARTS

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF ACHEBE’S THINGS FALL APART AND ADICHIE’S HALF OF A

YELLOW SUN

A RESEARCH WORK SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND LITERARY STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF

THE RREQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF ARTS (MA) DEGREE IN ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE (ESL)

BY


AUGUST, 2015

i

TITLE PAGE

UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA

FACULTY OF ARTS

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE

SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF ACHEBE’S THINGS FALL APART AND ADICHIE’S HALF OF A YELLOW SUN

A RESEARCH WORK SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGL ISH AND LITERARY STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF ARTS (MA) D EGREE IN ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE ( ESL)

BY


SUPERVISOR: PROF. SAM ONUIGBO

AUGUST, 2015

ii

APPROVAL PAGE

THIS PROJECT HAS BEEN APPROVED AS HAVING MET THE ST ANDARD REQUIRED FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF ARTS (M. A.) DE GREE IN THE

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND LITERARY STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA

BY

…………………………… …………………………… PROF. D. U. OPATA PROF. SAM ONUIGBO HEAD OF DEPARTMENT PROJECT SUPERVISOR

iii

CERTIFICATION

Enyi, Perpetua Ukamaka, a postgraduate student in the Department of English and

Literary Studies with the Registration Number PG/MA/12/62658 has satisfactorily completed the

requirements for the course and research work for the Master of Arts in English as a Second

Language (ESL).

The work embodied in this thesis has not been submitted in part or in full for any other

diploma or degree of this or any other university. The work is, therefore, original.

iv

DEDICATION

This work is dedicated to God who is the source of my strength and success.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Every work or piece of writing is given birth by the help of many spirited individuals. My

first sincere appreciation goes to my supervisor, Professor Sam Onuigbo, who carefully guided

me in the course of my project writing. I will continue to commend his approachable and fatherly

quality; they are unrivalled and coveted. Professor E. J. Otagburuagu, deserves my thanks. He

really helped me to find my feet at the developmental stage of the project. His books were

readily available any time I demanded them. What is more, the personal lectures he gave me as

regards my topic were of great help to me. Above, his wealth of wisdom will never be

impoverished. I pray that Almighty God should bless him.

To all my lecturers in the department of English and Literary Studies, University of

Nigeria, Nsukka, I commend them for all their efforts in moulding me. May their quest for

academic and spiritual excellence continue to flourish. I cannot forget the immeasurable help of

Samson Odozie Sunday Nnabuchi in a hurry. It is not an overstatement to call him an

encyclopedia. He gave me freedom to use his textbooks and to pick his brains at all the stages of

the project. I cannot pay him for his good deeds, but God can and will. I thank him once again.

My family also has been a fountain of my encouragement throughout this academic

exercise. Their advice and words of encouragement have indeed made me resilient. I love

everyone of them. Above all, the Almighty God has been the architect of my success. He is the

ALL of my being and the source of my wisdom. May He be praised both now and forever more.

Amen.

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ABSTRACT

This work has dealt with the comparative study on some aspects of sociolinguistics in the novels: Things Fall Apart and Half of a Yellow Sun by Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Adichie respectively. The two authors applied their linguistic, and social backgrounds for creative effects in their literary works. This creative ingenuity involves the English language, which has overwhelmed many languages because of its unifying function in nations with multilingual communities like Nigeria. The creative abilities of the authors have enabled them to manipulate the language to reflect their sociolinguistic environment. The research compared the two works by exploring the extent and the effectiveness in the use of direct translation, semantic extension, code-switching, proverbs, culturally dependent speech style, loan words, coinages, and hybridization. To do justice to this work, Labov’s Variability Theory and Systemic Functional Linguistics Theory by Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday were used because they are functional and contextually-based. In order to do this effectively, the researcher also adopted a descriptive research design to explore the sociolinguistic phenomenon in the two works. It was found that the two works followed the same nativization process in their pattern of exposition and description of their themes and subjects to reflect the Africanization of the English language. Whereas Achebe plunged deeper into the use of these sociolinguistic elements, especially proverbs, Adichie was more encompassing in her exploitation of other language codes apart from the Igbo language. Based on the findings, the researcher suggests more studies into the pragmatic, strategic and discourse analysis in literary works with African backgrounds.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page .......................................................................................................... i

Approval Page ................................................................................................. ii

Certification .................................................................................................... iii

Dedication ...................................................................................................... iv

Acknowledgements ......................................................................................... v

Abstract .......................................................................................................... vi

Table of Contents .......................................................................................... vii

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ......................................................... 1

1.1 Background to the Study ...................................................................... 1

1. 2 Statement of the Problem ................................................................... 10

1.3 Purpose of the Study ........................................................................... 11

1.4 Scope of the Study ............................................................................. 11

1.5 Relevance of the Study ...................................................................... 12

CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ................................... 13

2.1 Studies in Sociolinguistics and Sociology of

Language ............................................................................................ 13

2.2 Related Studies ................................................................................... 22

2.3 Summary of the Literature Review .................................................... 26

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND THEORETICAL

FRAMEWORK ........................................................................................... 28

3.1 Research Design ................................................................................ 28

3.2 Sampling ............................................................................................. 28

3.3 Theoretical Framework ...................................................................... 29

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CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS .................................................... 35

4.1 INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………..35

4.2 SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF HALF A YELLOW SUN AND THINGS

FALL APART………………………….....………………………………35

CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES .............................. 58 5.1 Summary ............................................................................................ 58

5.2 Conclusion ......................................................................................... 60

5.3 Suggestions for Further Studies ......................................................... 62

WORKS CITED ............................................................................................ 6

1

CHAPTER ONE

INTROUDUCTION

1.2 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Language and society are not independent of each other. They always go

together in the development of a people. In other words, language cannot exist and

develop outside the human society. People’s habit of thought regulates and determines

their language use because man is, essentially, a linguistic animal. This notion is

reflected in language use in literary works. For Femi Akindele and Wale Adegbite,

‘Language is the only creative property unique to human beings’ (92). It is also a

means through which human beings socialise among themselves. Besides, it is the

greatest asset to man through which he sustains himself.

In this way, an enduring relationship exists between language and society.

Tarni Prasad (247) affirms that man ‘learns the language in society but ‘the language

structure always follows the social structure and culture.’ He adds that ‘language

expresses not only the thought and feelings of the speaker but also the social culture

and tradition.’ Still on the interplay of language and society, Akindele and Adegbite

remind us that ‘Language does not exist in a vacuum, but it is always contextualized.

That is, it is situated within a socio-cultural setting of community’ (3).

It is a known linguistic fact that in language contact situation, a second

language (L2) is bound to be influenced by its linguistic environment.

To support this, Lewei Gao (73) makes reference to Kachru’s assertion in his

work in 1992:

2

[W]henever English starts to be used by a country or region in which

English is not the native language, be it for science, technology,

literature, or modernization, it undergoes a process of reincarnation that

is linguistic as well as cultural (73).

Gao cites Kachru by stating that most of such changes are ‘Pragmatically

determined, given the fact that a non-localized variety of English is not capable of

adequately expressing what is unique to a certain culture’ (73). Again, Pimyupa

Watkhaolarm also argues that ‘deviation’ in a language could be explained within a

sociolinguistic framework (2). By extension, it implies that several uses of expressions

have to be put into context to be fully appreciated. Similarly, to emphasise the

importance of context in language use, Yamuna Kachru and Larry Smith state:

People in Africa, Asia and other parts of the world often need to express

themselves through the medium of English. Inner Circle Englishes, such

as American and British, are not always adequate for such purposes.

Meanings that need to be expressed in local contexts demand the

nativization of English (106).

Kachru and Smith also affirm that in reality, language is subject to great change

and variation since it is not static or monolithic, and that any discipline whose aim is

to study the phenomenon of language should consider the cultural and social factors

that are involved in human linguistic behaviour (7). Using semantic extension to show

how some words or expressions take on added meaning(s) depending on the context

of use was noted by P. D.Tripathi in 1990 and cited in Yamuna and Smith as follows:

3

In African Englishes, father is not restricted to one’s biological male

parent but may be used for one’s father’s older brother, too. Uncle, aunt,

brother, sister, mother, grandmother and grandfather are used widely as

terms of address to express solidarity or respect… (108).

Against this background, it could be established that everything about man is

subsumed in language. Since the mention of language also entails the study of society,

sociolinguistics embraces the two terms – the study of language and society. For

Ronald Wardhaugh, sociolinguistics has to do with investigating the relationships that

exists between language and society (13). Virtually all sociolinguists agree on the

relationship which exists between language and society. There is also variability of

linguistic behaviour as a result of changes in social conditions such as class, age,

education, gender, region, religion, ethnicity, to mention but seven. Perhaps, because

of the variability nature of languages, Syal and Jindal (23) and Paul Baker (4) state

that ‘language use is in constant flux.’ In some situations, language use may be

determined by changing situations which may be formal or informal. As Anthony Oha

et al indicate, ‘individuals adjust their style to the interlocutor’ sometimes (3). A

middle class member can adjust his language to communicate properly with those at

the upper class. On the other hand, one can condescend to use less formal form of

language in order to communicate effectively with lower class members. Oha et al call

such adjustment ‘convergence’ but when people want to emphasise the social

distance, they make use of the process called ‘divergence’ by purposefully using

idiosyncratic forms (3).

4

In the very words of Hudson, ‘Since speech is (obviously) a social behaviour,

to study it without reference to society would be like studying courtship behaviour

without relating the behaviour of one partner to that of another’(3). He emphasises

that ‘People use their speech in order to identify the particular social groups to which

they belong’ (197). Furthermore, Adekunle Adeniran (1) believes that for meaningful

contextualization of any work, the knowledge of the sociocultural elements is

inevitable.

Another area where sociolinguistic study is of immense significance is in

determining the distinctiveness of language use according to individuals’ nationalities.

This gave rise to what is christened today as Englishes, hence we have British English,

American English, Canadian English, Indian English, Ghanaian English and even

Nigerian English. As enunciated by Anthony Oha et al., ‘The study of language

variation is concerned with social constraints determining language in its contextual

environment.’ Code switching is an aspect of such a variation which they define as

‘the term given to the use of different varieties of language in different social

situations’ (4).

For Joseph Ogbodo, ‘One would appreciate the fact that the English language

in contact with indigenous languages and culture cannot be spoken and written

without being affected at the level of phonology, syntax or semantics’ (106). To

buttress this, Akindele and Adegbite (69) argue that the main reason for Nigerianism

in English is not solely the case of mother tongue interference or the problem of the

acquisition of the English language but it can be accounted for by the sociolinguistic

milieu and condition under which English is used. Akindele and Adegbite assert that

5

this foreign language has ‘been cultivated and re-domesticated as well as indigenized

to accommodate the culture of the people,’ and consequently, it has acquired some

‘local colour which differentiates it from the native English variety used in England or

America’ (62). In addition, Sam Onuigbo and Joy Eyisi also agree with Akindele and

Adegbite by indicating that the English language:

[H]as been effectively domesticated to project the necessary local colour

in creative writing and a number of emerging young artists have

effectively manipulated the language to carry the peculiar socio-cultural,

political and spiritual imperatives of their literary messages (66).

This research, therefore, is set to explore and compare the peculiar linguistic

features which Achebe and Adichie exploit in Things Fall Apart and Half of a Yellow

Sun. A novelist is almost always affected by his native language even when he writes

in a foreign language although foreign language domestication in literary works can

be a style. The restructuring of language, which Yamuna Kachru and Larry Smith call

‘re-tooling’ of language, can sometimes be spontaneous but at some other time

conscious and achieved with efforts (173). In line with this, Kachru and Smith, cite

Okara as follows:

In order to capture the vivid image of African speech, I had to eschew a

habit of expressing my thought first in English. It was difficult at first,

but I had to learn. I had to study each probable Ijaw expression. I used to

discover a situation in which it was used in order to bring out the

nearest meaning in English (173).

6

Sometimes when the language is manipulated in a different cultural setting, it

loses its original meaning and takes on a new one in its new context. This is in

consonance with what Virgy Anohu (10) calls ‘bending the English language without

breaking it.’ Platt et al (171) contend that English should not always be looked at from

the point of view of correctness or wrongness but from the angle of context. In the

same way, Albert Gerard remarks that the context in which a book is published plays a

primary role in the comprehension of the text (19). Furthermore, Kachru Braj equally

sees the terms ‘Igboisation’, ‘Yorubaisation’, ‘Sankritisation’, and ‘Kannadaisation’,

as synonymous with nativization, which is defined as:

The result of those productive linguistic innovations which are

determined by the localization functions of a second language variety,

the ‘culture of conversion’ and communicative strategies in new

situations, and the ‘transfer’ from local languages (160).

Roland Nkwain also adds that the essence of localized words, expressions or

structures is to exploit the native linguistic resources available due to unavailability of

their English equivalents (48). In a similar fashion, Ayo Banjo strongly believes that

the cultural environment puts an indelible stamp on the language in question, and the

process is likely to be reinforced by the deliberate use of transliteration from the

indigenous languages by different creative writers of English expressions (228).

Since every literary text is constructed with language, it becomes important to

examine how a particular writer has utilized the potentials of language to negotiate

meaning(s) for the text in order to carry the local colour and culture of the people.

Most often, as put by Ebi Yeibo (202), ‘Authors manipulate and adapt the rhythm,

7

register, and semantics of the English language to the linguistic and cultural nuances

of the native language.’ Yeibo, citing Brumfit and Carter, emphasise our need to show

‘how what is said and how meanings are made within the psycholinguistic and

sociolinguistic ambience of the text’ (202). This captures the main concern of this

study: to show how what Adichie says in Half of a Yellow Sun functions within the

psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic ambience of the text in comparison with what

Achebe says in Things Fall Apart. Again, the study intends to highlight the relevance

of these sociolinguistic features in projecting the peculiar messages of each text,

especially as the two texts belong to different literary generations. In line with this,

Yeibo outlines some devices used by African writers to reflect local or indigenous

nuances in their styles as below:

Coinages, borrowing, etc. the use of native similes and metaphor, the

transfer of rhetorical devices from native languages, the translation of

native proverbs, idioms, the use of culturally dependent speech styles,

the use of syntactic devices and deviation, code-switching and code-

mixing and transliteration (203).

Nothwithstanding the effective innovative linguistic devices employed by

African writers through the use of English, there have been language controversies as

to whether such manipulation should go on in African literature or whether the

English language is still appropriate in conveying African visions and messages in

African literary endeavours. In the course of the language controversy, there have

been recent studies to illustrate the relevance or otherwise of such linguistic bends or

the manipulations of the English language in African literary studies. In this linguistic

8

‘war’, there are two divides: those that advocate the use of African indigenous

languages undiluted by alien imagery through English linguistic tradition and those

that propose the adoption of the English language and its linguistic manipulation,

since it can produce the communicative linguistic effect demanded. Oluwole Cooker

and Mohammed Ademilokun in “An Appraisal of the Language Question ” note that

in the 1960’s there were two camps: “a camp for indigenous African languages led

particularly by Ngugi Wa Thiong ‘o and a camp largely in favour of adopting

European languages led by Chinua Achebe’’ (np). Those in favour of African literary

works written in African languages include Obi Wali, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o and Abiola

Irele, and others who argue from the premise that for African literature to be authentic

and worth the name, it must be rendered in an indigenous African language. The

proponents of the use of African languages further argue that African literature could

only be written in African languages because these are the languages of peasantry and

the working class which are very appropriate and inevitable in the revolution against

neo-colonilization. They further stress that African languages are the languages of the

people the writers want to address. The languages also provide direct access to the

rich traditions of African people and by using them, writers participate in the struggle

against domination by foreign languages and against wider imperialist domination

(Ngugi Wa Thiong’o qtd.in Thaddeus Menang’s “The Language Controversy” np). In

his article “The Language of African Literature” in The Post-Colonial Studies Reader

Wa Thiong’o cites Gabriel Okara’s as follows:

As a writer who believes in the utilization of African ideas, African

folklore and imagery to the fullest extent possible, I am of the opinion

9

that the only way to use them effectively is to translate them almost

literarily from the African language native to the writer into whatever

European language he is using as a medium of expression. I have

endeavoured in my words to keep as close as possible to the vernacular

expressions. For from a word, a group of words, a sentence, and even a

name in any African language, one can glean the social norms, attitudes,

and values of a people (286).

As the argument on the appropriate language for African literature rages,

Achebe, quoted in an article “Language” in The Post-Colonial Studies Reader adds

that the practice not only helps to show the Africanness in African literature; it also

makes the language bear the weight and texture of a different experience, and in doing

so, it becomes a different language by adapting the alien language to the exigencies of

a mother grammar, syntax and vocabulary. He further states that by giving a shape to

the variations of the speaking voice, such writers and speakers construct an ‘english’

which amounts to a different linguistic vehicle from the received standard colonial

English (284).

From the above, the advocates of the use of English in African literature put

forward that such a linguistic process helps to sustain the ways of life of Africans in

their African literary works. Similarly, Akindele and Adegbite (42) in their

explanation of cultural factors that express local colour of socially recognised

phenomena outline the following: ‘semantic contrast’, ‘semantic extension’, semantic

transfer’, and ‘coinages or loan creation as part of the relevant devices which literary

artists use to carry their African features. Against this background, it becomes crucial

10

to situate the language use in the two novels Things Fall Apart and Half of a Yellow

Sun in their proper sociolinguistic context.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The world of the novel exposes the reader(s) to the real world of individual

writers because characters exhibit some features of bilingualism and multilingualism

and other sociolinguistic phenomena. Literary works are indeed a ‘field’ for language

in contact, looking at the characters and their linguistic behaviour.

Language is a sociocultural reality and this is why Paul Simpson supports this

fact by saying that ‘sociolinguistic code expresses through language, the historical,

cultural and linguistic setting which frames a narrative’ because according to him ‘it

locates the narrative in time and place by drawing upon the forms of language which

reflect the sociocultrual context’ (21).

Many researchers have studied the pragmatic and the sociolinguistic

significance of proverbs in a literary text or in a particular speech community

(Chinedu Onuigbo 2013 and Anita Maledo, 2014). However, much has not been done

in the comparative study of the innovative lexico-semantic categories in Chinua

Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun.

This study, therefore, engages in this comparative study in order to examine the effect

of the generational gap in the content and depth of the two texts. Many researchers

have examined the linguistic and sociolinguistic features of the two novels but much

has not been done to compare the authors’ use of language to carry the African or

Nigerian content of their messages.

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1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

This work is specifically designed to examine the sociolinguistic elements of

Things Fall Apart by Achebe and Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun with the aim of

showing how these sociolinguistic elements such as code-mixing and code-switching,

and direct translation are exploited to project the unique messages of the authors and

therefore, carry the local colour of the tone of writing. Above all, it seeks to reveal

how the social context strengthens the linguistic repertoire of the characters.

The research is designed to explore what choice of codes, dialects, language,

styles, the characters select based on their social status and the environment from

where they operate. All these variables are linked to the thematic import of the works

to see how the authors have merged their themes and style to project the desired

sociolinguistic implications.

1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Language is an important aspect of culture and therefore a social phenomenon

that will always express the socio-cultural structure of the people. In this work,

emphasis will be laid on the analysis of code-switching and code-mixing and a host of

other sociolinguistic elements that help to project the socio-cultural structure of the

people and environment of Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Adichie’s Half of a

Yellow Sun.

The scope of this study is associated with the sociolinguistic features on which

the researcher draws her conclusions. The stress areas, proper, include aspects such as:

code switching, direct translation, coinages, local similes, proverbs, semantic

extension, borrowing, cultural dependent speech style, and hybridization devices with

12

a view to carrying out a comparative study of the two works under study based on the

identified sociolinguistic elements.

1.5 RELEVANCE OF THE STUDY

This study, as already stated, has the objective of exploring the sociolinguistic

features in two selected novels. A sociolinguistic analysis of African literary works

has attracted the attention of many researchers but the study has an added significance

of presenting a comparative analysis of works that belong to different generations.

This study will enable the readers to identify cultural motifs in prose narratives.

Secondly, it will widen the sociolinguistic knowledge of students in the field and

equip them with the resources for more rewarding studies of literary texts.

Furthermore, the work will enable scholars in the field to appreciate how language is

manipulated in different literary works to present unique messages of authors in

different generations.

13

CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1 STUDIES IN SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND SOCIOLOGY OF LA NGUAGE

This study is particularly designed to examine the linguistic twists or

development in the English language as a vehicle for transmission of messages and

ideas in prose works written by Africans and Nigerians in particular. Advancing this

linguistic change, Guy Cook writes: ‘Once a language begins to spread beyond its

original homeland, the situation changes, and conflicts of opinion begin to emerge’

(27). Naturally, a language carries not only the culture of the very people that

presumably own it but it also carries along with it the linguistic and non-linguistic

culture of the other users.

The idea that English is a global language is no longer news. English is treated

as a world language because of its presence and towering influence all over the world.

Onuigbo and Eyisi (33) used a functional approach in their explanation of the term

English as a Second Language. For them, that English is a second language is not just

because it is chronologically second in the language acquisition life of Nigerians, but

obviously because it is that language for which many Nigerians have the kind of

linguistic competence that ranks second to that which they have in their native

language. In other words it is only an alternative when it comes to carrying out official

functions. David Crystal confirms this when he says that it is complementary to a

person’s mother tongue or first language. According to him, in countries where

English is the official language, it is given a special place within such communities

even though they have their own indigenous languages (4). Similarly, Rajend

Mesthrie and Rakesh Bhatt see English as a second language in the light of the

14

‘varieties that arose in countries where English was introduced in the colonial era in

either face-to-face communication or (more usually) via the education system of a

country in which there is, or had once been a sizeable number of speakers of English’

(5).

In addition, it is obvious that the English language has bridged the language

gaps which pose problems in many heterogeneous communities (such as Nigeria) and

is still playing such a unifying role (Olufin Alabi 134). In spite of its ‘great’

functional role in many countries, it cannot still carry the weight of the people’s

feelings. Dare Owolabi agree to the idea that English cannot really ‘unveil’ the

philosophy of the users in a second language context. And that is why he puts it this

way ‘... for the purpose of the expected weight, [English] has to be transliterated from

the L1, and it is understood from the background of L1’ (490).

To show the malleable nature of language, Naratip Jindapitak and Adisa Teo

cite Widdowson’s comparison of a disease with a language. In the explanation of this

metaphor, they write:

A disease spreads from one country to another and wherever it is, it is

the same disease. It does not alter according to circumstances; the

virus is invariable. But language is not like this. It is not transmitted

without being transformed.... It is fundamentally unstable. It is not

well-adapted to control because it is itself adapted (1).

The implication is that language is generally dynamic, and part of these

changes is that it carries some characteristics of the host language in terms of

grammar, phonology, semantics, morphology, and syntax.

15

Before we delve into the related studies, proper, it is necessary to understand

that virtually all the research works of linguists and particularly language experts such

as sociolinguists indicate that language has great affinity with society. This implies

that the environment of usage is of great importance to language. According to George

Yule (239), ‘sociolinguistics deals with the inter-relationships between language and

society.’ He adds that ‘it has strong connection with anthropology, through the

investigation of language and culture, and to sociology....’ John Platt et al opine that

sociolinguistics has a lot to do with ‘the study of language in relation to social factors,

that is, social class, educational level and type of education, age, sex, ethnic origin,

etc’(262). In like manner, Crystal adds that the field of sociolinguistics is preoccupied

with the linguistic identity of social groups, standard and non-standard forms of

language, the patterns and needs of national language use, social varieties and level of

language, and the social basis of multilingualism (440-441). For William McGregor

(5), ‘sociolinguistics is concerned with language in its social context and explores the

variation in languages associated with social phenomena such as the social group to

which speakers and/or hearers belong.’ What is more, Janet Holmes agrees that

sociolinguistics is burdened with the identification of ways to describe and explain the

interrelatedness of language and social context in which it is used (439).

In contrast, some scholars have attempted to show a difference between

sociolinguistics and sociology of language. Florian Coulmas expresses her opinion of

the difference between sociolinguistics, otherwise known as micro-sociolinguistics

and the sociology of language, also called macro-sociolinguistics.

16

Since sociolinguistics is a meeting ground for linguists and social

scientists, some of whom seek to understand the social aspects of

language while others are primarily concerned with linguistic aspects

of society, it is not surprising that there are, as it were, two centres of

gravity, known as micro- and macro- sociolinguistics in the narrow

sense and sociology of language. These represent different

orientations and research agendas, micro issues being more likely to

be investigated by linguists, dialectologists, and others in language-

centred fields, whereas macro-issues are more frequently taken up by

sociologists and social psychologists. Stated in very general terms,

micro-sociolinguistics investigates how social structure influences the

way people talk and how language varieties and patterns of use

correlate with social attributes such as sex, class, and age. Macro-

sociolinguistics on the other hand, studies what societies do with their

languages that is attitudes and attachments that account for the

functional distribution of speech forms in society... (n.p.).

Similar to the above, Peter Trudgill (1) understands macro-sociolinguistics as

sociology of language which usually encompasses variationist linguistics, social

dialectology, the sociology of language, and other areas involving the study of

relatively large groups of speakers. He sees micro-sociolinguistics as a term which

usually studies the face-to-face interaction such as discourse and conversational

analysis, interactional sociolinguistics, and other areas of sociolinguistics involving

the study of relatively small groups of speakers. Wardhaugh citing Hudson (1996)

17

states the difference between the two in a very simple way ‘sociolinguistics is the

study of language in relation to society whereas sociology of language is the study of

society in relation to language’ (13).

In spite of the differences between these two areas of language investigation –

sociolinguistics and sociology of language, it is pertinent that we are reminded that

neither of them can operate independent of the other. Coulmas (np) and Wardhaugh

(13) are emphatic about this when they assert that it is non-negotiable to discard either

of them for a proper comprehension of language as a social phenomenon.

A sociolinguistic study of Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Adichie’s Half of a

Yellow Sun will involve the exploration of strategies in the nativization of English in a

second language situation. Nativization of a language means that the language can be

manipulated to suit the socio-cultural context of the user. By implication, the linguistic

garb of sophistication of English is dressed down or the linguistic code of the user

controls the language. Put in another way, nativization of a language has to do with

such a language being ‘twisted’ for contextualization purpose. Owolabi (488-89)

defines [nativization] of English as the ‘transformation of English as an alien medium

to make it respond to local imagery, figures of speech, sound patterns and the general

cultural milieu of the region.’ Owolabi goes further to buttress his point with the

example below from a novel: ‘Laughter killed me’ (490). He expatiates that laughter

kills me in Standard English can be paraphrased I laughed hysterically but expressed

as above in a Nigerian novel for the particular category of audience, or it will not

carry the expected weight. According to him, for an expression to bear the expected

weight it needs to be transliterated from the L1 and it should be understood from the

18

L1 background (490). It seems that Crystal’s idea of a language becoming global in

his English as a Global Language supports the notion of nativization of language

(English). Crystal says:

If there is one predictable consequence of a language becoming a

global language, it is that nobody owns it any more. Or rather,

everyone who has learned it now owns it. He ‘has a share in it’ and

changes it to suit himself and has the right to use it in the way he

wants (2-3).

Timothy Ajan (np) acknowledges the localization of English by many users of

the language and says that a great number of Nigerian creative writers together with

other general users of English have been influenced by the local languages, customs,

belief systems and cultures, enough to give it a flavour. He maintains that it is not

only English that has influenced the languages with which it has come into contact

around the world. English, too, has been and continues to be influenced by other

languages. To support the above idea, Mesthrie and Bhatt cite Kachru (1983)

contend that nativization focuses on the adaptation which English has undergone in

ESL territories, where it has become culturally and referentially appropriate in its new

context (10). Moreover, Mesthrie and Bhatt go on to clarify the point thus:

An example of this process is the use of kingship terms via borrowing

or other forms of adaptation to satisfy the needs of politeness or

respect. New terms like ‘cousin brother’ may appear for a male first-

cousin in India, Australian Aboriginal English and varieties of

African English. Similarly, ‘big mother’ occurs in the same varieties

19

for one’s mother’s elder sister. These neologisms denote a closer

relationship than the forms “cousin” and ‘aunt’ (10).

Part of the phenomena in sociolinguistics is the issues of code switching and

code mixing. Code-switching occurs as a result of languages in contact and manifests

prominently in vocabulary and lexical items in the form of borrowing. It can be from

English to any Nigerian languages or vice-versa. Ronald Wardhaugh regards code-

switching as code-mixing (101). He explains that one can switch from one code to

another or to mix codes even sometimes in very short utterances. The code created

becomes a new code. It can come between sentences (inter-sentential) or within a

single sentence (intra-sentential). It can come as a choice of the individual or as a

major identity marker for a group of speakers who must deal with more than one

language in their common pursuit. Citing Cal’s work published in 1998, Wardhaugh

explains code-switching as ‘a conversational strategy used to establish, cross or

destroy group boundaries; to create, evoke, or change interpersonal relations with their

rights and obligations’ (101).

In linguistics, code-switching is also created as a consequence of languages in

contact. Usually the speaker or the creator or the initiator of speech changes or

switches from one language or code to another depending on the situation, audience,or

subject matter (Okon Essien 271).

According to Roberto Herdia and Jeanette Altarriba (164), ‘code-switching or

language-mixing occurs hen a word or a phrase in a second language is interjected in a

sentence of another language’. They give this sentence as an illustration of code-

switching: Dame una hamburguesa sin lettuce por favour, meaning, Give me a

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hamburger without lettuce, please. For them in the sentence, the word ‘lettuce’

replaces the Spanish word lechufa. Charlotte Hoffman believes that code switching is

potentially the most creative aspect of bilingual speech (109) while Janet Holmes

opines that interferences, code-mixing, code-switching are normal phenomenon

because bilinguals usually find it easier to discuss a particular topic in one language

rather than in another (44).

Giving a distinction between code-switching and code-mixing, one can say that

code-switching does not entail the violation of the grammatical rules of the languages

involved in the speech event while code-mixing does so. Code-mixing exemplifies

the most advanced degree of bilingualism to the extent that it requires considerable

competence in the simultaneous processing of the grammatical rules of the language

pair. Also for Sumarsih et al (79), code-mixing occurs when speakers mix or insert

foreign words in a dominant language used. They also affirm that code-switching does

not violate the rules of drafting sentences for second or more languages (79).

Moreover, an attempt has been made to categorize code-switching into

situational and metaphorical code-switching. Just like Wardhaugh (104), Trask (40)

groups code-switching into situational code-switching where speakers move between

languages, dialects, styles or accents during a conversation usually as a result of a

change in setting, hence it demands a different variety. The metaphorical code-

switching, he stresses, occurs when speakers switch to another code so as to force a

new perception of the situation on the other participants (40). Furthermore, Anthony

Oha et al say that code-switching has to do with the movement, ‘whether

psychologically or socially motivated, from one discrete code (language or dialect) to

21

another within a communicative event’ whereas code-mixing entails ‘blending of two

separate linguistic systems into one linguistic system (66).’ The above also

synchronizes with Essien’s concept of code-mixing hence he describes it as ‘a

language phenomenon in which two codes or languages are used for the same

message or communication’. The examples below illustrate that more clearly:

A mam onye i wu very well. (Igbo)

I know you very well. (English)

moti consider gbobo circumstances (Yoruba)

I have considered all the circumstances. (English)

There are indeed many functions that code-switching performs. Wardhaugh

summarises the functions as ‘solidarity,’ ‘accommodation to listeners’, ‘choice of

topic,’ ‘perceived social and cultural distance’ (104). But Yusuf Nuhu (166) cites

Malika’s (1994) reasons why code-switching is used as follows: ‘lack of linguistic

facilities in one language,’ ‘lack of register competence’, for ‘semantic significance’,

for ‘addressing different audiences’, for ‘sharing of identity’ or for ‘solidarity’, ‘to

intensify a particular point’, to show ‘the mood of the speaker’, for ‘habitual

expressions’, to achieve ‘pragmatic motives,’ and to draw ‘attention’. To compensate

for lack of language proficiency (lexical gaps) has always been one of the strongest

reasons why bilinguals code-switch (Heredia and Altarriba 165). But Fromkin et al

contradict the above reasons this way:

Because of the ignorance of code-switching, there is a common

misconception that bilingual Latinos speak a sort of ‘broken’ English.

22

This is not the case. In fact, the phrases inserted into a sentence are

always in keeping with the syntactic rules of that language (466).

They let us know that code-switching reflects the grammars of the languages in

question working simultaneously, and does not represent a form of ’broken’ English

(489).

In reality, the influence of English in African countries leads to code-switching.

It shows creative ingenuity in the ways authors blend their native language with

English (Taiwo Babalola and Rotimi Taiwo 1). Besides, having seen the subtle

differences between code-mixing and code-switching, Wardhaugh (101) summarizes

the two as one and the same thing. Following his conclusion, therefore, both concepts

would not be viewed differently based on the premise that both involve linguistic shift

in-between languages.

2.2 RELATED STUDIES

Let us now look at some field works in linguistics as they interconnect with this

study. Roland Nkwain Ngam in his MA dissertation in 2004 studied “Ben Okri’s the

Famished Road: A Case Study in the Translation of New Englishes.” The study

suggests a new approach to the translation of African literature and more precisely

African literature written in the English language considering the evolution of the

English language. Ngam (2) makes a discovery that in most former colonies, new

Englishes exist alongside the standard variety. For him, this linguistic trend needs to

be accompanied by well-thought-out and researched strategies if translations are to

match the success of the original versions. The work discusses translation theories

with special focus on dynamic equivalence and functionalism. The methodology

23

employed by the researcher is text analysis in order to highlight their cultural

specificity of borrowing, loan translations, hybrids, new coinage, new meaning,

idiomatic expressions, discourse features, phonology, and grammar. Another step

undertaken by the researcher is the discussion of the kind of translation approach to be

adopted in translating them from one language to another. Finally, the researcher

reviews what some researchers in translation studies have published on intercultural

negotiations and suggests approaches to the translation of phenomena like new

Englishes, aspects like colonialism, post colonialism and culture (Ngam 25).

Another related study was based on “The Use of Transliteration in Adichie’s

Half of a Yellow Sun, Flora Nwapa’s Efuru and The Voice by Gabriel Okara’’. This

work was carried out by Asoegwu-Ijezie, George Chukwudi in the year 2012, and it is

based on the lexical items used in the texts and their unique semantic patterns. The

research reveals that the use of English by Nigerian authors requires some

characteristic forms such as borrowings, interference, coinages, and semantic

extensions of certain lexical items. The researcher discovers that at the syntactic level,

Nigerian English is realised through the translation of Igbo/Ijaw, speech function, loan

blends, colloquial utterances, proverbs, idioms, and language mixing (vi).

The research methodology used by the author is descriptive research design.

The data collected from the texts are analysed at the lexical, semantic, and syntactic

levels of language. For lexical/semantic analysis, the researcher uses lexical/semantic

analysis which includes collocation, lexical items and interference theories. But in

syntactic analysis, the researcher uses Halliday’s theory of systemic grammar (31).

The researcher advocates that the use of transliteration should be explored in poetry,

24

drama and mass media. He also recommends intense research on Nigerian English

with a view to codifying and modernizing it appropriately without negative

consequence on the normal development of the English language (64).

Anyaogu Charity in her work: “Code-switching in Adichie’s Prose Works’’

tries to look at the linguistic effect created by Adichie through code-switching. It is a

study on the effect of code-switching in Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus, Half of a Yellow

Sun, and the Things around Your Neck. The work tries to capture the everyday diction

of a bilingual society. It also provides good illustrations of the processes and

functions of code-switching as well as bringing to the fore the history, functions and

some theories of code-switching (VI). According to the researcher, language shift of

the characters in Adichie’s works reflect their ethnic identity and functions as a bridge

that builds solidarity between the author and her ethnic background which is also

related to the high intimacy level concerning their relationship (45).

Anyaogu further looks at styles and linguistic stylistics of the works. She tries

to examine the creative and communicative functions of code-switching. The

methodology employed by the researcher is descriptive research which tends to

describe and interpret the effect of code-switching. She uses the following categories

to examine the representative switches such as authenticity and semblance of reality,

language solidarity and affiliation, character individuation, and thematic anchor. The

researcher discovers that switching occurs when an individual tries to express

solidarity with a particular social group. She shows that the use of some expressions

associated with some real life settings authenticates the stories and compels belief.

Again, the researcher discovers that code-switching identifies characters and equally

25

marks the writers ideological pre-occupation. At the end, she suggests that more

researches should be carried out on the linguistic innovations by African writers as it

relates to bilingualism in their cultural text (IV).

In a study entitled, “A Sociolinguistic Study of Politeness Expressions in Igbo,

Joy Eze in 2010 investigated the linguistic strategies employed by Ero-Ulo people in

expressing politeness and its sociolinguistic implications. She used survey research

design in ‘assessing the elders’ and young ones’ reactions to the use of politeness

expressions’ (43). She looked at the linguistic strategies also used in the English

language such as in-group language, expressing an interest in noticing the hearer, use

of inclusive we, hedging, impersonalizing. The researcher pointed out code-switching

such as transliteration and code-mixing, which Ero-Ulo people exploit in applying this

all-important communicative device. In analyzing the data, the author used

qualitative analysis. She also recommends the retaining of this sociolinguistic element

in language use.

In 2013, Chinedu Onuigbo studied “The Pragmatic and Sociolinguistic

Analysis of Igbo Proverbs.” According to him, the work is based on the fact that

although the proverb is a sociolinguistic tool, its proper understanding needs the

knowledge of the context (pragmatics) and the effect of any and all aspects of society

(sociolinguistics) of the proverbs. He insists that knowing the context in which a

proverb is being used is one thing but understanding all the social elements that come

into play in its use is another (viii). In order to have a proper analysis of the study,

Onuigbo uses the theories of pragmatics. While the pragmatic points out that

syntactic analysis of proverb structure has little effect in putting proverbs in their

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proper linguistic perspective in communication, the sociolinguistic analysis of

proverbs underlies the importance and interconnection the proverb has with its social

environment including people that use it (46-47).

2.3 SUMMARY OF THE LITERATURE REVIEW

The review of the relevant literature in the field shows that the techniques

employed were mainly descriptive research design with a strong leaning on textual

analysis of different literary works.

Ngam analysed Ben Okri’s Famished Road to highlight the linguistic

transformations in the English language such as coinage, borrowing, hybrids,

phonological, grammatical, and discourse features. Asoegwu-Ijezie looks at the

semantic, lexical, and syntactic patterns as he analyses the creation of Nigerian

English through Ijaw and Igbo languages. There was also an exposition of the use of

code-switching to mark out ethnic identity and this, according to Anyaogu, endows

the author with solidarity with his background, which is a source of his linguistic

repertoire. She examined the creative and communicative functions of code-switching.

Joy Eze also looked at the sociolinguistic use of language in Ero-Ulo, but she

was specifically concerned with the use of politeness expression, exploitation of code-

switching and translation and their linguistic implications in communication. On his

own part, Onuigbo employed pragmatic principles in the sociol analysis of proverbs.

This research is similar to Ngam’s work based on the fact that it explores the

linguistic changes that occur as a result of environmental influence each time the

English language comes in contact with another language in literary works of fiction.

But unlike Ngam’s work, the present research does not go into translation analysis.

27

The researcher rather tries to carry out a comparative study on literary works of fiction

represented by Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Half of a Yellow Sun by Adichie. And

this gives this study new significance and uniqueness that enriches the literature in the

field.

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CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN

The study is based on descriptive research design since it is concerned with

describing events as they are without manipulating what is being observed (Anthony

Ali 59). This work engages in a ‘‘Comparative Study of the Sociolinguistics of

Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow

Sun‘‘. The study also shows the link between language and society. In other words, a

person or a people’s language is shaped and sharpened by certain social correlates

such as age, gender, region, education, and social class. For example, when English is

used in foreign countries, it is indigenized as the new users absorb and liberate it to

embody the energies of their respective sensibilities (Amaka Ezeife 243).

Consequently, in order to analyse the sociolinguistics of the novels under study, some

linguistic strategies such as direct translation, code switching, the use of proverbs,

hybridization, and semantic extension would be examined to see the relationship they

have with the setting of the works and also the characters. In addition, the effect of the

localization of language will be compared. The two works are compared to see their

similarities and differences in the use of language.

3.2 SAMPLING

The two works were chosen for some obvious factors. One of the reasons is

that the authors manipulate the English language codes effectively to present their

personal experiences, and this usually causes them to exploit the linguistic background

29

they have acquired from their native languages. Secondly, whereas Achebe is to be

used because he represents the old generation of literary writers in terms of the time

and setting of the work, Adichie, on the other hand, represents the modern African

writers. The choice of the two works enables the researcher to have enough

libnguistic evidence for the comparative study.

3.3 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

This work is based on linguistic theories that embody the dynamics of language

in use. One of the features of human language is dynamism and the changes are

reflected in the development of the language. For effective theoretical direction,

therefore, two theories are used to provide a strong foundation for the study.

DYNAMIC-ORIENTED LINGUISTIC THEORY

In this study, Labov’s variability theory will be used since no speaker of a

language uses the language in exactly the same way at all times. There are always

some variations which could be accounted for by certain social variables. In other

words, every language has more than one variety (George Yule 226). To support the

existence of other varieties of English, Yule explains that If we are thinking of that

general variety used in public broadcasting in the United States, we can refer more

specifically to Standard American English or, in Britain, to Standard British English.

There is no reason why other national varieties such as Standard Australian English,

Standard Canadian English and Standard Indian English should not be recognized also

( 227). And by extention, we can have Standard Nigerian English.

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The point above supports Matthew Gordon’s idea that sociolinguistics operates

under the principle that linguistic variation is not random but is rather influenced by

social and linguistic factors (19). Miriam Meyerhoff also echoes this variability

feature when she adds that ‘Languages are not designed as perfectly regular systems

but they take their shape in the way speakers use them in social and interpersonal

contexts (n.p). Wardhaugh, in like manner, believes that people often exploit the

nuances of the language they speak for a wide variety of purposes (5). Variation

facilitates differentiation among individuals; social or regional groups and nations,

and it can be observed everywhere in language, at all levels, in different dialects and

different registers. This is contrary to Snizhana Holyk’s observation that in the past

linguistic tradition, grammar was assumed to be a fixed, unchanging system (17).

Variety in language system is indeed a sociolinguistic marker. In a work written by

Wolfram in 2006, and cited by Werna Botha, he explains that ‘language has an

underlying structure and this structure varies according to external linguistic variables

such as age, gender, social class, community membership, nationality, and so on’ (2).

According to R.L. Trask, ‘A single language is not used in a totally homogeneous

manner’ (315).

As stated above, Labov is one of the pioneering American sociolinguists. In

one of his notable studies, he examined The Social Stratification of English in New

York City in 1966 where the language use among salespeople in the three New York

department stores, Sak’s (high status), Macy’s (middle status) and Klein’s (low

status) was used as a differentiating mark among them (Paul Baker 31). Labov asked

the employees a question that elicited the expression fourth floor His interest was to

31

observe the pronunciation (or not) of /r/ sound after vowels. He found out a regular

pattern: the higher the socioeconomic status, the more /r/ sounds, and the lower the

socioeconomic status, the fewer /r/ sounds were produced.

His findings indicated that the use of the prestige form varied according to the

level of social class. By extension, this shows that there is also a great deal of variety

in language use when other social indices are put in place. Norbert Schmitt restates

that a linguistic variable feature could be a sound, or a word, or a phrase, or a pattern

of discourse and so on (147). Schmitt further exemplifies:

[W]ords for round bread products include lexical variants: bun, toll, cob,

bap, barm, fadgie, stotty, cake, batch, loaf and no doubt many others.

You might not even recognize some of these, but their use is

determined by the social factor of geographical location (147).

Variation is not only noticed within a language, but can also come as a result of

linguistic transfers from other languages and this is in consonance with Lado’s view

that individuals tend to transform the forms and meanings of their native language to

the foreign language and culture (2). This actually led to Lado’s contrastive principle

which features prominently in second language learning because of the obvious

inherent disparity between two languages. The reality is that the feature which the user

of language one has acquired will tend to manifest whenever the language user tries

to express himself or herself in writing or speaking using a new code. That could be

what prompts Akindele and Adegbite to say this:

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Lexical interference takes two different forms. The first form can be

traced to linguistic factors while the second can be traced to cultural

factors. Lexical interference identified linguistically are regarded as

errors, whereas that identified culturally is not because it expresses the

local colour of socially recognized phenomena (42).

The psychological reality in language use is that a writer transforms the codes of the

language in his linguistic repertoire to his works and this is the area where language is

used to stratify characters.

THE SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS

Another theory that is useful in the sociolinguistic study is the Systemic

Functional Linguistics pioneered by Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday who had

his theoretical foundation from the Prague School of Linguistics. Many linguists

including Halliday have critically re-examined the Transformational Generative

Grammar Theory which favours the native speaker’s absolute competence of his

language. For instance, Ben Rampton argues that in language use, there is no perfect

native speaker in as far as membership of a speech community changes over time just

like language, and being born into a group does not mean that one automatically

speaks one’s language well because whereas many native speakers of English cannot

write or tell stories in English, non-native speakers can (97).

The theory stipulates that what controls language use is not grammaticality but

functionality. In other words while it is essential for a language structure to be

grammatical, it is equally important that the ideas are properly exchanged. The

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concern of Systemic Functional Linguistics is that grammaticality may be important

but what actually determines the content and meaning of a text is usage based on

context. This theory stipulates also that language use cannot be separated from daily

experiences. In Systemic Functional Grammar, there is usually linguistic mapping

which involves matching the linguistic elements recognized in the situation itself.

Explaining this further, Halliday in his Introduction: How Big is a Language? On the

Power of Language, states that any act of communication involves choices. Language

is a system, and the choices available in any language variety are mapped using the

representation tool of the system network (xi) .Halliday again explains that there is

hardly, if any, a grammatical structure that does not have a corresponding alternative

choice from given options.

The Systemic Functional Theory states that lexical items can be regarded as

open because they admit new words into the language all the time. According to

Halliday and Mathiessen (37), language is metafunctionally organised. This leads to

three basic tenets of the theory.

1. In language there is the textual metafunction for logical or effective

coherence.This is reflected in the use of place-holding elements or other

syntactic and semantic linguistic devices.

2. All languages have the interpersonal metafunction, that is to say that

language is an exchange between people. Some examples of language use is

exchange of pleasantries, giving instructions, polite requests, or asking

questions.

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3. All languages have the resources for constructing experiences. By

implication, language is used to represent the world and shows how the

world is experienced. This is the ideation component or ideation

metafunction.

The essence of this theory in this work is to show the relevance of

language in social context as well as its rich potential through which an

individual can create new meaning and shape the world.

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CHAPTER FOUR

DATA ANALYSIS

4.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter deals with the analysis of the texts under study in order to examine

the various sociolinguistic elements in the text. As has been stated earlier, the English

language in African literature has been modified or bent to carry the linguistic and the

cultural garb of the local languages such as Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, or any other African

language. That is to say that English is reshaped to reflect the sociolinguistics of the

texts. Moreover, a sociolinguistic treatment of a text links the study of the language to

a society because meaning is derived from both the linguistic level and extra-linguistic

context. Consequently, the present analysis would be based on some sociolinguistic

variables such as direct translation, semantic extension, code-switching, proverbs,

cultural dependent speech style, coinages, borrowing and hybridization.

4.2 SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF HALF OF A YELLOW SUN AND THINGS FALL

APART

The sociolinguistics of a literary work depicts the linguistic sentiments of the

writer’s speech community in the work in question. For African writers of literature-

in-English, it demonstrates the ways by which the English language is indigenized in

their African works of arts. Many of the features presented in the two works under

study are succinctly described below:

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DIRECT TRANSLATION

This is a word for word representation of a statement or an utterance from one

linguistic code to another. In other words, it is an exact linguistic copy of a linguistic

code in another language. It is one of the many ways that the English language is

indigenized in African literature-in-English.

Some of these features in Half of a Yellow Sun are presented as follow: ‘Her

eyes must have opened in the North. You can’t marry her, so you had better take what

she is offering before she marries (153). This translation occurred during the

conversation between Ugwu and his sister, Anulika about Nnesinachi. ‘Her eyes must

have opened’ is translated direct from the source language anya ya emepego which in

Standard English is, ‘She is now experienced or knowledgeable’. Another example of

direct translation in the text is the discussion between Richard and Nnaemeka. ‘Have

you not heard of my mother’s mother, Nwayike Nkwelle?’ Nnaemeke said to Richard

(189).

A discussion between Olanna and Arize is also an instance of direct translation

from the text. ‘It is only women that know too much Book like you who can say that.

If people like me who don’t know Book wait too long, we will expire’ (58). The

statement above was made by Arize in her course of discussing marriage with Olanna.

Arize stated that she needed a husband since according to her, ‘My mates have all left

me and gone to husbands’ houses’ (58). ‘To know book’ in this context implies being

educated or intelligent but the expression has been localized here to be ịma akwụkwọ.

Similarly, there is still another conversation between the interlocutors in the speech

37

evtent. ‘If only Mohammed was an Igbo man, I would eat my hair if you did not

marry him’ (159). Here, Arize is trying to appreciate Mohammed’s physical qualities:

‘To eat one’s hair’ is a direct translation from the Igbo language which is rendered

as ututnita `′ . The meaning of the statement in this context is that she will not take it

lightly with Olanna.

In addition, ‘May another person do for them what they have done for me’

(119). Ugwu’s mother, in this speech, shows an appreciation of Odenigbo and

Olanna’s generosity towards her when she was sick. Direct translation creates stylistic

effects and makes the author exhibit a sense of linguistic solidarity towards his or her

language. ‘Our eyes have seen plenty, anyi afujugo anya (179). The statement was

made by Obiozo, Odenigbo’s kinsman while describing the brutal nature of the war.

Obiozo saw a horrible sight where ‘a whole family. A father and mother and three

children, lying on the road’ (179). ‘[H]ave seen plently intensifies the ugly nature of

the corpses. Again this is another remarkable example of direct translation which was

uttered by Mama Dozie: ‘May chickenpox afflict you if you, [Olanna]. Who told you

it was my sister’s body that you saw? Cholera will strike you dead’ (236). In proper

Nsukka, the first statement is akirikpakpa gbaa gi which is ‘may chickenpox afflict

you’. The second translated expression is ‘cholera will strike you dead’. In Igbo it is

rendered afọ sagbo gi. Mama Dozie could not bear the news that her sister’s family

has gone in the war. In Nsukka dialect and in Igbo, for example, there are curses

usually structured the same way akirikpakpa (chickenpox) gba gi ‘Let chickenpox

agglict you’ and Afọ sagbo gi meaning ‘let cholera strike you’ are curses of threats. ‘I

said you will give me my money today! Tata! You heard me say so because I did not

38

speak with water in my mouth’ (275). One interlocutor was simply telling the other

that she did not mince words in her speech. ‘You know, Onunna from Ezeugwu’s

compound had a baby girl first, and her husband’s people went to see a dibia to find

out why!’ Anulika said and Ugwu. ‘Husband’s people’ is translated from the Igbo

phrase ndi be di which has an equivalence in English – ‘in-laws’, but the cultural

nuances of the text have affected the lexeme. [Olanna] wanted Professor Achara to

leave right away without telling her, because what she did not know would not hurt

her’ (395). The translated expression above is that of the narrator. In other words, it is

an authorial (5) comment. Another striking translated utterance in the text is ‘He is a

dicor of books, not a doctor for sick people’ (396). The above is Olanna’s reply to

Mama Oji who came to report that hr children had asthma. ‘Doctor of books’ is

literarily known as academic qualification of the highest degree, but it has be ‘bent’

here. ‘Bia, nwoke m, is something wrong with your head?’ (401). The expression is in

the nativized version of ‘Are you craze or mad!’ Olanna is, here, reprimanding Ugwu

because she had told him not to stand in front of the yard because soldiers on a

conscription mission could see him there and conscript him. Olanna asked Aniekwena

to join them in ‘touching their hands to their mouths’ (239). This is from the Igbo

idiom imetu aka n’ọnụ, meaning ‘to eat’.

In Things Fall Apart, Achebe demonstrates African linguistic flair similar to

those of Adichie but with some underlying differences in depth of usage. Just like

Adichie, Achebe exploits the sociolinguistic elements of direct translation semantic

extension, code switching proverbs, coinages, borrowing hybridization, and culturally

dependent speech styles.

39

A typical example of translation is found on page 34, ‘I cannot yet find a mouth

with which to tell the story’. The standard way to express Ekwefi’s complaint would

have been, ‘I lack words to explain the beating Okonkwo gave me’ or ‘I don’t know

how to express my regular battering by Okonkwo’. The statement ‘I am Dry-meat-

that-fills-the mouth (66) credited to Evil Forest is a direct translation of A bu m anụ

kpọrọ nku na- eju ọnụ which means, ‘I am small but mighty’. Another example of

such translation is ‘…her husband’s wives…’ (60). This is the translation of ndi

nwunye di ya’. The phrase, ‘husband’s wives has no equivalent expression in Standard

English because the native speakers of English are culturally monogamous. This is

equivalent to what Wale Adegbite et al call ‘co-wives/rivals in polygamous setting’

and describe as ‘lexico-semantic shift/transfer’(12). On page 31 of Achebe’s text, the

villagers describe Enoch’s zeal towards the new religion in the following words: ‘The

outsider who wept louder than the bereaved’.

SEMANTIC EXTENSION

Semantic extension, otherwise called lexico-semantic extension, implies: a

word or words with their meaning extended beyond their native English meaning; a

linguistic unit taking on added or wider meaning apart from its meaning in the

Standard English to depict some cultural nuances. Some words and expressions in the

text have additional meaning apart from their ordinary meaning in the context they are

used. The following examples from the text portray that. ‘You want to talk to our big

father?’ (93). The phrase, ‘big father,’ is in consonance with what Kachru and Smith

explain as Triphathi’s view on kingship terms. According to them, ‘uncle,’ ‘aunt’,

‘sister,’ ‘mother,’ ‘grandmother,’ and ‘grandfather,’ are used widely as terms of

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address to express respects in many Englishes (108). In Half of a Yellow Sun, Emeka

calls Pa Anozie ‘big father’ as an honour showing that Pa Anozie is elderly and old

enough to be his own grandfather (93). ‘I travel and drive important cars and women

follow me’ (62). Here, Mohammed is talking to Olanna. Follow, in this sense, has not

got the meaning of walking or driving behind someone else, but signifies that women

woo him. Another startling instance of semantic extension is observed in the

expression of Ugwu’s suspicion: ‘Onyeka must have touched her’ (151). To touch, in

this situation, takes on another meaning of sexual relationship. It is used for

euphemistic purpose. Besides, in every society, there are some words or expressions

which are culturally verbalised in certain situations. In the society portrayed in this

work, vulgar expression of sexual relationship is prohibited to reflect their ‘linguistic

sacredness’.

There are also cases of semantic extension in Things Fall Apart. On page 34

Chielo, the priestess of Agbala, says ‘How is my daughter Ezinma?’ In the actual fact,

Ekwefi is the biological mother of Ezinma, but Chielo calls her ‘my daughter’ as a

sign of solidarity, love, and harmlessness. According to the narrator, we are made to

know that she is particularly fond of her (35).

Similarly, Uchendu, Okonkwo’s uncle, greated Obierika and other two men

that visited him, ‘Welcome my sons’ (96). He calls them so because he is old enough

to be their fathers’ age mates.

CODE SWITCHING

Most of the instances of code-switching in the texts are used in appositive

structure while some are in the native language of the writer. Others are however, not

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appositive but for emphasis. Kedu afa gi? What’s you name?’ (15). Odenigbo asked

Ugwu this question when Aunt Ugwuanyi first brought him. On page 38, Olanna

reminds Ugwu that: ‘[T]hose pawpaws are almost ripe. Lotekwa, don’t forget to pluck

them’. Furthermore, an old woman met Olanna at the airport and exclaimed in the

following words: Chi m! ‘my God! I am in trouble’ (42). Also in page 49, Olanna’s

mother emphasises, ‘Did you see the one [Chief Okonji] wore today? ‘Original !’

Ezigbo. Here, Olanna is discussing Okonji’s attive with her mother. ‘Gp well. Jee

ọfụma (52) Kainene, here, wishes Olanna a safe trip to Kano. This is an appository

form of code-switching. Again in page 52, we see ‘How is she doing’? Ọ na-agakwa?

Here, Olanna is asking Aunty Ifeka about Arize’s welfare. On Arize’s arrival, she,

Arize, spoke to Olanna in the code-switched form below: Ah! Sister! Arụ amaka gi !

“you look well !’ Also in page 118 of the text, Ugwu’s mother told him, ‘what is

wrong with using a good atụ? Atụ is a ‘chewing stick in Africa English. The another

uses the phrase ‘the little children and the gossiping wives of his ụmụnna’ (119) to

reflect the wishes of Ugwu. Here, ụmụnna refers to one’s kinsmen. In the response of

Odenigbo’s mother to Ugwu’s question,‘Did your journey go well? She says, ‘Yes,

Chukwu du anyi. God led us’ (121). And while blessing Ugwu for his good behavior,

she further said, ‘your chi will break away the rocks on your paths’ (121),

While speaking ill of Olanna, Odenigbo‘says, ‘… all the time she was

growing up, it was servants who wiped her ike…’ (125). Odenigbo’s mother is, here,

speaking ill of Olanna. Again in the work, there is ‘I just wanted to say kedu, to find

out how you are’ (132). In the code-switching above, Olanna exchanges pleasantries

with Kainene over the phone. Vilifying Sarduana, Aunt Ifeka remarked, ‘the Sardauna

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was an evil man ajọ mmadụ’ (163). Equally in an appositive structure on page 174,

Kainene expressed surprised that colonel Mmadu had not been shot to death in the

war” ‘Mmadu ! Is this you? Ọ gi di ife a? To show solidarity, a white man, Richard,

exchanges greatings with Nnaemeka in the following code-switched structure: ‘It has

been nice talking to you, jisie ije’ (189). In the Igbo language, jisie ike is a term used

for greeting. It simply means ‘well done’. Here, Richard, though a white man, uses it

as a sign of solidarity in the Igbo language to acknowledge and appreciate Nnaemeka,

and to be appreciated in the above statement. Similar in the above, Richard purposely

speaks Igbo again as a sign of identity so that he would be allowed to pass at a

security check-point: Abụ m onye Biafra (223). Such code-switching from one

language to another usually occurs to gain favours from the addressee. Also in page

257, speaking to Ugwu, Jomo retorts, “You are a sheep, atụrụ. in another appositive

code-switching, Aunty Ifeka enjoins Olanna not to take Odenigbo’s infidelity to heart

‘… life belongs to you and you alone, sσsσ gi (276). I did not know you were a twin,

and, nekene, she does not look like you at all’ (324). Mrs. Muokelu, here, code-

switches as she addresses Olanna. In addressing their little daughter on page 326

Olanna uses endearing words, ‘Babu, ezigbo nwa, how are you?’ in another appositive

code-switching, Olanna scolds Ugwu over his extravagant use of kerosene. ‘I na-

ezuzu? Are you stupid? Haven’t I told you to save our kerosine’. This is seen on page

364 of the text.

Code-switching is also greatly implicated in Things Fall Apart. Some of them

are illustrated in the expressions that follow. Mgbogo answers on behalf of her sick

neigbour, ‘she is has iba’. Iba in English is malaria. Another typical example of code-

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switching is found on page 92, ‘A man cannot rise against the destiny of his chi’. The

comment, ‘He sat down in his obi and mourned his friend’s calamity’ (87) describes

Obierika’s mournful mood in his sitting-room after the death of Okonkwo. Again, ilo

is used for the village playground (74). Furthermore, there is extensive code-switching

in the use of foo-foo (67), ogbanje for a spirit-possessed child in Igbo (56); iba for

malaria (53) and the ozo title (48).

PROVERBS IN THE WORKS

Proverbs are wise sayings which teach some morals, and are attached to the

environment or context of use for a clearer understanding. Below are few of them.

‘My grandfather used to say that other people just farted, but his own fart always

released shit’ (283). Olanna uses this proverb to describe how unlucky Edna is in her

own things. Re-emphasising what she told, Olanna on page 337 retorts, ‘Did I speak

with water in my mouth?’ Olanna wants Ugwu to know that he must have heard her

well.

Proverbs which were minimally used in Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun are

extensively used in Things Fall Apart. The scanty use of proverbs in Half of a Yellow

Sun is a linguistic manifestation of age. While the characters in Achebe are mostly

aged, those in Adiche’s work are younger. This explains why they did not use many

proverbs unlike in Achebe’s work. In fact, the proverbial expression, ‘Proverbs are

palm oil with which words are eaten,’ best describes the preponderance and the

veracity in the use of proverbs in the work. In describing Okonkwo’s early

achievement in life, Achebe writes, ‘If a child washed his hands he would eat with

kings’ (6). Also in showing Okonkwo’s regard and appreciation of Nwakibie’s

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greatness while requesting for help Okonkwo says, ‘A man who pays respect to the

great paves way for his own greatness’ (14). ‘A toad does not run in the afternoon for

nothing’ (15) is proverbially used to describe Obiako’s abandoning of his palm-wine

tapping trade without explaining the reason to show that every event must have a

cause. The saying, ‘An old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in

a proverb’ (15) is a mockery which is not directed to Okonkwo, but to remind him of

his father’s laziness. ‘Eneke the bird says that since men have learnt to shoot without

missing, he has learnt to fly without perching’ (16). This saying which is equivalent

to, ‘Once beaten, twice shy,’ illustrates the dynamism in human actions to suit events

in life.

While positively weighing Okonkwo’s ability to handle seed yams, Nwakibie

says that ‘You can tell a ripe corn by its look’ (16). Still about Okonkwo, an old man

talks about Okonkwo’s sudden change of fortune from abject poor background to be

one of the lords of the land using this proverb, ‘Looking at a king’s mouth, one would

think he never sucked at his mother’s breast’ (19). Okonkwo is also referred to as,

‘The little bird nza who so far forgot himself after a heavy meal that he challenged his

chi’ (22). This proverb is sarcastic because Okonkwo arrogantly defiled the week of

peace by mercilessly beating his wife, Ojiugo (21). Showing disdain for his son’s

weakness, Okonkwo says, ‘A chick that will grow into a cock can be spotted the very

day it hatches’ (46). This implies that Nwoye’s weakness is an inheritance. In

justifying his action in killing Ikemefuna, Oknkwo maintains that ‘The Earth cannot

punish me for obeying her messenger. And child’s fingers are not scaled by a piece of

hot yam which its mother puts in its plam’ (47). Extolling Maduka’s smartness,

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Obierika’s elder brother states that ‘When mother-cow is chewing grass, its young

ones watch its mouth’ (49).

Moreover to describe the destruction of a group’s good deeds by the

misdemanour of one or few, this proverb is used, ‘If one finger brought oil it soiled

the other’. And to show the reality of age and Okonkwo’s gradual weakening in

physical strength while at Mbaino a popular proverb was used to describe his efforts

to achieve so much like he was used to doing as a young man ‘…learning to become

left-handed in old age’ (92). Yet another proverb used by Okika that depicts danger is,

‘Whenever you see a toad jumping in broad daylight, then know that something is

after its life’ (143).

It is pertinent to point out that the proverbial wisdom is a popular skill which

Achebe uses in his story-telling. This is part of Achebe’s gift to the African literary

world to demonstrate the wisdom of an artist who is committed to configuring a

special linguistic code to carry the socio-cultural import of the message. Achebe’s

ability to fashion out the linguistic code justifies Jan Mohammed’s ‘sophisticated

primitivism’ of Achebe’s language (37).

CULTURALLY DEPENDENT SPEECH SYTLE

The two works under study employed what Akindele and Adegbite identify as

‘nativized thought process which does not conform to the recognized canons of

discoursal types, text design, and stylistic conventions’ (46). One of such nativization

of rehetorical strategies can be classified, according to Akindele and Adegbite, as ‘The

use of culturally-dependent speech styles’ in the English language (47). Most of such

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expressions are in the structure of the native language, but rendered using the English

language. Two instances of this in Half of a Yellow Sun are as follow:

He who brings the kola brings life. You and yours will live, and I and

mine will live. Let the eagle perch and let the dove perch and, if either

decrees that the other not perch, it will not be well for him (203).

The above speech is that of an elderly man blessing a kola nut in Obosi. Apart

from the above, Odenigbo’s mother prayed for her son, Odenigbo, using similar

linguistic expression in the following words, ‘Your chi will break away the rocks on

your path’ (121). A typical instance of this linguistic device is seen in the words of

prayers of Nwakibie over the kola nut presented by Okonkwo when he went to

Nwakibie to ask for seed yams as seen in Things Fall Apart:

We shall all live. We pray for life, children, a good harvest and

happiness. You will have what is good for you and I will have

what is good for me. Let the kite perch and let the eagle perch

too. If one says no to the other, let the wing break’ (14).

The second instance of this is demonstrated in Egwugwu’s greetings to

Umuofia people.

Umuofia kwenu!

Yaa !

Umuofia kwenu!

Yaa ! (63)

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BORROWED WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS

A good number of borrowed words from different languages were used.

Borrowing, according to McGregor, is the process of incorporating into one language

words from another language. Words that have been borrowed as such are called loan

words (88). Adichie employed the formal and the functional types in her work, just

like Achebe, but she borrowed more than the latter, especially from other Nigerian

languages apart from the Igbo language. In the description of Akindele and Adegbite,

the formal type refers to the linguistic realization of code-switching from one

language to another. They further explain that there is a blend of the two codes of

communication involved in the communication process (37).

INTENTIONAL BORROWING

Borrowing can be intentional, when the author resorts to borrowing when there

is a suitable alternative in the writing language. This linguistic experiment is done for

stylistic effects as well as to give solidarity to the indigenous language(s) in question.

In the first instance, we see the use of agụ rather than ‘farm’ on page 236, ‘Mama

Dozie herself had been away harvesting cocoyams in the agụ’. Also on page 18 – 19,

the narrator comments that ‘[Ugwu] had never been sure how he and Nnesinachi were

related, but he knew they were from the same ụmụnna and therefore could never

marry’. The same ụmụnna was repeated by Mrs. Muokelu, ‘They say he gave army

exemption passes to all his male relatives, everyone in his ụmụnna’ (339). ‘Kinsmen’,

an English word, would have been suitable for ụmụnna, but the author preferred to use

the indigenous lexical, ụmụnna. On page 460 Kainene says, ‘Ejima m, hold your heart,

be strong’. Also on page 468 Kainene asks, ‘Ejima m, what is the matter?’ The word

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ejima is the Igbo name for twins. In the work also, obi was used to describe a sitting-

room on page 93, ‘He led the way into his dim obi, which smelt of mushrooms.’ On

page 387, an aspect of beans in Igbo, akidi ,was used, ‘We will grow our protein, soya

beans and akidi’.

Besides, other intentional borrowed words from local languages in Half of a

Yellow Sun manifest in the use of ụgụ (19) for ‘pumpkin leaves’; ube tree (19) for

‘pear’ and akpụ (18) which in English is processed cassava. This is what Herbert

Igboanusi refers to as foo-foo or fufu ‘eaten in balls with soup’ (116). Although each

of the three borrowed lexical items has its substitutable equivalence in the English

language, the author used them literary for stylistic effects. The author also to used

nlacha, which in English is ‘eczema’ (226). Finally, the word abi was used on page

164-65, ‘The minister they killed used to live around here, abi, aunty?’ This is an

interjection often used as a way of confirming information. And its source language is

Yoruba. Here, it is equivalent to, ‘Isn’t it?’

As in Adichie’s Half of a Yellw Sun, Achebe borrowed many words from

language not because there are no alternatives in English but to satisfy his linguistic

appetite as well as to project the beauty of his mother tongue, the Igbo languages.

Some of such words are osu – outcast (111- 112); inyanga, from pidgin

meaning pride; an old woman (9); nso-ani – a religious offence or taboo (22); ọchụ -

murder (91); iba – feverish condition (53); ụmụnna – a wider group of kinsmen;

ndichie – elders of the land (9, 11).

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FORMAL AND FUNCTIONAL BORROWING

Apart from loan words that have suitable equivalence in another language,

there is formal or functional borrowing. This is what Akindele and Adegbite term the

linguistic realization of code-switching from one language to another (17). In some

instances, the borrowed words are used because of their functional position.

Sometimes the equivalent word or expression is a general term while the borrowed

one is more specific. In this text, there is such inevitable borrowing from different

languages in order to achieve the vivid picture Adichie paints.

On page 26, the author used okwuma, a specific kind of ointement as follows:

‘Whenever he was ill with fever, or once when he fell from a tree, his mother would

rub his body with okwuma.’ Similarly on page 134, Olanna rhetorically asks Ugwu a

question: ‘You think the dibai has sent the black cat to bite us?’ The borrowed word

dibia is also used on page 126 by Odenigbo’s mother. She says, ‘I will not let this

witch control him. I will consult the dibia Nwafor Agbala when I return home; the

man’s medicine is famous in our parts’. From the above instance, it will be understood

that dibia has cultural connotation which no known English word can substitute. In the

Igbo language, it refers to an augurer, a seer, a physician, or a professional medicine

man’ who can cast spell on a person. Again, ‘medicine’ here is a charm but can as

well be drugs. The borrowed word suya was also used (134). Suya refers to ‘roasted

meat with a lot of spices’. The source language is Hausa.

Another form of borrowing is seen on page 259, ‘Do you cook ofe nsala well?

Again, on page 253 the author says that: ‘[Ugwu] was pleased to let Mama cook but

he did not eat ugba and dried fish she made for dinner’. In addition, on page 308,

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‘Mama brought the baby, wrapped in a brown shawl that had the unpleasant smell of

ogiri’.

Adichie also made use of ogbanje, which is synonymous with the Yoruba

abiku and which describes ‘spirit children’ who keep oscillating between both worlds.

The text reads: ‘Perhaps the woman was a spirit person and had come here to perform

rituals with her fellow ogbanje’ (293). The author goes further to use chi which

Achebe calls one’s ‘personal god’ (13). This is seen on page 506, where she writes

that ‘I knew that you chi was wide awake’. Similar to this, there is: ‘Your chi will

break away the rocks on your path’ (121).

Achebe exploited a lot of formal or functional borrowing from the Igbo

language. Some of them are analysed below:

(1) Ogbanje:This word found on page 54, 56,and 130 was also used by in Half

of a Yellow Sun. In Things Fall Apart, the term implies ‘child who

repeatedly dies and returns to its mother to be reborn’ (158).

(2) Iyi-uwa: This word appeared in the sentence below: ‘Leave her to me,’ the

medicine-man told Okonkwo in a cool, confident voice. He turned again to

Ezinma. Where did you bury your iyi-uwa?’(54). The functional loaned

word, iyi-uwa, is believed to be a bond between ogbanje and the spirit

world.

(3) Another functional borrowed word is ikenga, which according to

Igboanusi, is ‘a carved ritual figure with up-raised right hand’ (145). There

is, as at now, no English word for ikenga.

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(4) Foo-foo: This a kind of food prepared from cassava or yam, and eaten in

balls with soup. This is foud on page 51 and in several other pages.

(5) Udu, ogene,and ekwe are found on page 5. They are traditional musical

instruments, and sometimes used in traditional societies to pass important

information to the members of the public.

COINAGES AND HYBRIZATION IN THE WORKS

Coinages can be referred to as coined words. This occurs when entirely new

words entre a language. This often happens when speakers invent (or coin) new

words. In terms of two components of words (sound and meaning), speakers coin a

new word by inventing a new sound sequence and pairing it with a new meaning

(Akmajian Adrian et al 25). Prominent among the coinages used in Adichie’s Half of

a Yellow Sun is ogbunigwe which was used on page 242, 340, and 435. On page 435,

in particular, a sentence reads, [Ugwu] remembered Professor Ekwenugo describe the

ogbunigwe as a ‘high-impact landmine’. The text presents it thus: ‘How glamorous it

sounded, this Biafran-made mine, this Ojukwu Bucket, this wonder that was so

perplexing to the vandals that they were said to send cattle herds ahead to understand

just how the ogbunigwe killed so many’. Ogbunigwe is a coinage from the massive

life destructive capacity of the landmine used by Biafrans during the Nigerian/Biafran

war.

‘Rain-holder’ is another coinage which refers to a person that has the skill to

restrain rainfall (245). Adichie used onyinbo which originated from Yoruba to refer to

a white man (175). Another popular coined word often used to reflect the

temperament of a group of Igbos within the South Eastern state of Enugu is wawa.

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Mama Odenigbo’s says, ‘I do not mind where the woman my son will marry comes

from, but I do not want a wawa woman’ (126). Wawa is a coinage to demonstrate the

people’s usual expression to reject evil, crime, and immoral tendencies. Nyamiri ,

Hausa’s derogatory name for the Igbos which originated from the sentence, Nyem

mmiri , is found on page 190. Nyamiri is a corruption of Nyem mmiri presumed to had

been used by the first Igbo settlers in the North, who did not know how to speak

Hausa to request for drinking water. The actual translation in English is, ‘Give me

water to drink’. In the text, a soldier barked, ‘Ina nyamiri ! Where are the Igbo

people? Who is Igbo here? Where are the infidels?’ (190).

Hybridization in linguistics is a morphological process which connotes the

formation of a new expression from two existing linguistic items from different

languages. For Nkwain, hybrids are those concepts that are somewhat coined from a

foreign language like English and any local language (24). Few of these hybrids are

analysed from Adichie’s work.

The first one is afia attack found on pages 357, 490, and 599. For instance, on

page 490, we read that ‘She told them she was going on afia attack to trade across

enemy lines.’ Also on page 357, Mrs. Muokelu says, ‘I am going to start afia attack to

see if I can buy salt. I can no longer teach.’ ‘The hybrid ‘afia attack’ is a combination

of an Igbo word, afia and the English word, ‘attack.’ In the context of use it means

buying from enemy territory. ‘Nlacha skin diseases’ found on page 226 is a

combination of nlacha and ‘skin diseases.’ It is simply eczema which attacks the skin.

In some parts of Igbo land it is called ụgwọ. On pages 111 and 112 the expression

oriokpa festival implies a feastival to celebrate traditional masquerade which is

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prominent in Nsukka area. Apart from the above, ‘ụmụada meeting’ (244) is the

meeting of a group of women relatives. This is a powerful group, especially during

funeral rites of a particular relative. Finally, ‘ido ants’ (469) belong to a specie of

yellow ants normally found on mango trees.

In Achebe’s foremost work, Things Fall Apart, coinage is conspicuously

exploited in a way that shows special power of linguistic experimentation. Many

examples occur in the work, but few are given below:

Kotma: The word ‘kotma’ is a derivation from ‘court man,’ which before now

assumed the meaning of a court messenger. It appears on pages 123, 125, and 127.

Rain-maker: This coinage connotes a person who has the magical powers to conjure

with the spirit to cause rainfall (24). The opposite is ‘rain-holder’ as used in Half of a

Yellow Sun (245).

Iron horse: This is simply a bicycle. The name came from the bicycle being an

imitation of a horse with fore limbs and hind limbs. This is seen on pages 97-98.

Some of hybrids implicated in Things Fall Apart are analysed below:

1) Ozo title: Ozo is a social rank, or simply put, a title holder in a community. It is

on page 48, and it represents the highest social title in an Igbo community.

2) Female ọchụ: This expression means inadvertent killing of a person. In Things

Fall Apart (91), it usually attracted sacrifices as in Okonkwo’s case when he

killed a kinsman.

3) Ozo dance: This is a dance which only the ozo’s enjoy. It is seen on page 41 of

the text as a special privilege for the Ozo title holders.

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4) Ozo society: This is a group of ozo titled members. It is found on page 121 of the

novel to represent the cult group..

English, in spite of it overwhelming function, has not been able to

accommodate words that lots of indigenous meanings in different languages. For the

multilingual Nigeria writer, there is often a tendency to alternate English and the

native languages. Most often, the writers’ culture has power over their choice of

linguistic items.

The language of both theThings Fall Apart and Half of a Yellow Sun is really

a variety of English that can be said to be homegrown because it carries a lot

indigenous meanings. The elements used to localize the English language in African

literature reflect aspects of indigenous meanings. Achebe and Adichie both capture the

traditional belief in ogbanje which portrays the power of reincarnation, which is a

kind of magical realism. Both of them have the same world view through the use of

some lexical items like obi, ụmụnna, rain-holder (Adiche, 245), and rain-maker

(Adiche, 14). ‘A man could not rise beyond the destiny of his chi’, ‘He had a bad chi

‘(Achebe 93 and 13) and ‘I know your chi was wide awake’ (Adichie 506). All these

are indicative of the belief in personal gods among the Igbos. Besides, the two works

also display the same pattern of speech style in the utterances of the characters. In

Things Fall Apart, for instance, Okonkwo says this during the presentation of a kola

nut at Nwakibie’s house:

We shall all live. We pray for life, children, a good harvest and

happiness. You will have what is god for you and I will have

55

what is good for me. Let the kite perch and let the eagle perch

too. If one says no to the other, let his wing break (14).

Similarly in Adichie’s work, a character prays by saying that::

He who brings the kola brings life. You and yours will live, and I

and mine will live. Let the eagle perch and let the dove perch and,

if either decrees that the other not perch, it will not be well for

him… (203).

The two speeches have the structure and the semantics of the Igbo language speech

pattern but rendered in English. Exclamation, on the other hand, demonstrates how a

language gives expression to culture. In the texts, tụfiakwa ! could express

condemnation, rejection or annoyance. The expression, tụfiakwa, features in both

texts. When Ekwefi, Ezinma’s mother, said she wanted to go with Chielo, the

priestess concerning Ezinma’s illness, the priestess rejected her request (71). In the

same vein, Harrison, one of the characters in Half of a Yellow Sun, said to Ugwu

‘Tụfia ! I don’t know why master wants to see that devilish festival…’ (255). The

impact of using tụfia in both linguistic situations may not be properly represented in

English. Another example of the exclamation in Half of a Yellow Sun was when

Olanna jumped the queue and one of the women sitting in the corridor cursed”

‘Tụfiakwa ! We have been waiting since dawn! Is it because we don’t talk through our

nose like white people?’ (322). The degree of annoyance from a woman who has been

waiting to see a medical doctor, only for the nurse to allow Olanna who just came in

to enter, is conveyed in the exclamation tụfiakwa!

56

Apart from the fact that most expressions in the works do not have English

equivalents for ụziza, ụmụnna, obi, egwugwu, oriọkpa, ọgbanje, ọzọ, ikenga, ọkwụma,

suya, ụgba, ogiri, ‘rain-holder’, ‘rain-maker’, there are also lots of other linguistic

items in the texts that have equivalents in English, but have been used appositively for

clarification. However, some were not translated. In Things Fall Apart, expressions

like these abound: ‘tie-tie or rope’ (127), ‘jigida or waist beads’ (20) ‘medicine house

or shrine’ (10) ‘bad chi or personal god’ (13) ‘agadi nwanyi or old woman’ (9)

‘ancestral spirit or egwugwu’ (85) ‘outcast or osu’ (111). In like manner, Half of a

Yellow Sun is filled with code-switched expressions used for repetition. Some of them

are: ‘Mummy Ola, don’t cry; Ebezi na’ (498); ‘Go well. Ije ọma’ (487); Dalụ - thank

you’ (487); ‘Get up, kunie’ (115); ‘Look here, nee anya’ (17) ‘Kedu afa gi?’ What’s

your name?’ (15).

In addition, there are areas where a word would have an equivalent, but the

native word is preferred to the English form, for example, in this expression, ‘It is

mother would rub his body with okwuma’ (Adichie 26). Okwuma is an Igbo name for

local ointment often used when someone is ill or used on swollen or dislocated joint of

a patient. It has an equivalent in English which is ‘balm’, but the local name is more

suitable in this context, or it could be to capture its native linguistic import and

obviously to depict the cultural connotation of the word. Still in Half of a Yellow Sun,

an expression like, ‘Have you not heard of my mother’s mother? Nwayike Nkwelle?’

(189). The expression, ‘mother’s mother,’ has a single item – grandmother, which can

be used but it has been directly translated to capture the cultura beauty of societal

choice.

57

On the other hand at times, some neologisms are created to show some

experiences that exist in the indigenous culture but alien to another culture. One of the

examples is this: ‘…her husband’s wives were saying that it was nothing more than

iba…’ (60). The semantics of ‘husband’s wives’ connotes polygamous style of

marriage. Therefore, ‘husband’s wives’ fills a linguistic gap in this context.

To conclude this section, it is pertinent to state that in terms of linguistic

borrowing, Adichie is wider in scope but Achebe is more profound in exploiting the

resources in the Igbo language. However, the two works are similar in terms of speech

styles.

58

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES

5.1 SUMMARY

The preoccupation of this work has been to show how African literary writers

exploit African linguistic experiences through the effective use of the English

language to reflect the Africanness of the themes being explored. Although the

emerging variety can be characterized as New Englishes with some ideosyncracies of

regional features, these Englishes serve specific and appreciable literary functions and

have therefore come to stay as a peculiar linguistic culture. The visible implication of

this is that the English language has been acculturalized, Nigerianized, domesticated,

nativized, and hybridized to meet the socio-cultural needs of the people.

Comparing the two texts under study, Things Fall Apart by Achebe and Half of

a Yellow Sun by Adichie, the researcher equally observes several twists and bends of

linguistic structures in the English language to reflect their use in the novels. The

acculturation or the nativization stratgegies employed by both authors help to invoke

the cultural milieu in which the events took place. In the novels, the writers employ

direct translation, semantic extension, code-switching, proverbs, culturally dependent

speech style, loan words, coinages, and hybridization to project the messages of the

text. All these are the aspects of localization of the English language to project the

local colour. Similar to the above is the exploitation of some native similes in Things

Fall Apart. Instances of these are seen in Okonkwo’s burden of fending for his

immediate family, father, mother and extended relations which was likened to

‘pouring grains of corn into a bag full of holes’ (16). Okonkwo’s fame has grown ‘like

59

a bush-fire in the harmattan’ (3). In the third example is ‘Okonkwo grew rapidly like a

yam tendril in the rainy season’ (37). An instance of direct translation in Things Fall

Apart is ‘… his good fortune had gone into his head’ (24). Again, we read that ‘A

baby on its mother’s back does not know that the way is long’ (71). There is also a

direct translation in ‘The lizard said he would praise himself if no one else did’ (15-

16).

Direct translated expressions are also extensively used in Half of a Yellow Sun,

‘We do not look for quarrels, but when your quarrels find us, we will crush you’

(233). In the work also, we encounter code-switching elements as in, ‘Afam bu Jomo’ ,

Jomo said (27). ‘Dianyi, you now speak English ‘just like the children of the lecturers’

(119). After the radio announcement of the coup, Odenigbo declares, ‘O mego!’ (156).

The above linguistic experiment in the two works survives even in other works

not only because of the new environment that forms the new language structures but

because of the poetic licence which flowers and flourishes in literary writings. In this

study, we have indicated that the evolution of English as a second language has given

birth to linguistic interference which has affected the target language. This

interference can be linguistic or literary. The work has, therefore, dwelt on these

linguistic elements in literary works of Achebe and Adichie by comparing and

contrasting the two works.

The work further proves that language is an aggregate of the linguistic and the

social factors in a society and as such it cannot be independent of the environment in

which it is used. The two works, in a way, explore aspects of Nigerian English which

are products of their own general and social context. Again, the works attest to the fact

60

that language is responsible to the cultures of their users and because it is a part of a

people’s culture, it cannot be separated from the culture as well. That is to say that

language is subordinated to the culture in which it operates. We can say that the

attempt by the two authors to re-structure English through code-switching, direct

translation, the use of semantic extension, proverbs, cultural dependent speech style,

borrowed words, hybridization, coinages and other Nigerian speech habits has, no

doubt, led to interference in their use of the English language in the characters’ speech

and in the authors’ writing. Actually, all these have culminated in literary stylistic

devices that are essentially African.

5.2 CONCLUSION

The linguistic development in the two novels under study supports the belief of

researchers that the twisted English precipitated by pidginization, nativization and

acculturation is mainly to express peculiar Nigerian concepts and to maintain model

interaction. Continuing this argument, Bamgbose, strongly believes that this evolution

has produced ‘distinctive literature in Nigeria’. He goes further to highlight the

essence of such linguistic manoeuvring to the success of oral traditions and written

literature in the indigenous languages of Nigeria. He concludes that this has also

resulted in the success of Nigerian literature of English expression (4).

The development has created a dominant language among African literary

writers and this goes further to create harmony between the writer and his artifacts.

Should the setting be different from the writer’s first language or his second language,

the result will be that the literary work itself lacks adequate capacity to describe events

and situations as they occurred to the writer. In other words, Achebe’s and Adichie’s

61

exploitation of the literary linguistic techniques have led to vividity in their

description of events and the development of their characters in the novels.

Another advantage of this linguistic experiment is that if the authors had used

English in its original form and meaning in the novels, it would have been impossible

to capture the African culture effectively to enable the readers to understand the

literary experiences the authors have in mind. For instance, in Half of a Yellow Sun,

the author used my ‘mother’s mother’ (189), ‘It is only that know women know too

much book like you who can say that, Sister. If people like me who don’t know Book

wait too long, we will expire’ (58). In Things Fall Apart, the author used ‘husband’s

wives’ which has no semantic import in the English language and culture (60). In

Things Fall Apart, we read, that no man ‘could rise beyond the destiny of his chi’

(92). The word chi presents semantic problems to the second users of English trying to

translate it to English. According to Emmanuel Obiechina, the word chi has:

…built-in conceptual meaning in the vernacular with no equivalent in

English…. No single English word can adequately translate this word

that is built into the very culture of African’s concept of individual

identity, destiny and the place he occupies in the general ordering of the

universe. It is often as elusive as the western concept of the individual

‘soul’. A vague and generalized description of chi as ‘destiny’ or ‘fate’

is totally inadequate to convey the meaning of the word (61).

So many of these instances are found in the two works although the two works

differ in depth of usage. The indigenization of English by speakers of African

languages through the appropriation of the English language has led to African literary

62

linguistic tradition which has been employed in Things Fall Apart and Half of a

Yellow Sun. This work contends that for African languages to survive their decimated

and subjugated status such linguistic exploit will continue to flower and flourish, and

the end to it is not in sight.

5.3 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES

Having seen the essence of this study in language development, there is a need

to suggest areas for further studies for advancement in the English language growth.

Research findings have shown that the English language has dominated African

languages because of its inevitability in multilingual settings of Africa and Nigeria in

particular. Further research into other aspects of sociolinguistics in Nigerian novels is,

therefore, advocated in so far as it will ensure that some African languages facing

extinction can attract much more attention.

Secondly, research enquiry should be focused on the strategic aspects of

African style of speaking in African novels. This will enable writers to adopt this

measure to sustain the interest in the reading of African novels in intensification of

African culture.

Again, this study calls for further study into pragmatic theories in African

literature. This, again, will help to create more awareness in the implicature in the use

of the English language.

Finally, the study suggests that discourse studies should also be carried out in

African novels rather than only on the speech aspects. This will ensure that discourse

properties are exploited the more in creative writing and research.

63

With the above, African interest in their language will be rekindled apart from

their ability to experiment with the English language, which like any language, is

natural in its syntax, morphology, semantics and phonology. It will, therefore, make

Africans develop optimally in all the five linguistic analysis in language.

64

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