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

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

ABSTRACT

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