Research Paper: Style and Mind-shift: A Stylistic Reading of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and Chimamanda Adechie's Americanah

 

UNIVERSITY OF LAGOS, NIGERIA

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERARY STUDIES

MA THESIS

Style and Mind-shift: A Stylistic Reading of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and Chimamanda Adechie's Americanah

BY NEWTON-RAY U.UKWUOMA, 2015

1.1 THE BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

It is a fact that the Nigerian novel written in English went through a ponderous process in establishing a separate tradition for itself especially from the paradoxical quest for a definite means of artistic expression in another man’s language to the flood of critical, but nationalistic polemics about the acculturation of a foreign language. Writers from Nigeria have tinkered very resourcefully with this colonial imprint – the English language. Nevertheless, this tradition, which was established by and is indebted to the linguistic consciousness and sensitivity of Nigerian writers, has become a system. Its structure can be studied, classified and measured. It has definable boundaries and behaviour. The system of writing in English has been so defined such that it has become critical. Peter Young puts the problem associated with the approach to Nigerian literature in English this way:

The major fault with the approach to West African literature in English

is surely that it has been wholly “critical” and almost never “pre-critical”.

The obvious similarities of forms and language have obscured the vary

things that matter in criticism, things that make a literature different from

any other. (Young, Peter 1969:3)

 

These similarities in form and language of the Nigerian literature in English can be classified under two main terms; namely, the sameness in style and in mind of writers in Nigeria. Its central springboard was nationalism – the quest for linguistic freedom. However, the process that established this tradition, which began between the late nineteenth and early twentieth century is shifting in relation to Nigeria’s changing relationship with Europe and the West in the twenty-first century. That is the argument of this research work. The aim is to present two works that represent two different ends of the literary history of Nigeria: Things Fall Apart (1958) by Chinua Achebe and Americanah (2014) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, in order to measure the effects of time and civilization in the use of English in the Nigerian novel. In order words, this research is devoted to the examination of the levels of linguistic expansion of the system of writing in English of the Nigerian novel in two frames: its style and mind or psychology. It intends to investigate a shift in the psychology of Nigerian writers to the use of English in the novel.

One of the inspirations of this research arose particularly from the critical arguments that have emerged about the linguistic consciousness of Nigerian and, by extension, African creative writers in English. It began with my reading of the 1995 edition of New Englishes: A West African Perspective edited by Ayo Bamgbose, Ayo Banjo & Andrew Thomas, and coming across, in the Foreword, Braj Kachru’s discussion of Achebe’s stylistic sensitivity and the underlying principle of Africanising the English language in order to establish a local acquaintance with the culture and experience of Africans.

Dan Izevbaye, in his essay in the same book, states that the literary history of Nigeria was stimulated by a consciousness crisis, a consciousness that was catalysed by the political, cultural, artistic and linguistic dominance of colonial rulers. According to him, this experience had a great influence on the psychology of the writers, producing in them the rousing quest for answers to the many psychological and social complexities. Dan Izevbaye did argue that the literary outputs of writers such as Cyprian Ekwensi, Amos Tutuola, Chinua Achebe, Elechi Amadi, Buchi Emecheta, sprang out of two necessities of the aforementioned complexities. One of which is the necessity to redeem the marred cultural and historical identities of Africa, which had been greatly misrepresented and misinterpreted by the literatures of Europe and the West. Second of which is the necessity for the search for an acceptable means of artistic expression.

From the first, we contrive an ideology, a vision and a sameness of mind, that is, a psychological awakening to national and linguistic freedom. In addition, we may state in advance that one of the components of this system of writing in English is, in fact, an extension of the psychological consequence of a dual worldview presented by English language, which embodied its own culture, and the native linguistic upbringing of the writer. The socio-historical environment in which English found itself made it a treasure in Nigeria. Its spread and dominance in the communicative system of Nigeria dating as far back as the nineteenth century created more options in the literary production of writers, whose language of education were different from their mother tongue. As for the Nigerian writer, it was an either/or situation. It was either English or his mother tongue; a foreign culture or his indigenous culture; the tradition of the west or his ancestral tradition. So the conception of a linguistic form that could combine both traditions, both cultures, both languages inspired a rebirth of a mental attitude to literary writing. It produced a system of linguistic dualism, of the both and not of the one as the touchstone of linguistic mindset. This new voice arose justifiably from the complex experiences and consciousness of these writers. It became an emblem of nationalism, a weapon to correct the historical and intellectual denigration of Africa by Europe and the rest of the world at that time.

From a unified mindset proceeded the sameness in style. There is no doubt that this consciousness resulted in the new discovery of self, in the awareness of the cultural and linguistic complexities of Nigeria. Handling these complexities led to the emergence of a new style of writing and expression in the literary creative scene. Nigerian writers during colonial rule were able to engage the coloniser’s language in ways that captured the complexities of a co-cultural and artistic influence in the creative culture of Nigeria. “That is why,” Dan Izevbaye opines that “the writers perceive their art as one of linking literary English with the literary and cultural forms of their Nigerian past” (323).  The world, through these writers, witnessed the emergence of a new out of an old expressive system. In the words of Gerard S. Albert, “Tutuola’s writing will no doubt continue to interest readers for some time to come because they are a fascinating amalgam of old and new, indigenous and foreign, oral and written” (Gerard, S. Albert, et al. 1985:649). Comments like this have also been made in various forms and in more sophisticated turns of phrases about Chinua Achebe, Elechi Amadi, Buchi Emecheta, etc.

But whether the works truly instructed Europe and the rest of the world as to make them change their minds about Africans for the better or worse we may never prove. One thing, however, is certain that these works were capable of upsetting them. Europe was forced to turn sharply to their direction. She was evidently startled by these rookies from Africa not only because of the stories they told, but also because of the way by which these writers wrote. They were also fascinated by the sheer courage and grit in which they told their stories. In short, Europe was alarmed by their language. It was new, yet familiar. It was theirs, yet not entirely theirs. It was amusing, yet full of purpose and courage. It was simply different.

Also, Achebe in the defense of the many arrowheads that were shot at him from every corner clearly defined the mindset upon which Nigerian writers, and perhaps, African writers should attend creative productions in English. He wrote:

What I was concerned with was to pinpoint the historical reasons

for the ascendency of English today and to suggest ways in which our imaginative writers who choose to write in it might enrich their idiom and imagery by drawing from their own traditional sources. (Achebe 1975:87)

 

To attempt a poor rehash of Achebe’s suggestion is to say that those who must use the English language must bend it. They should bend it in the direction of their culture. This is a simple instruction to which any writer could nod and not shake their heads about. However, the utilitarian vision of the language becomes more expansive and forceful this way.

The generation of the Achebes, the Soyinkas, and the Amadis has given way to a newer generation. From their shoulders have sprouted young writers such as Sefi Atta (1964), Helon Habila (1967), Jude Dibia (1975), Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani (1976), and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (1977). The words shoulder and sprout do not necessarily give us the impressionistic disposition of a mother and children relationship. No. Rather these words conjure a symbiotic relationship where one grows off the other. Of course, it is simple to analyse this analogy in relation to who feeds and grows off whom. For instance, there has been much ado about the reincarnation of Adichie from Achebe. Towering volumes of critique have been published since the last decade about how Adichie much resembles Achebe in vision and in naming (Chinua vs. Chimamanda, Achebe vs Adichie, etc.). The so much bandied story of how Adichie spent her early life in the same quarters as Achebe in the University of Nsukka, Enugu State, is supposedly a necessary ingredient for the reincarnation motif. Therefore, this research is also dedicated to a comparative analysis of their major works in order to satisfy an intellectual necessity for curiosity.

The new generation represents a new phenomenon in the use of English in the Nigerian novel. Factors such as independence, time, technology, immigration are beginning to damp the spirit of nationalism. The era of nationalistic novel is giving way for a national novel. Present day novelists who originate from Nigeria are beginning to direct their mind and style to the complexities of a global existence that their works now represent a part of the global literature. This will be the focus of this research.

1.2 RESEARCH PROBLEM

It has been over a hundred years since the English language began its official life in the Nigerian soil. One no longer wonders whether a hundred-year-old tree should safely be called a mature tree. In clear terms, the ideological polemics that had persisted as to whether the English language should remain a “guest” in the Nigerian home has finally reached a truce. It is, now, safe to say there is a Nigerian English. However, in the midst of this renewed confidence of our inheritance looms the question of measurable competence. The introduction of a system of dualism, of domestication of the English language in writing undermined the notion of competence. It gave rise to experimentation and innovation in the use of English in writing. Present day works of Nigerian novelists reveal a gradual shift from that indigenized language structure to a nationalized then globalized writing system. The 21^st century writers of Nigerian origin now seem to tilt the English language to appease a global audience. Beside the difficulty of thinking in one language and writing in another like Achebe once raised, another of the earliest cases taken against the use of the English language in literary documents is the capacity of the language to erode inherent culture and essence of its users. It has the capacity to introduce a new system of writing in English. There seems to be an emerging language which is different from Achebe’s, one that reveals the linguistic complexities of the twenty-first century. The late Obi Wali, Okon Essien and Ernest Emenyonu are some of the few Nigerian authors who have vehemently stood their grounds against the English language. Achebe’s theory of taming the language may have thwarted the seriousness of this claim; however, not for so long. But if proven right, the new trend in the use of the English language in Nigerian fiction has shown the tendency of an emerging new language form.

1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

1. To examine the interaction between English and Igbo (indigenous languages) in the novels.
2. To probe how language conditionings play out in the choices of linguistic forms.
3. To determine the level of convergence and divergence of language forms in both texts.
4. To find out if there is a pattern that suggests diachronic deviation from the ideals of linguistic domestication.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The critical questions this thesis would like to raise are:

1. What is the quality of interaction between English and Igbo in both texts?
2. Is these interactions based on established notions in the minds of the writers?
3. Are there patterns that suggest a mind-shift of the language usage in Adichie’s work? 
4. From all indications, are there linguistic markers that have established a distinct language of the Nigerian novel?

 

 

 

1.5 SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH

This research will be limited to the linguistic forms of the two texts selected for the analyses. Its focus will be to explore the interaction between structures and socially constructed meaning in these narrative texts. Its focus is to reveal the various troupes that instigate stylistic variations between Things Fall Apart (by Chinua Achebe) and Americanah (by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie).

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Nigeria is linguistically a heterogeneous country. The country records over 500 languages. This accounts for the reason why English is necessary and has become a dominant national language. In spite of our inability to accede to a non-foreign national language, creative works such as the novel have been exalted as beacon for depiction of not only the Nigerian culture, but also its language(s). For instance, the beautiful infusion of non-English materials such as indigenous proverbs, rhetoric, diction, imagery and wisdom in works of Chinua Achebe, Elechi Amadi, and Cyprian Ekwensi during the formative era of the Nigerian novel demonstrated that there could be an English language that would not be foreign to Nigerian readers. This style immediately introduced a literary tradition known as domestication. Writers were said to think in their native language and write in English. The significance of this paper is that it shall attempt to trace elements of linguistic preservation or loss of the Igbo language in the novels selected. Its findings shall help to determine the possibility of a new trend of linguistic consciousness. It will help scholarship by becoming a reference for further inquiry into the interaction between the mind in literary creativity and style of language usage.

 

1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS

 

MIND-SHIFT

The mind is the place of linguistic awareness and manipulation of a writer. Mind-shift therefore will represent the conscious or unconscious movement from one established linguistic ideal to another in a literary work. It could be by same writer or a group of writers. The term mind-shift is a relatively new concept. However, the term may not be strange to various ideological debates in Africa. Mind-shift consists of two common words, mind and shift. It is best, for the sake of easy grasp, to distil its meaning by looking at individual words. The mind, by dictionary definitions, represents the rational and intellectual aspect of man. It is the place of awareness and of consciousness. Ideas and thoughts are built here. Shift, on the other hands, simply means to move, to change. We are aware of style shifting, language shift and linguistic shift, which represents a movement from one style or language to another.

 

Mind-shift therefore will stand for the conscious movement from one established ideal to another in a literary work or works by the same person or group of people, etc. For example, the direction of early poetic writing was hinged on the ideals of negritude/Africa’s freedom from the colonial masters. A mind-shift occurred when African countries began to gain independence, writers, who had sung pleasant songs for freedom, turned to their brothers in power. Another example is the call to codify the various varieties of English after an elongated rift on the status of English languages in Africa among critics. Ayo Bamgbose, et al (1995) in the Introduction of their masterpiece, New Englishes: A West African Perspective write: “The emphasis of researchers’ efforts should now shift from abstract discussions of language choice to a codification of the various Englishes in the different countries with a view to their effective use as a standard”.

 

Ngugi wa Thiong’O, who did not quite favour the diversion of African writers’ choice of the language of creation from their indigenous languages, preferred to call this mind-shift an “abnormality”. Ernest Emenyonu quotes his lamentation thus:

In fact, abnormality has been turned into normality. That which is normal in all other civilizations, in all other societies, in all other phases in history is transformed into abnormality. Once reality is perverted so totally, everyone begins to see things (italics, mine) upside down. This topsy-turvy vision has been spared the necessity of having to learn African languages in order to come to terms with the literature produced and the realities embodied in those languages.

(Ayo Bamgbose, et al (ed.), Ernest Emenyonu1995: 325, Ngugi wa Thiong’O 1984:10)

What stands out for me here is the phrase “see things”. Of course, Ngugi wa Thiong’O did not mean the physical sight. The suggestion here is most likely about the perception of the mind. His lamentation is that this mind-shift is aberrant to a universal reality. He himself once exercised this power for a mind-shift. After publishing his first novel in English language, Ngugi wa Thiong’O was overcome with reasons to write henceforth in his native Gikuyu  language.

 

The focus of the investigation in this research will be to ascertain a mind-shift between the ideals that initiated the literary history of Nigeria novel in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and the literary undertakings of the now in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah. The sole purpose of this inquiry is to account for a likely erosion of the culture and essence of Nigeria in the works of the moment and perhaps to lend more voice to the lament of Ngugi wa Thiong’O for the return to normality.

STYLE

Style is popularly referred to as the “dress” of thought, as a person’s method of expressing his thought, feelings and emotions, as the manner of speech or writing (Samson, 1996). It is based on the assumption that the same content in a given language system can be expressed in more than one linguistic form, that is, we all can say the same thing in different ways. Oscar Wilde is accredited with saying, “One’s style is one’s signature always”.  In this paper, style will be restricted to all levels of language choices of the writers.

STYLISTICS

Stylistics is arbitrarily defined as a sub-discipline of language study devoted to the study of the style in a text(s). According to Joybrato (1996) stylistics is technically concerned with “the description and analysis of the variability of linguistic forms in actual language use”. Stylistics is therefore a system of analysis of the style of language use in both literary and non-literary text.

NIGERIAN NOVEL

This is a novel written by a Nigerian, which details the Nigerian experience in English. 

 

2.0                                         LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1.0. A DIACHRONIC STUDY OF LANGUAGE AND THE ENGLISH LITERATURE

2.1.1. LANGUAGE CHANGE

Discoveries in both philology and linguistics have shown that language is not monolithic. Its capacity to change from form to form, from meaning to meaning, back and forth continues to amaze many linguists. We are very often flabbergasted by this dynamism not because it is usually sudden, like the appearing and disappearing of light, but because it is subtle, like the measured steps of a millipede advancing from the base of a high wall. Every new form of language always seems at first appearance ordinary, harmless and unassuming until it becomes widespread and acceptable, until it climbs to the top of the wall and on the side of prestige. Linguists are thus surprised because of this discovery. However, the world would not have joined in this surprise game had linguists not documented these nuances of language. Here lies the social value and relevance of linguistics. The dawn of the twentieth century gave rise to a restless critical investigation on language. So that almost all the fields of language studies we have today were developed and had definitive structures within this period. Noam Chomsky, who is regarded as the father of modern linguistics, says language should be studied because in it we have the idealization of raw data, which linguists need for analysis. 

 

The branch of language study, which is concerned with a backward tracking of a language system called diachronic linguistics, has been insightful in the explanation of such strange linguistic phenomena as language variations, language shift, language loss, etc.  More importantly, it has been able to leave language on the human level. So, that even the synchronic linguist would not entirely pretend that varieties, for instance, do not exist of the same language. And the notion of formulating grammars for a homogenous English language has long been regarded as a social.

There has also been a change in the perception of language studies based on a diachronic viewpoint. For instance, Saussure-de-Ferdinand, the renowned father of modern semiotics, argues that the social, not the individual should be the focus of linguistics.

In separating language from parole we simultaneously separate what is social from what is individual and two, we separate what is essential from what is accessory and which is more or less accidental. (Ferdinand de Saussure 1916, 1960:7)

However, the concentration of the structuralists on invariant samples of language later interlinked social and individual language forms. In the words of William Labov (1972),

The social aspect of language can be studied through the intuitions of one individual while the individual aspects can be studied by sampling the behaviour of the entire population.

This frequently quoted disavowal of William Labov’s counters the Saussurean paradox by simply acknowledging the interconnectedness of two agents of language development: the individual and the society. It is true that language is studied as a phenomenon originating from the society and used by all. Its nuances and variations stem primarily from an individual effort. Most times the immediate agent of language change of any kind begins from an individual. The society, which plays the role of the John Lockean river and source of language, also gets fed by the outcome of the uses to which individuals make of what language they receive. This analogy might be blurry now, but will be invariably understood when we examine the language of literature. 

Authors and scholars are first and foremost ordinary fetchers from the common pool of the natural language. And using the English language as a case study, we cannot deny the contribution of literary writers to the development of the language. From the golden days of Chaucer, and up until now, writers – if we may dare to admit— have been instrumental to the sustenance and expansion of the English language. For this reason, the study of the language of literature in relation to its style can be better understood if we attempt to gauge its metamorphosis from one period to another.

2.1.2. THE EVOLUTIONARY TREND OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

English is one of the most, if not the most, eclectic language on our present planet. Geoffrey Nunberg in “The Persistence of English” upholds that the reason the language has not, and cannot, face the extinction that had consumed some other eclectic languages like Latin, Serbo-Croatian, etc. could be traced to

the centrifugal and centripetal forces that kept the language always more or less a unity –the continual process of creation of new dialects and varieties, the countervailing rise of new standards and of mechanism aimed at maintaining the linguistic centre of gravity. (Geoffrey Nunberg, 2001:XLIII)

These back and forth forces, which have created a system of continuous shifts, have their backbone from the historical origin of the language. Geoffrey Nunberg recalls that the earliest linguistic development of English commenced with the invasion of the land now called England by the Germanic tribes namely Saxons, Angles and Jutes in the fifth century. Their dominance over the original settlers of the land, the Celts; according to Nunberg, did not have any apparent linguistic influence on the nature of English only that these three tribes with their different dialects made up what is known as the Anglo-Saxon or the Old English. It was from Angles, however, that the word English was formed and many Anglo-Saxon works have been canonized in the English literature. These three tribes with their different dialects invariably laid the grounds for linguistic accommodation in England. Critics believe that the real influence of the emergence of English came as a result of the invasion of the French (or what is called the Norman Conquest of 1066). Other forces like the contact with the Vikings in the eighth century; the unification of England and the literary standard by Alfred, the Great in the ninth century and the impact of the language of Scandinavian settlers in England were not comparable to the influence of France and French to the English language. While the Scandinavian dwellers introduced words (such as dirt, lift, sky, skin, die, birth, weak, seat, and want), the French introduced linguistic prestige/class (there was a French-speaking ruling class). French dominated England for about two hundred years, so that the end of Old English (or the Anglo-Saxon period) and the beginning of what is called Middle English witnessed an influx of French words, convention and system.

 

The effect of this change was the great obscurity of the resultant language. Nunberg writes “Middle English was a varied language as Old English was: Chaucer wrote in Troilus and Criseyde that “there is so great diversity in English” that he was fearful that the text would be misread in other parts of the country”. And Chaucer would be definitely misread as no human born in the present age will collect a million dollars to interpret the lines extracted from the original version of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales describing a certain woman and her flawless body:

Ful seemly hir wimple pinched was,

Hir nose tretis, hiryëngreye as glas,

Hir mouth ful small, and thertosofte and reed,

                        But sikerly she hadde a fair forheed….155

 

Beside seemly, pinched, nose, as, mouth, and, small, but, she, a, fair, that is, about one third of the thirty words that make up these lines, there is nothing of the semblance of English, nothing to shed light on the meaning of these lines, nothing close to what we know as the English language. The sharp difference between this version and its modern equivalent below explain the degree of change and disparity that occurred in English.

Her veil was gathered in a seemly way,

Her nose was elegant, her eyes glass-grey;

Her mouth was very small, but soft and red,

Her forehead, certainly, was fair of spread

                        (Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales. 1975:23)

Between the ninth and the fourteenth century, a space of about four hundred (400) years, the English language had transformed almost unidentifiable especially in the syntactic and lexical levels. But by 1500, it witnessed what is called the Great Vowel Shift. Long vowels began to split forms such that a great new phonetic system emerged. During this period known as the Early Modern period, words like beet became bite, nahm became name . Short vowels and diphthongs were created out of long vowels. The grammar of Middle English also experiences the wind of change that was sweeping across the linguistic lane. The pronoun thee, thou, ye began to give way for their modern forms. The modern form of question structure began to emerge. One could now ask, “Did you sleep well?”instead of “Sleep you well?” Nevertheless, the verbal-eth, a form that would soon disappear, was frequently used. The Elizabethans, like Shakespeare, Thomas Wyatt, etc began to introduce new words through their literary productions so that by 1540 most words from Latin and Greek had heavily found their ways into the English vocabulary. It could be held that some of these words were baptized and popularized through literature. Thus, the English language grew with its literature.

 

By the time the first dictionary was written in 1775 by Samuel Johnson, English had dominated minor languages in England including Celtic and Wales. Through the works of Shakespeare and John Dryden and others, the language had commenced its intercontinental journey. It was used to capture the worldviews of even Rome and Greece. Many works of other languages had been translated into English. The prestige it did not have during the reign of French, it doubled and tripled so much as to earn enough confidence to be exportable to other countries like Africa.

 

Modern English witnessed another kind of change. It began to gain ascendancy over people of other regions. Countries that surround England became not only speakers, but loyal to English. It increased and interfered on the linguistic space and system of other nations. English became not just the language of a single nation, but also that of many. Other factors led to the spread of English, imperialism, education, literature, but spread mainly because it was more receptive to other languages. There is hardly any language that has not loaned the English language a word or two. English language has diffused its structure well enough to take up variants. We now have American English, British English, South African English, etc

One of the major and resourceful chronicles of the English literature can be found in The Norton Anthology of English Literature. In the Preface of its seventh edition of 2001, M. H Abram and Stephen Greenblatt attempted to capture the enlarging boundaries of both the English language and English literature. According to them, both terms continue to change form and meaning as the centuries move on. “English literature”, they write, “has ceased to be principally about the identity of a single nation; it is a global phenomenon”. The global status of the English literature cannot be divorced from the spread of its language. English ranks as the language with the highest number of official users in the world, with about 1.2 billion and 1.5 billion speakers and 340 million native speakers, according to Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 15th ed. (2005) & Wikipedia.org.  We can find speakers of English in Britain, America, Singapore, Australia, South Africa, Nigeria, etc.  However, Geoffrey Nunberg in his work entitled The Persistence of English published in this anthology asks a vital question: “what exactly do we mean when we talk about the “English language” in the first place?”

According to Geoffrey Nunberg, English language continues to expand in form and status as it leaves its native land to various parts of the world. This “enormous range of variations” has attracted considerable arguments especially in the area of upholding all these forms as a single language. For instance, the distinction between American English and British English have so much raised critical debates among scholars as to whether these two forms are of the same language. Oscar Wilde, the renowned humorist and playwright, writes, “The English have really everything in common with the Americans, except, of course, language” (Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost (1887). Linguists now talk about “world Englishes”. Englishes in its plural form acknowledges that these variations have something in common despite their differences. Unlike Serbo-Croatian, Geoffery Nunberg maintains that English has been able to survive disintegration because of the common historical background of the language.

 

2.1.3. LANGUAGE OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

What is the language of English literature? It is easy to retort in a fleet of cerebral rush that is the language of English literature is English. And there would be no denying that this is correct. The English language is the raw material out of which literary works are formed and have their being. Those who speak English, also write in English. The vital question, however, is what nature of English is employed in literature? It is on this note that the first response becomes inadequate –though correct– in answering the question.

According to Raymond Chapman (1982), the language of literature is not merely the language of communication. It is not the version used merely to convey a message that could have been passed with signs. The language of literature is the most advanced form of communication. It may be “seen as a special use of language, and perhaps as the highest use to which language can be put. If a work emerges too plainly, it is probably at the expense of the art” (Chapman 1982:2).A poem or novel speaks to us not in the ordinary words of daily conversation. The writer takes this common language spoken by people and invests it with images and imagery. We could therefore state that the imaginative investment of the writer to a literary work is what makes for the language of literature. And this, of course, would suggest that the language of world literature is one and the same since it is the advanced form, the product of intense imagination and beauty. Given the above description, the designation English in English literature becomes less necessary in defining the language of its literature. This is because we could claim that the language of literary production is universal and takes the world for its constituency. If every literature of the world certainly operates in this language then the world literature is united in one single language.

The inadequacy of this assumption is that the literary language cannot be defined if there is no actual language. Since there is no actual language of the world, there cannot be a general literary language. That being said, the language of English literature can only be the advanced or imaginatively elevated form of the English language. Even this assertion is not entirely wholesome simply because of the historical peculiarity of English. Chapman (1982) advises those who long to understand the language of the English literature thus:

 As soon as we realise that the English language which we have taken for granted, and perhaps thought of as the only ‘right’ (emphasis his) way of describing the world, is complex and liable to be ambiguous or doubtful, we have come a long way towards a better appreciation of English literature (10)

 

The English language as it is today has undergone, and is still undergoing, cumbrous evolutionary processes. Its complexity and diverse nature provides an ambience for instability and “constant shifting” in its literature. 

2.2.0. THE HISTORY OF THE NIGERIAN NOVEL IN ENGLISH

The beginning of the Nigerian novel in English has been discussed on two historical levels: first, the triggering factor or otherwise termed the stimulus of this creative energy; and second, the source of the materials from which Nigerian writers drew their creative strength. The fictional production in English for most West African countries like Nigeria was stimulated by colonial domination by European nations. The strategy to take over the continent of Africa was masterminded at the Berlin Conference of 1884-5. And before the end of the 19^th century most African countries including the territories now known as Nigeria were under the control of the English, French and Portuguese except Ethiopia in East Africa, and Liberia in West Africa, which had gained independence from the United States of America in 1847. At the beginning of the twentieth century these foreign nations established their government and system in their own share of the African booty.

2.2.1. COLONIAL NOVELS

With the explorations of the continent came European literary interpretations of Africa. There was what Jonathan Peters in his essay titled “English-language Fiction from West Africa” called “a flowering of colonial novels in English” (10). Heart of Darkness, 1898 novella by Joseph Conrad was one of the most celebrated of them all. Set in the Congo, Conrad, a Polish-English writer, paints the most horrific picture of Africa and Africans. His narrating how the Belgians were subjected to horrors in Congo was successful in imprinting in the minds of European readers the image that Africa was a “dark continent” (Peter 1993:10).

Other novels published about Africa by the European writers such as Joseph E. Casely-Hayford’s Utopia Unbound: Studies in Race Emancipation, and Sir Henry Rider Haggard’s novels The Wizard (1896), Elissa; the Doom of Zimbabwe (1899), and Black Heart and White Heart; a Zulu Idyll (1900) were all set in Africa carrying different, but almost similar images of Africa—a people of no art, culture and intellect. Joyce Cary’s Mister Johnson (1947) was such a portrayal carried too far. And because it was set in Nigeria, a colony, which was growing an intellectual class as a result of the establishment of the first University College in West Africa in Ibadan, Joyce Cary’s work received, within just a little after a decade of its publication, a resounding reaction from Nigeria’s youngest mind. Chinua Achebe, who was in his sophomore year in the University College Ibadan, published Things Fall Apart in 1958.

 

2.2.2. FIRST WAVE

Critics, like Jonathan Peters, argue that perhaps the rate of development of literary works especially poetry and prose would not have been flagrant and fierce had the “Scramble for Africa” by European nations had not included the literary fleecing, freezing and undermining of the culture and traditions of their colonies. The various levels of exploitations of the African continent were enough to unsettle the minds of the new generation of Africans who were beginning to discover the dark tricks of their foreign lords. But by staging a distant and untenable account on the Africans’ personal heritage and being praised by the success was enough to fuel an avalanche of literary productions from Africa, and then Nigeria. Chinua Achebe’s novel was not the first in Nigeria, but it was the first to reveal the issues on ground to the world. Actually, Joyce Cary’s Mister Johnson and Cyprian Ekwensi’s fiction, When Love Whispers, emerged from the publishers’ place in the same year. When Love Whisper became the earliest of the pamphlet literature that was becoming a tradition of the popular Onitsha Market Literature. Amos Tutuola’s Palmwine Drinkard of 1952 and Ekwensi’s People of the City published in 1954 were the first full-blown novels before Things Fall Apart. However, Things Fall Apart attends to such matters that were new in the literary convention of Nigeria and Africa, namely the “clash of cultures” and the consequences of foreign infiltration of an established system. Its conscious use of language and its exploitation of oral literature and tradition gave birth to the literary system upon which many writers have stood.

Faced with the impact of writings like Conrad and Joyce’s on the image of Africa, it became unfashionable to be Eurocentric. Most European educated Africans engineered a literature of cultural retreat. The oral literature, or what has been termed orature, furnished modern Nigerian writers with creative materials. These writers, who wanted to prove to the world that Africa had established a cultural and literary system before the entrance of foreign civilization, retrieved from their individual heritages such useful literary elements as folklore, chants, dirges, epic traditions, proverbs and worldviews. These rich traditions, which were passed down from one generation to another in their indigenous languages, manifested in fictional creations in English. Isidore Okpewho in his “Oral Literature and Modern African Literature” essay reveals three major forms which African writers “vindicated” the African oral literary tradition. He established that fictions of Nigeria origin did not translate or adapt the oral literature, but exploited it to fulfill their own aims. Okpewho writes:

What appeals to the writer in his or her recourse to the oral

tradition is not so much the physical factors of performance

as the essential concepts and ideas contained in it which are

seen as having an enduring relevance. (2007:88-89)

These writers preferred to use aspects of their oral tradition to project their own ideas and viewpoints in English. Achebe is famous for the exploitation of Igbo proverbs, rhetoric and folklore and Wole Soyinka of Yoruba mythology. Okpewho acknowledges that the key factor in the exploitation of oral literature:

The basis of exploitation of the oral literary tradition by modern

African writers lie in the understanding that times have changed.

 Although they are driven by cultural pride to identify with the

legacies of their people, the painful facts of contemporary life require

that they reorder these cultural legacies in a way that represents

sometimes a slight, sometimes a radical, departure from the tradition,

especially if the tradition itself presents an outlook with which

the writer does not necessarily agree. At any rate at this level

the oral tradition is turned to metaphorical or symbolic use rather

than slavishly mirrored (90).

It is important to state therefore that the Nigerian novel in English was born with the responsibility of re-introducing the culture and tradition of Nigeria cum Africa to the rest of the world in the forms that the writers chose best.

2.2.3. SECOND WAVE

However, after the nation gained independence in 1960, the novel in Nigeria delved into depths that are more critical than colonialism. Jonathan Peter avers three waves in the Nigerian novel in English. The first waves which houses writers such as Amos Tutuola (Palmwine Drinkard of 1952), Cyprian Ekwensi (People of the City of 1954) and Chinua Achebe (Things Fall Apart of 1958), etc belong, of course in formative period of Nigeria literary tradition. The second wave involving Wole Soyinka (The Interpreters of 1965, The man Died of 1972, Season of Anomy of 1973), Flora Nwapa (Efuru of 1966, Idu of 1969) Gabriel Okara (The Voice), Chinua Achebe (A Man of the People), Elechi Amadi (The Concubine of 1966, The Great Ponds of 1969 and The Slave of 1979), Samuel Ifejika (The Edifice of 1971, The Combat of 1972), Chukwuemeka Ike (Sunset in Biafra of 1976), Isidore Okpewho (The Last Duty of 1976) witnessed the teething problems of a young nation as well as literature. The product of the writers of the period was smeared with disillusionment and loss. The failing governments, the coups and the threat of a civil war were among their thematic preoccupations. And owing to the expanding nature of the literary productions Jonathan states that a new trend began to sweep across the writers:                                                        During the first wave…every published work had some significance

on account of the small corpus of literature being produced, In the second wave, the reserve was true. A large number of new writers entered the scene, their audience and their talents were more diversified, and their style reflected that variety. (1997:27)

 

2.2.4. THIRD WAVE

The expansive style and newer brand of colonialism called neo-colonialism, the angst with the political class, the aftermath of the civil war and the sympathy for the underlings of the society seized the third wave of Nigerian writers. The newer and larger audience emerged during this time and spreading from the localities of newly educated students and pupils, whose school curriculum had embraced “Literature in English”to other continents,which had began to learn of African literature especially with the translation of Achebe’s maiden novel to well over fifty languages and Nigeria literature’s rise to world acclaim with Soyinka’s Nobel Laureate prize of 1986, the first African to be so named. The writers of this period include, Buchi Emecheta (with Double Yoke of 1983), Flora Nwapa (One is Enough), Festus Iyayi (Heroes of 1986), Chinua Achebe (Anthills of the Savannah of 1987).

2.2.5. DIASPORA NOVELISTS

In the twenty-first century emerged a new breed of Nigerian novelists, the diaspora novelists. Their peculiarity will warrant an additional wave into the history of Nigerian novels in English. The insincere political system and practices of the military era and the continuous imprisonment of writers all over the nation had made a great number of novelists from Nigeria to flee. The mass relocation of Nigerian writers began with the first wave writers, Chinua Achebe, Soyinka, Flora Nwapa, Chwuemeka Ike, Buchi Emecheta, Isidore Okpewho, etc. Some of these writers reacted and wrote new stories about Nigeria in the foreign lands. The better opportunities and ambience that these countries offered helped flourish greater creation of the novels. Most recent novels by these aforementioned writers were written in diaspora. The preoccupations were not new, but the style was. New genre called the memoir was also introduced to Nigerian fiction writing. There was a great linguistic influence in these works that one could hardly recognize traces of the artistic creativity in their recent works. For instance, There Was A Country, Achebe’s last and most controversial memoir of 2013 became a mockery of his first novel linguistically. There was a proliferation of mediocre novels by young wannabe writers in Nigeria. Thus, the conviction that in the US or UK held the better chances and opportunities overtook the country. Most of the ambitious writers travelled to these countries for educational asylum. Some of their works came back to Nigeria with the imprint of exoticism and outlandishness. The writers of this moment include, Isidore Okpewho (Call Me By My Rightful Name, 2004), Sefi Atta (Everything good will come, 2005), Chris Abani (Song for Night), Helon Habila (Measuring Time), Adaobi Nwaubani (I do not come to you by chance), Jude Dibia (Unbridled), Ogo Akubue Ogbata (Egg-Larva-Pupa-Woman), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Americanah, 2014), etc. There are over 50 Nigerian writers in foreign countries.

 

2.2.6. DIASPORA NOVELS AND THE CRISIS OF IDENTITY

In “Writing the New African: Migration and Modern African Literary Identity'', EyitayoAloh (2005) recounts the February 2004 meeting of Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) company and its immediate and cold effects on Nigeria writers in the diaspora. The outcome of the NLNG meeting, which was held in Lagos, Nigeria, was the introduction of a new literary prize with the highest prize money in Africa (€20,000). However, the clause that the new prize would be restricted to only Nigerian writers residing in Nigeria was not well received. The reaction that ensued around what had been believed to achieve a national prize, escalated to the definition of who a Nigerian writer is. The decision, of course, met that a Nigerian writer who lives in foreign land was not qualified for the awards. This incident became a major revelation to a trend that had quietly wormed its way into the literary tradition of Nigeria. Eyitayo Aloh quotes the reaction of Dike Omeje, a UK based poet.

It is not so much that the competition has been denied a vast array of quality works that could have enriched Nigeria’s literary landscape, we have been denied our citizenship and identity by our contemporaries at home; the same way we are being denied by those abroad. Our materials

are derived from Africa and the stories most writers abroad tell is that of their experience at home.

It became apparent that migrant writers were drifting especially from the linguistic convention of the English in Nigeria. It became apparent that their distance from home did not only affect their loss of touch to the events in Nigeria, but also from the psychological participation of the continuity of Nigeria. It also was evident that these writers were easily affecting the nuances of their host nation. The definition of what should be a Nigerian novel when considered on this realm became quite tenuous at this stage. Though NLNG revoked the clause and allowed all Nigerian works both home and abroad to participate in the literary competition, it had sufficiently raised critical arguments about diaspora writing and identity. One writer in Nigeria once said (quoted by Eyitayo Aloh):

The writers in Diaspora are not telling our stories in their works anymore. They are writing of an Africa that exists only in their imagination and reflects what their hosts want them to hear.

Questions such as who is a Nigerian writer in diaspora; whose story does he tell; are we where we live or where we come from received polemic considerations. While the resolution that a Nigerian writer should be one who is connected to Nigeria by virtue of heritage or birth, and not necessarily one who writes about Nigeria may have qualified Nigerian writers in diaspora to be grouped with the rest of Nigerian writers, the impact of these works in another man’s land is more linguistic than thematic.

 

2.3.0 LANGUAGE OF NIGERIAN NOVEL IN ENGLISH

During the early hours of Nigerian/African literature/novel, critics had raised issues about the trajectory of the literature, meaning, of course, the nature of the language that should direct African literature. Writers such as Obi Wali and later Ngugi wa Thiong’o did not stop at criticizing the use of foreign languages in the literature, but went the whole hog in denouncing its use and relevance in the literature of Africa. ParticularlyNgugiwaThiong’o in Decolonising the Mind(1981) holds that foreign language was the last and deadliest effect of the “cultural bomb” which the European nations had dealt with their African colonies. He believes that “language was the means of the spiritual subjugation” (8). Obi Wali is also credited with the statement from his article “Dead End of African Literature”:

…until these writers and their Western midwives accept the fact that any true African literature must be written in African languages, they would be merely pursuing a dead end, which can only lead to sterility, uncreativity and frustration. (5)

These writers and their sympathizers were clear on the effects of terms such as “subjugation”, “loss”, “uncreativity” and “frustration” on African writers and the indigenous languages. But what they were not clear on, what they could not rap their heads around, was an effective and consensus solution to the challenge. Every solution proffered to tackle the dominance of English, French, Portuguese in the literature of Africa has been a colossal failure. It is only paradoxical that these writers in denigrating English print their denigrations in fine and sometimes creative English in hopes of getting them across to a larger audience.

Achebe recognised the babyhood of African literature during the conference of African writers held at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda in 1952; instead of undertaking a taxonomist method to what was a teething problem, he called for patience. Years after, he would have to explain in a collection of articles on the subject why he had dismissed the conference. “I was saying in effect that African literature will define itself in action; so why not leave it alone?” (Achebe 1975:49) Time obviously was instrumental in the linguistic determinism of Nigerian novels.

Because now, Nigerian novels are mainly written in English. Though there are a number of novels in indigenous languages, we have come to associate or even classify the novel written in the English language by Nigerians about Nigeria as the largest reservoir of the Nigerian story. This may be due to the obvious factor of colonialism and perhaps because of Nigeria’s inability to own a non-foreign national language, the linguistic polarity of Nigeria being a stumbling block. In spite of these incapacities before the achievement of a non-foreign language, English has flourished in the Nigerian soil of well over a hundred (100) years and in her creative writing perhaps for a little less than a century.

It is clear that English is no longer foreign to Nigeria and the Nigerian novel.  Knowing this, however, suggests a deeper interpretation of the heading of this section. What kind of English is domiciled in the Nigerian novel? This question then becomes tricky, particularly because Nigerian novels, just like its literature, have passed through a number of processes including linguistics from Equiano to Ekwensi and from Achebe to Adichie. And from every stop, in every junction of change there are pivotal factors responsible for each shift.

Nevertheless, the clearest and most welcome force that had driven the language of Nigerian novel has been that of linguistic harmony, what Achebe, who is the front-runner of this style of language use, calls “English in character” (Achebe 1975:62).According to Achebe, it is the power to make the English language fall in sync with the culture and experience of the writer. It is for the want of better term, the domestication of English. Achebe in response to Obi Wali suggests that instead of abandoning foreign language, the African writer can put it to a more powerful use. Achebe also says in the flu of trying to become like the original owners of the language, we could invest in the language with our own indigenous language, we could create a new language out of the union of the two.

I do not see any signs of sterility anywhere here. What I do see is a new voice coming out of Africa, speaking of African experience in a world-wide language. So my answer to the question: Can an African ever learn English well enough to be able to use it effectively in creative writing is certainly yes. If on the other hand you ask: Can she ever learn to use it like a native speaker? I should say, I hope not. It is neither necessary nor desirable for him to do so. The price a world language must be prepared to pay is submission to many different kinds of use. The African writer should aim to use English in a way that brings out His message best without altering the language to the extent that its value as a medium of international exchange will be lost. He should aim at fashioning out an English which is at once universal and able carry his peculiar experience (Achebe 1975:61)

This style of using English in literary work was first visible in his novels and has become a system of writing for many Nigerian writers.

 

3.0                   CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY

 

3.1. STYLISTIC ANALYSIS

There have been several attempts to describe what specialists in the field of stylistics do, how and where they source their data and just exactly what makes this branch of study different from literary criticism or discourse analysis. Unfortunately, several attempts to define stylistics have met with little success. Mukherjee (2001) has defined it as “the description and analysis of the variability of linguistic forms in actual language use”. Richard Nordquist (2010) also defines stylistics as “a branch of applied linguistics concerned with the study of style in texts, especially (but not exclusively) in literary works”.

Central to these definitions and to others like them is the word variability or, more succinctly, style. Irvine (2011) defines style as a marker of distinction. “Whatever styles are in language or elsewhere,” she writes, “they are part of a system of distinction, in which a style contrasts with other possible styles” (22). The basic conception of style and stylistic variability in linguistics hangs on the notion that “within the language system, the same content can be encoded in more than one linguistic form” (Mukherjee 2001:1). In other words, we use even the same language differently. The aim of stylistic analysis is therefore to seek out, account for and interpret these differences in the use of language in texts or across texts, using a set of stylistic methods and instruments and operating on all linguistic levels (including lexicology, syntax, semantics, etc.).

 

Actually, language is central to stylistic analysis. It is, in fact, its mainstay. By stressing the implication(s) of language organization in texts as well as using tools derived from the field of linguistics, stylisticians already declare that their domain is clearly in linguistics. Putting the matter exactly in this manner makes the activity of stylistics, outside of the field of linguistics, an encroachment. Literary critics, for instance, have had to question the right and the validity of stylistic interpretations of literary text. The arguments leveled against stylisticians by literary critics have been essentially on the methodology of stylistic analysis. Since this research is supposedly one of such “encroachments” of stylistics’, the researcher will dwell for a moment on the merits of these arguments.

 

Many a literary specialists has argued that stylistics is “mechanistic” and “reductive”, too objective to draw from the non-linguistic resources,which shape literary production such as history and making conclusions exclusively on the data from texts (Ronald Carter 2010).Linguists on the other hand have accused critics of emotionalism and subjectivity.But since literature is conveyed by and is inseparable from language, linguistic thus has a major role to play in literary criticism. According to Young (1969), linguistics cannot replace literary criticism.

Indeed, the very notion that it should do so is abhorrent to the linguist who looks at literature in the light of his linguistic knowledge. There is no reason to suggest that because some of his critical tools are different the linguistically informed critic’s intentions are sinister or that he is a new beast incapable of sensitive thinking in literary matters (7).

In the review of Essays in Criticism, Ball as quoted by Peter Young (1969) made the following observation:

Linguists will not make literary criticism redundant. The place of linguistics in the study of literature is alongside such other disciplines as psychology and social history. It is one of the several tools, which ideally should be in the hands of the literary critic,…To paraphrase B. L. Whorf, whenever a literary effect is obtained this effect is achieved by linguistic processes, or else it is not achieved; an understanding of the nature of language in general and the structure of the particular language in question would seem to be a prerequisite to the study of literature (7).

 

In spite of Ball’s modest rendering of the purpose of linguistic stylistics, he was accused of making linguistics “a prerequisite to the study of literature”. As Young pointed out, the literary critic does not need to be a linguist to execute his task of investigating literature, but a linguist must have a level of interest in literature and should be schooled if needs be on the merit of literary criticism to be able to undertake the responsibility of interpreting its language. Ball’s assertiveness succeeds only in removing attention from the perceived crooked method of linguistic stylistics by switching the argument effectively, albeit on the wrong premise of requirements.

 

The job of the stylistician is not only to gather and describe data as Mukherjee asserts, but also to use them to reach “critical conclusions”. This is the conclusion Freeman as quoted by Young reached in his review of Fowler’s collection of essays in linguistic stylistics:

The crucial question in linguistic stylistics is not facts, but what is to be done with these facts: to borrow a metaphor from Noam Chomsky, meter-reading is not physics. The practitioner of linguistic stylistics must have enough sympathy with literature to know what meters to read. When the linguist has elicited a set of meaningful evidence about a piece of literature, the literary critic may then use this linguistic evidence along with other kinds of evidence –biography, the history of ideas, theory of form, etc. –to solve a full critical reading of the work. This, in brief outline, is linguistic stylistics: an activity prior to and distinct from, but not irrelevant to, the act of criticism itself. (Young 1969:9)

 

It is therefore on this note that stylistics is regarded as the necessary bridge between literature and linguistics. Stylistic analysis is also distinct from Discourse Analysis, which is concerned, according to Ronald Carter (2010), with the connection a text has with the wider society, because stylistics “acknowledges the skills of the writer by assuming that every decision made in the production of a text is deliberate, despite whether these decisions were made consciously and unconsciously” (McIntyre, 2010).

In looking at the peculiarity of the language of the Nigerian novel, and perhaps, any novel, this research projects the assumption of a linguistic transition based partly on a factor of time and chiefly on the ideological advancement of the English language on the writers’ mind. It proposes Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is the point A, developing the linguistic ideology of the Nigerian writers in English, while Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah is the point B, reflecting a place of departure from this linguistic norm. To account for this shift in the mind of the Nigerian contemporary writers about the use of English, the research adopts the systemic functional linguistic approach to stylistics.

 

 

3.1.1. SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL APPROACH

The systemic functional approach to stylistic analysis is influenced by the work of M. A. K. Halliday, operating on the basis that language organization is a piece of art that is intrinsically connected to social function and context and that language is organized the way it is within a culture because it plays certain roles. The word “function” relates to the role that language plays within a particular context and “systemic” refers to the “system of choices” from which language users draw in the “realisation of meaning”. Systemic Functional Linguistics is derived from Halliday’s Language as Social Semiotic. According to Halliday, language is a “form of socialization”, the use of which influences how an individual becomes socialized and active. Terms such as “the network of meaning”, “social semiotics”, “the realisation of meaning” are very integral to Systemic Functional Linguistics as they generally explain how cultural contexts and an individual’s use of language connect in the “realisation” of meaning (103).

Halliday discusses the role of “contexts of situation” as a set of recurring “situation types”, a “typified semiotic and semantic relations from “a scenario…of persons and actions and events out of which the things which are said derive their meaning” (28-30). He gives instances where situational types are derived: “a player instructing a novice in a game”, “mother reading bedtime story to a child”, “customers ordering goods over the phone”, “a guest speaker addressing an audience”, etc. (29). Halliday explains that because these contexts of situation repeat themselves, participants in these situations are likely to develop a linguistic system of interaction within them. Like the way a phone call is expected to be picked with the word, “Hello!” As these situation types become systematized, specific “semantic configurations” are fashioned by the speakers (110). These semantic configurations, Halliday refers to as register (68) and the context of the situation, he calls the field, how the participants relate to one another, the tenor and the role language plays in this system, calls the mode. This is why when a linguist discovers a “scientific register” for instance, he is able to describe a style of language and the pattern of interaction associated with science.

 

Halliday maintains that field, tenor and mode as they are abstracted from situational types also occur on linguistic levels. He identifies three language “metafunctions” namely ideational, interpersonal and textual. Ideational refers to the linguistic representation of actions and answers the questions of who is doing what, to whom, when, and where. Ideational metafunction equals field. Interpersonal refers to interactions between actors or participants, corresponding to tenor. Textual refers to the flow of information within and between texts, including the organization of text(s), what is made explicit (foregrounded) and what is assumed as background knowledge (automatized), how the known and the new are related, and how coherence and cohesion are achieved. Textual relates to the mode. Halliday’s work of combining situation types and semantic/lexico-grammatical patterns has helped in the study of the linguistic choices of texts and their relationship within a culture. It has also helped learners of a language know how to make linguistic choices in sync with the context of culture (Christie, Genre as Choice, 24).

The focus of this research focuses on the ideational metafunctions of the texts selected for this work. The aim is to investigate the narrator’s voice and the linguistic materials he adopts in the narration. Having identified the narrators as the speakers (who), this research is concerned with what he is doing with language, who/what he/she is describing, when and where his/her descriptions are situated.  The facts derived from this data will help establish the linguistic ideology of narration in the Nigerian novel. It will also enable a critical conclusion as to the loss or sustenance of bilingual elements such as code-switching, code-mixing, diction, linguistic adaptation and generally the stance of Nigerian English presence in the Nigerian novel.

3.1.1.1. THEORY OF TRANSITIVITY

Closely associated with the ideational metafunction is the theory of transitivity.Halliday’s transitivity theory is maintained under the ideational function of the clause, which is concerned with the “transmission of ideas''. According to Iwamoto (2007), the role of transitivity theory within the realm of ideational function of a clause is “representing ‘processes’ or ‘experiences’: actions, events, processes of consciousness and relations” (Halliday 1985:53, Iwamoto 2010:66). The term “processes'', according to the tenet of the transitivity theory, is used “to cover all phenomena…and anything that can be expressed by a verb: event, whether physical or not, state, or relation” (Halliday 1975:159, Iwamoto 2010:66). It is used to depict the conception of the world or view point through language.

The process of shaping and ordering a worldview and other semantic process is carried out in the clause by the verb phrase in a clause, by the participants in the clause which refers to the roles of noun entities around the verbs and the circumstances associated with the processes, borne by adverbial and prepositional phrases (Halliday 1985:101-102). According to Fowler (1986) transitivity patterns are important semantic concepts for the analysis of representation of reality. Its patterns are used to indicate the mindset or worldview “framed by the authorial ideology” in the literary text(s) (Fowler 138).

3.1.1.1. TRANSITIVITY MODELS

Using the Iwamoto’s sub-classification of transitivity models, I shall identify relevant process types and participant roles involved in the process which will be necessary for this analysis.

3.1.1.1.1 TYPES OF PROCESSES

Iwamoto, following Halliday’s model, classified transitivity process into material (representing the process of doing), relational (representing the process of being), mental (representing the process of sensing), verbal (representing the process of saying), behavioral (of behaving) and existential (of existing) processes. I quickly summarise these processes and their role of their participants.

3.1.1.1.1.1. MATERIAL PROCESSES

When the clause is engaged in the process of doing something in the physical world it performs a material process. The participants here are the actors, an obligatory element, representing the doer, and the goal, an optional element, expressing the entity (animate or inanimate) affected by the process and   sometimes there might an extra element, the circumstance, providing information on when, where, how and why of the process. It is realized in the adverbial or prepositional phrases. Below are some examples of material process:

1. Olumide flogged the student.

Analysis: Olumide: Actor; flogged:  process: material; the student: goal

2. Olumide flogged the student very hard.

Analysis: Olumide: Actor; flogged: process: material; the student: goal; very hard: circumstance.

Material processes could be performed intentionally or spontaneously.

3.1.1.1.1.2. RELATIONAL PROCESSES

When the clause is involved in the process of being in the world of abstract relations it reveals a relational process. This relationship that exists in the abstract does not affect the participants physically. For example: Showunmi is beautiful. The devil is a liar. According to Iwamoto and Eggins, this process is not clear cut since it may evinces different levels of modes from attributive to identify mode of intensive processes, while intensive mode is one out of three relational types of intensive, circumstantial and possessive (Eggins 1994:255, Iwamoto 2010:75).

They prefer to represent an intensive relational process as “x is y” relationship, circumstantial and possessive as “x is at y” relationship and “x has y” relationship respectively. Iwamoto present the modes as follows:

Attributive: “x is an attribute of y”

Identifying: “x is the identity of y”

Where the quality is borne by an adjective (Attribute) of the participant (Carrier), a noun or nominal phrase connected by a be verb for the intensive attributive processes. For example:

3. Ade is lovely.

Analysis: Ade (carrier); is (process: attributive); lovely (attribute)

 The intensive identifying process on the other hand is a defining process. It is both semantically and grammatically different from intensive attributive processes. Eggins and Iwamoto again characterize this process as “x serves to define the identity of y” as in “Jonathan is a lucky man”. The intensive identifying processes, unlike intensive attributive processes, involve two independent participants: “a Token, the holder, form or occupant that stands to be defined, and a Value, that defines the Token by giving the Token ‘meaning, referent, function, status or role” (Iwamoto 2010:77, Halliday 1985:115). Usually, the Token and the Value belong to the nominal group and can also switch position in the defining process. For instance: The good man is Jonathan.

3.1.1.1.1.1.3.   MENTAL PROCESSES

Mental process is concerned with the meanings of feeling or thinking. Unlike material processes which express concrete processes of doing, mental processes are abstract and internalized. All mental processes involve two participants: the Senser, the conscious being who is involved in a mental process by feeling, thinking or perceiving, and the phenomenon, what is felt, thought or perceived by the conscious Senser (Eggins 1994:242-3; Halliday 1994: 117; Iwamoto 2010:79). The verbs that bear mental processes are classified into three types: Cognitive (verbs of thinking, knowing, understanding), Affection (verbs of liking, loving, fearing, hating) and Perception (verbs of seeing, hearing, touching) (Halliday 1994:118; Iwamoto 2010:79). Here are some examples of these three types:

Cognitive: 4. Ulunma         knows             everything.

                        Senser    Process: mental   Phenomenon

Affection: 5.  She        loves                   me

            Senser   Process: mental   Phenomenon

Perception: 6. Aminu  feels                             sick.

                        Senser           Process: mental        Phenomenon

 

 

3.1.1.1.1.1.4               VERBAL PROCESSES

Standing between mental and relational processes, verbal process involves the process of saying. Halliday (1994) as quoted by Iwamoto (2007) explains that“verbal process expresses the relationship between ideas constructed in human consciousness and the ideas enacted in the form of language” (107, 80). For example: She told me to clean up. Udechi said she should come back. Here, the speaker is not conscious of the “telling”. There is, however, an implied exchange of meaning in the telling or saying. The participant who is speaking is known as the Sayer; the addressee to whom the process is directed is Target and what is said is Verbiage.

3.1.1.1.1.1.5. BEHAVIORAL PROCESSES

This involves a process of physiological and psychological behaviour. Iwamoto writes, “Behavioral process represents outer manifestations of inner workings, the acting out of processes of consciousness and physiological states' ' (Halliday 1994:107, Iwamoto 2010:81). Here the Behaver is the participant, who is behaving. There is a thin line between behavioral and material processes. There is a level of consciousness and the action is progressive. For example:

7. Chika is laughing

Behaver, Process: behavioral

 

3.1.1.1.1.1.6.              EXISTENTIAL PROCESSES

This is the process of existing and happening. For instance, “There is an available lodging”. “There is no food left”. Sentences that portray existential processes usually include the be and the word there as necessary subjects. The object, thing, person that is said to exist is known as Existent

Example:

8. There was                    a country.

    Process: Existential     Existent

We have come to the sixth and the last ideational pattern for realizing semantico-grammatical structure of a sentence or clause. These patterns will be useful in our analysis of the sentence structure of the text selected for this research.

Essentially, analysis in this research will be directed at finding out:

1. Number of Proverbs
2. Number of Indigenous (Igbo) word entries
3. Number of Transitive/Intransitive Verbs
4. Number of Adapted Indigenous words
5. Number of Code-switching/mixing
6. Number of Long Sentence

3.2.0. DATA COLLECTION

The method of analysis that will be used by the researcher in the stylistic analysis of the two novels Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is qualitative analysis. This entails identifying, assigning, classifying and analyzing specific pages of selected chapters using Transitivity models and tabular representations in order to find ideological patterns in the texts. A total of ten chapters from the two texts have been chosen for analysis based on the theories and models aforementioned.

3.3.0    SAMPLING PROCEDURE

The random sampling procedure was adopted for choosing the texts to be analysed. Achebe’s Things Fall Apart has 25 chapters and Adichie’s Americanahhas 55 chapters. The first thing done was to pick out the first 25 chapters of Americanah for analysis. Then five chapters were chosen in the arithmetic progression of 5, so that the researcher mapped out chapters 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 from each book for analysis.

 

4.0                                           DATA PRESENTATION

The reading of Chinua Achebe’s first novel Thing Fall Apart and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah will be undertaken based on the presentation of the data from the texts and stylistic analysis of the data. Tables will be used to record the level the frequency of occurrence of the following style markers: number of proverbs, number of neologism/English adapted word entries, number of Indigenous (Igbo) word entries, number of transitive verbs, number of intransitive verbs, number of code-switching/mixing expressions. A total of ten (10) chapters (five (5) from Things Fall Apart and ten (5) from Americanah ) were used and analysed for the frequency of occurrence of the selected stylistic devices.

4.1.0.   DATA PRESENTATION FOR THINGS FALL APART BY CHINUA ACHEBE

Table 1: Showing Frequency of occurrence of selected devices in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Chapters	Proverbs	Indigenous (Igbo) words entries	English Adapted words/neologism	Transitive verbs/Intransitive Verbs	Code switching/mixing	Long sentences
5	2	16	14	245/147	6	3
10	4	20	12	251/200	8	8
15	3	9	4	267/222	4	5
20	2	14	2	187/37	7	10
25	0	1	0	150/23	1	9
Total	11	70	32	1100/637	26	35

 

4.1.1. DESCRIPTION AND EXAMPLES OF THE SELECTED STYLISTIC FEATURES OF NIGERIAN ENGLISH IN THE TEXT:

4.1.1.1. Proverbs

Chinua Achebe best captures the meaning and essence of proverbs in Things Falls Apart in the proverbial expression: “Proverbs are the palm-oil with which words were eaten”. Example:

1. I have learnt that a man who makes trouble for others is also making it for himself

4.1.1.2. Indigenous (Igbo) word entries

These include proper nouns and terms of Igbo origin. Some of these words do not have English equivalent, while others are deliberately included for effect that will be analysed in the next section.

 Examples:

2. Ani               4. Obi                         6. Umunachi
3. Ilo                 5. egwugwu               7. Ogbu-agali-odu

4.1.1.3. English Adapted terms/expressions

Examples

Words

8. New yam    9. Out-house   10. palm-wine    11. Foo foo 

Neologism

12. Matchet (machete)     13. Harmattan (dry season)

Expressions

14. A man whose arm was strong (Igbo expression for hardworking/wealthy man)

15. Gave her a sound beating

4.1.1.4. Transitive and Intransitive verbs

Verbs with objects reveal more active participation than verbs without. Examples

16. They are beating the drum   vs   drums beat/ flutes sang

17. It filled him with fire  vs  the ilo was filled.

4.1.1.5. Code Switching/Mixing

18. It was an occasion for Ani (code-mixing)

19. Aru oyim de de de dei! Flew around the dark….

 

4.2.0. DATA PRESENTATION FOR AMERICANAH BY CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE

Table 2: Showing frequency of occurrences of the stylistic features of Nigerian English in the text.

Chapters	Proverbs	Indigenous (Igbo) word entries	English Adapted Terms/ Expression	Transitive/ Intransitive Verbs	Code Switching/ Mixing	Long sentences
5	0	19	6	342/202	4	20
10	0	4	0	180/234	0	19
15	0	1	0	367/371	1	29
20	0	0	0	257/267	0	20
25	0	12	1	245/157	8	24
Total	0	36	7	1391/1231	13	113

 

4.2.1 DESCRIPTION AND EXAMPLES OF THE SELECTED STYLISTIC MARKERS IN AMERICANAH BY CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE

4.2.1.1 Proverbs

From the data collected above, there is entry for proverbs. Naught is used to represent no entry.

4.2.1.2 Indigenous (Igbo) word entries

Some of the words entered here derived from Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba and the Nigerian English forms. From a total thirty-six  entries here are some examples chelu (Igbo), Ahmed (Islamic name), chai (pidgin, Nigerian English), sha (Yoruba, Pidgin, Nigerian English), abi (Yoruba, Pidgin, Nigerian English), oga (Yoruba, Pidgin, Nigerian English).

4.2.1.3. Transitive/Intransitive Verbs

The verb structure plays a vital role in telling the level of participation and mode. Following the transitivity framework, the more transitive a verb is the more participations and vice-versa. Nigerian writers use verbs differently as we shall soon find out. However, the nature of the verbs in relation to their transitivity is higher in Nigerian setting than in non-Nigerian setting. Chapter 5 and 25 are set in Nigeria, while 10 in America and 15 in England.

4.2.1.4. Code-switching/Mixing

Examples

 Code-switching

20. Thirty-five is too much, o rika, biko.

 Code mixing

21. Her purplish eyes full of the expression Obinze often used to describe the people he liked: obi ocha, A clean heart.

  

5.0.         A STYLISTIC READING OF THINGS FALL APART BY CHINUA ACHEBE           AND AMERICANAH BY CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE

To a tribe, which uses the masculine and feminine genders to describe inanimate objects, everything is invested with life—life denotes action. Action is the keynote of drama –Gladys Casely-Hayford

 

5.1. SYNOPSIS

 

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie are products of two worlds. What is, however, interesting is the system of linguistic and non-linguistic forces that seem to have structured their differences to make them appear on closer scrutiny a set of identical male and female twins.  Achebe and Adichie have been linked by many factors. It has  been said that they once shared the same roof at the University of Nigeria, staff quarters in Nsukka. They also seem to share the exotic hobby of holding talks and lectures on critical matters. The authorial vision of Achebe, who died in 2013, a few months after the publication of his first and controversial memoir, There Was A Country: A Personal History of Biafra, appears to be fostered by Adichie. In fact, one is tempted to think that Achebe began with Things Fall Apart and ended with Americanah. He could have written it, having lived the later part of his life in America. He could have documented the tales and ordeals of Nigerians, who believe that greener pasture could only be sought outside Nigeria. He could have used the language just the exact same way. He could have. But he wouldn’t have. Achebe wouldn’t have called his book Americanah. No, that would have been too pacifying and patronizing of the West. Achebe, whose aim, speaking through the narrator and in the contemplation of the District Commissioner, in the last words of Things Fall Apart, was to engage his creativity to the “Pacification of the primitive tribes of the Lower Niger” would have chosen a more formidable enemy. Like he did in There Was A Country.  

Nevertheless, there is a sense in which it is possible to state that Nigerian novels will someday be studied from Achebe to Adichie. It would not only be based on their literary merits and thematic concerns, but also on the linguistic milestones of their world. Published 66years after Things Fall Apart, Americanah basically tells the story of a young woman, Ifemelu, who lives in Nigeria for America and back. The connection with England, which is achieved through Obinze, Ifemelu’s secondary school heartthrob, fully introduces the mindset of the era: the need for a better life, the dissatisfaction with the state of things, causing the young and the influential to flee or want to flee their fatherland.

This is slightly similar to the system that operates in Things Fall Apart, where the main character, Okonkwo, is dissatisfied with the state of things, and takes decisive step to flee from it (by committing suicide). However, the journey and return of Okonkwo and Ifemelu are taken on different levels of aspirations, and so is their dissatisfaction. While Okonkwo thrives in the old system, Ifemelu seeks to leave it. Ifemelu returns to appreciate/ adapt to it. Okonkwo returns to rebel against it. These contrasts in their journeys and returns leave their heads on different profiles. Okonkwo’s is thrown into the forest shamefully, while Ifemelu’s is braided and humbled. It must be noted that Okonkwo and Ifemelu do not have sufficient basis  for a comparison as they operate on two different systems in the same way Achebe and Adichie cannot and do not share the same sphere. While Achebe writes on the frontispiece of Americanah that “Adichie came almost fully made”, he suggests something about the future, something about a better future, for everything Adichie represents.

5.2. STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF DATA    

Interestingly, Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah are two dramatic pieces full of action. The novels are enacted by the linguistic choices that keep every actor and participant, animate and inanimate, in perpetual activity. The reader is also not left to straggle behind. The systems that engage him; that transmute him into an animated state; that maintain a consistent stream with elements of the novels; are nourished by the following stylistic feature:  roles of verbs in the novels, proverbs, indigenous (Igbo) words entries, neologism/English adapted words, code-switching/mixing.

5.2.1. TRANSITIVITY AS A STYLE MARKER IN THINGS FALL APART BY CHINUA ACHEBE AND AMERICANAH BY CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE

 

In Table 1, regarding Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the highest frequency of Transitive verbs (TV) is observed in Chapter 15 where the total number of transitive verbs used is approximately 267 out of an overall sum of 487 verbs employed in the entire chapter. The highest number of Intransitive verbs (IV) used also falls on the same chapter: 222 of 487 verbs.  The highest ratio of occurrence of TV/IV is credited to TV in Chapter 25 where we observed that 150 out of the total 173 verbs are TVs and 23 out of the total 173 are IVs. These low and high points have implications on the texts. In Table 2, referring to Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the highest number of TVs/IVs is also found in the Fifteenth Chapter where TVs are 367 out of the 738 verbs used and the IVs 371 of the 738 verbs used. The highest occurrence of Intransitive Verbs is recorded in this chapter as well –371 out of 738. In general, Things Fall Apart has the highest use of Transitive Verbs with the TV/IV average of 1.73 aprox verbs for every Intransitive verb, while Americanah records TV/IV average of 1.13 aprox verbs. From the above data presentations of Tables 1 & 2, the texts use more of transitive than intransitive verbs, although IV was higher than TV in Chapter 15 of Table 2. How does this help in interpreting the texts?

On a syntactic level, transitivity tells us which verb takes on an object and which doesn’t. And on a semantic level, it shows the relationship between the action of an actor and its effects on the goal. Verbs reveal the processes that go on within a clause or sentence. According to Halliday’s Transitivity Theory, these processes may be material, relational, mental, behaviorial, existential or verbal processes (see Chapter Three). Using Halliday’s transitivity framework, we shall demonstrate what happens when more or less transitive verbs are used in a narration. The excerpts are chosen from the second paragraphs of the opening page of Chapter 15 of each of the novels. Chapter 15 is chosen because it recorded the highest use of intransitive verbs in Americanah and the highest use of transitive verbs in Things Fall Apart. Participant functions and process types will be recorded in square brackets, while other pieces of information that will assist the reader’s understanding will be added in round brackets.

            Excerpt I: Chapter 15: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

“‘Yes’ [Verbiage], replied [process: Verbal] Okonkwo [Sayer]. ‘We [Behaver] are going [Process: behavioral] directly [Circumstance: manner]’. But before they [Behaver] went [Process: behavioral] he (Okonkwo) [Initiator/Actor] whispered [Process: Material] something [Goal] to his first wife [Circumstance: place] . She (Okonkwo’s wife) [Agent] nodded [Process: Material], and soon the children [Actor] were chasing [Process: Material] one of their cocks [Goal].

“Uchendu  [Target] (passivity) had been told [Process: Verbial] by one of his grandchildren [Sayer] that three strangers had come to Okonkwo’s house [Verbiage]. He (Uchendu) [Behaver] was therefore waiting [Process: Behavioral] to receive [Process: Material] them [Goal]. He [Initiator/Actor] held out [Process: Material] his hands [Medium] to them [Goal] when they [Actor] came [Process: Material] into his obi [Circumstance: Place], and after they [Initiator/Actor] had shaken [Process: Material] hands [Instrument] he [Sayer] asked [Process: Verbal] Okonkwo [Target] who they were [Verbiage].” (TFA 2008:109)

 

 The excerpt above tells a story of the visit of Okonkwo’s friends from his hometown, Umuofia. His maternal uncle, Uchendu in hosting the guests, supports Okonkwo, who is adjusting to the new environment of his exile. The omniscient narrator reveals the sequence of actions that transpires between the meeting and reception. The artful deployment of verbs here enables a transitory chain of movement. The incidents run in such a coordinated manner that nouns, which take ominous forms, do not obstruct comprehension. Everyone just “nods” and takes their cue. The transitivity framework analysis done above shows how verbal processes (replied) transits to behavioral processes and then an actor initiates a process (whispered) with the goal (something) with a circumstance. The initiated process is received by an agent (she), who gives a concluding process. Yet another actor (children) processes the initiated process (something), on and on. The reader is, no doubt, enthralled by this rhythmic flow and transition that she becomes a participant in the engagement of transitivity. Transitive verbs enable this sequence. In all, there are five transitive verbs of material processes, for example whispered, chasing, held out, etc; one intransitive verb of material process e.g. nodded; three behavioral processes for example went, going and two verbal processes, e.g. replied, told.

Excerpt II: Chapter 15: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

“I [Senser] assumed [Process: Mental] so from the advertisement [Phenomenon],” [Verbiage] Ifemelu [Sayer] said [Process: Verbal]. Female personal assistant for busy sports coach in Ardmore, communication and interpersonal skills required. She (Ifemelu) [Actor] sat [Process: Material] on the chair [Circumstance: Place], perched [Process: Material] really, suddenly thinking [Process: Mental] (that, from reading [Process: Material] a City Paper ad [Goal], she [Carrier] was [Process: Relational] now alone [Attribute] with a strange man in the basement of a strange house in America [Circumstance: Place]) [Phenomenon]. Hands thrust deep in his jeans pockets [Circumstance], he (the man) [Actor] walked [Process: Material] back and forth with short quick steps, talking [Process: behavioral] about how much in demand he was as a tennis coach  [Circumstance: Manner], and Ifemelu [Senser] thought [Process: Mental] he might trip on the stacks of sports magazines on the floor [Phenomenon]. She [Senser] felt [Process: Mental] dizzy just (watching [Process: Material] him [Goal]) [Phenomenon]. He [Actor] spoke [Process: Material] as quickly as he moved [Circumstance: Manner], his expression [Actor] (empty process) uncannily alert [Circumstance: Manner]; his eyes [Actor] stayed [Process: Material] wide and unblinking for too long [Circumstance: Manner] (Americanah, 2014:143).

Like excerpt I, excerpt II tells a story of a visit to a new place. The protagonist, Ifemelu goes to an office in America for her first job interview. The environment is strange. This is manifest in use of the intransitive verbs, which do not embody smooth transitions. First, there is an obvious disjuncture in the order of events. Processes overlap one other due to the absence of objects or goals. Punctuation marks are deployed to cater to lexical absence every now and then. The excerpt opens with a mental process (assumed), of a verbal one (said). There is no actor, yet. Thus, the flow is halted. The rescuing material process (sat) ends without a goal (object) as the subsequent material process (perched). The mental process (thinking) is resumed. The staleness and disorder in the proceeding is manifested in the circumstance (manner) in which the non-goal directed material processes (walked) of the (actor) he (the man) was done. The rest of the convoluting processes stream from the mental processes. As a matter of fact, the first goal oriented material process (watching) is a partial mental process. The reader is, however, not estranged as one would have expected. He is entangled in the maze of the mental processes and the winding enactments of events. Thus, one could see a new linguistic system emerging from these convoluting processes. First, it is responsible for the padded sentence structures of the novel. The table 3 below shows the occurrences of the role of the transitive and intransitive verbs.  

 

Table 3: Showing the roles of TV and IV in the two excerpts                                                                                                      

	Excerpt I	Excerpt II
Initiator/Actor in Material processes (Goal-directed i.e. TV)	5	1
Actor/Medium in Material processes (non-Goal-directed, i.e. IV)	1	5
Senser in Mental Processes (Phenomenon-directed i.e. TV)		4
Senser in Material Processes (non-phenomenon-directed, i.e. IV)
Behaver in Behavioral Processes	3	1
Carrier/Token in Relational processes		1
Sayer in Verbal processes (Verbiage-oriented, i.e. TV)	2
Sayer in Verbal processes (Non-verbiage-oriented)		1

 

Following the analysis above, transitivity is a significant aspect of narration. We may agree that the frequency of transitive verbs in the text, largely, determines how concise, smooth, dramatic the clauses or sentences. Given the above premise, the language of Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is simpler and more concise than the language of Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.  

 

5.2.2. INDIGENOUS (IGBO) WORDS/ CODE SWITCHING/ CODE MIXING IN THE TEXTS

Another stylistic feature of Nigerian novel is using words, expressions of indigenous Nigerian origin in English sentences. Achebe uses his knowledge of the English language to enrich this native language, and vice versa. When Achebe embarks on a description of a person, culture or ideology in the novel he lays English words carefully carving out a nice spot of prominence for an indigenous word.

 

For instance, in describing the gathering of the Umuofia, Achebe decidedly leaves out “village square” and writes: “Large crowds began to gather on the village ilo as soon as the edge had worn off the sun’s heat and it was no longer painful on the body” (Chapter ten,70). The dramatic position of ilo first charms and then disarms a reader with no clue of what ilo means. Achebe, however, makes the rest of the paragraph to take care of the ignorance of ilo. Another example is his account of Okonkwo’s dread of his father’s weak qualities. “Even as a little boy he had resented his father’s failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was agbala”. (13) Again for the flustered reader, who does not know what agbala means, Achebe continues “a man who had taken no title”. Words such as obi, chi, chukwu, aneke have been  mixed with English this way. Sometimes, Achebe renders a full sentence in Igbo as in 

 “Aru oyim de de dei! Flew around the dark, closed hut like tongues of fire” (71).

 

Semantically, these words would have no reason for being there, if they would have to be explained afterwards. Thus, their use serves more cultural value than linguistics. Achebe intended upon imposing his cultural values on English, which is the reason for this example: outcaste, or osu, agadi-nwanyi or old woman. He immediately follows some indigenous words with their English meanings or equivalents.

These words serve as an identity as well as stylistic markers of the Nigerian novel. Achebe is perhaps most revered for the success of “infiltrating the ranks of the enemy and destroying him from within”. One of his legacies to the development of language of Nigerian/African literature is the nugget that “language is a weapon and we use it, and there’s no point fighting it” (Gallagher, The Christian Century, v114, 260). He has been able to convince the world using Things Fall Apart as early as 1958 that English was bendable. And the use of English in this manner has become characteristic of the Nigerian novel.

This style of writing is also found in Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. All the chapters selected for this analysis recorded entries in the use of indigenous words, code switching/mixing and expressions in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, and Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, except in Chapters 8 and 20.  Adichie uses these words not in the conscious manner of Achebe, but in the novelty that is characteristic of the present day code-switching/code-mixing of bilingual. See examples below:

 

22. Ifem, Kedu?

23. Normal kwa

24. obi-ocha

25. Aunty biko

26. O na eji gi ka akwa

27. Thirty-five is too much, orika biko

28. Dike, I mechago

 

Some other examples included some Nigerianism such as sha, o, oga, abi, etc.

The method of their appearance in the novel is not as strategic as in Things Fall Apart. They appear with the unconscious effort of quotidian conversation.It is through the characters, not the narrator that most of the words are introduced.The best example is the haggle that goes on between two friends in London, Obinze and Iloba. The middle of this conversation, Adichie writes: ‘Iloba spoke up in Igbo. “Thirty-five is too much, orika biko” (250).Another example is how Adichie represents the sharp disapproval of Aunty Uju about her son, Dike’s conduct in school:

“Normal kwa? It’s not normal at all”

“Aunty, we are all curious as children’

“Not at seven years old! Tufiakwa! Where did he learn that from?

Unlike Achebe’s reader, the reader here does not bother about the meaning of the words. It does not obstruct him. He is likely to pass it on since every nugget of meaning is intact. In short, the use of indigenous words is not prominent and effective in Americanah as it is in Things Fall Apart. It nevertheless draws hugely from the peculiar lexicons of Nigerian English such as have been mentioned. Thus, while Achebe calls attention to his indigenous language in Things Fall Apart, Adichie the Nigerian society as a corpus of reference.

 

5.2.3. ADAPTED INDIGENOUS WORDS/NEOLOGISM

Closely related to the use of indigenous words in the texts is adapting locally made words to English. These words do not have English equivalents, but the writer finds ways to represent them. Two main methods of adapting indigenous words are description and transliteration.

1. Description: This entails describing a part, function or process of doing that thing. Examples from Things Fall Apart include, pounded yam (process), tie-tie (for a local made rope used in tying firewoods, etc), egwusi soup (egwusi is a part of the soup), outcast (osu), iron horse (bicycle) etc.
2. Transliteration: This involves exact meaning transfer. Example: in Things Fall Apart we have New yam, the world is large, life to you, Mother is Supreme (nneka),

Neologism: some entirely new words we found in both Things Fall Apart and Americanah

Things Fall Apart

Kotma (from Court Mashal)

Matchet (from Matchete)

Foo foo

Inyanga

Americanah

Chin-chin

Americanah

Nigerian English

  5.2.4 THE USE OF PROVERBS IN THE TEXTS

Nigerian writers interlace narration with a number of native sayings. Some of these sayings or proverbs become the language of esoteric communication and are reserved for the elderly and wise. Nevertheless, as Chinua Achebe writers, “if a child washes his hands he could eat with kings”. Referring to Okonkwo, the proverb draws a lot of parallelism from the protagonist, who had "washed his hands" off the bad reputation of his father's. (Achebe,8)  An example of Achebe's proverbial language is what Nwakibe says when Okonkwo asks him for yam seeds. "The lizard that jumped from the high iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no one else did." ( Achebe,21)  These few words show that the people of Umuofia had a great sense of pride, and if used properly if could result in great accomplishments. It also shows Achebe’s connection to the culture of his people. From the chapters selected for this analysis, Americanah recorded no entry for proverbs. Americanah lacks the esoteric communicative tool and wisdom embodied in proverbs and saying. It is evident that Americanah suffers from the disease of distance, distance from the crust of culture, tradition and language. It is also clear that Americanah is a product of a linguistic system that is not bent, like Achebe suggests, in the direction of an indigenous culture, but one that is being bent by many cultures, cultures that are not only foreign but also national.   

                                                                                                                                 

6.0                               FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION

 

6.1. RESEARCH FINDINGS

 

We kicked off this research based on the recognition that the Nigerian novel in English has an established system; that years of enormous creative productions and critical appraisals in English have earned the language a permanent spot in the linguistic soil of Nigeria to grow. We also stated that this growth, which was fought against critically by many, who believed that the language would invariably foreclose indigenous languages and culture, was earned on the premise of its bendibility. English language was to be bent by creative writers towards the direction of our culture. We, however, averred that the major problem of the position to bend English may seem to be thwarted by time, which could straighten what has been otherwise bent. This research therefore was poised to investigate the quality of presence of the tools and properties with which the language was tamed vis-à-vis an earliest work. We carried out a stylistic examination of two novels from two different times. Achebe’s  Things Fall Apart, which is reputed to have an enormous stylistic pattern of the bended English and Adichie’s Americanah, one of the latest works. We discovered a gradual shift from the established style and mind of the Nigerian novel in English. This shift was precipitated on the decline of the stylistic patterns of the Nigerian novel in English. The novels have sixty-six (66) years in between then. It is therefore possible to forecast that in 30 more years that the stylistic properties of the Nigerian English would be erased from Nigerian novels. For instance, proverbs recorded no entry in the five chapters selected for this analysis and so we have already lost a vital property of the Nigerian novel in English with 66 years and many more would still be lost to time.

 

6.2.    CONTRIBUTION TO SCHOLARSHIP

 

In the Literature Review of this research, we sought to establish the markers of language change. It was argued that the subtle process of language change could only be monitored by linguists, who may act upon an impending endangerment when it is noticed. Therefore, to those linguists, this research is a clarion call. But to some others, it is, nevertheless, possible to aver that the language change we are experiencing in the Nigerian novel in English may not be entirely different from what had happened to the literature in English in some other spheres. For example, in Britain, where the language so greatly changed from that between Chaucer and Shakespeare and Shakespeare to Hardy a lot of differences were noticed from which such terms such as Shakespearean English was derived and made popular. The point here is that it is perhaps time to begin to talk about the possibility of an Acheberian English as an era of the English language in Nigeria or Old Nigerian English and that what we see emerging in the present literature is a form of a Modern Nigerian English. This line of thought is not pursued vehemently, but in consideration that the English language in Nigeria has come of age.

6.3.                    LIMITATION

 

Due largely to time constraints, certain areas of this research were not covered. For instance, five chapters each were selected for this research, whereas a much fruitful work would have been done if every chapter had been analysed using the stylistic markers. However, this milestone is a step to what would be done in this area in the future. Another limitation of this research is the number of texts used. Texts samples of more Nigerian writers would have helped in the validation of the claims this research has made.

6.4.    RECOMMENDATION

 

This research is therefore recommended to scholars and linguists devoted to the monitoring of language change. It is possible that the level of effort shown in this research would motivate more research in Nigerian English especially in finding the criteria for its standard usages. Other areas that this work has merely touched include the systemic functional linguistics and especially the transitivity theory. Strengthening this theory to perform such a grand investigation of the verbal usage of children would be a rewarding feat to linguistics. Finally, everyone is welcome to read this reading.

 

6.5.    CONCLUSION

 

This research examined the stylistic patterns of two novels: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It used certain stylistic markers of the Nigerian novel in English to investigate a possible shift in the mind of Nigerian writers to the use of English. It concluded that time is an important factor to the domestication of the English language in Nigeria, unless linguists wake up to the challenge of the documentation of the Nigerian English.

 

                  

 

                                                REFERENCES

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