LEXICAL PRESENTATION OF IDEOLOGYAND RACIAL BIASES IN CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE’S AMERICANAH

Abstract

This paper examines the use of lexical items as ideological links between language, ideology and racial biases in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah. The texts for analysis are purposively selected. A total number of fifty-eight (58) sentences generated from eight (8) excerpts were analysed using both Halliday’s (2003) model of Discourse Analysis.This model claims that both the emergence of grammar and the particular forms that grammars take should be explained “in terms of the functions that language evolved to serve”. While languages vary in how and what they do, and what humans do with them in the contexts of human cultural practice, all languages are considered to be shaped and organised in relation to three functions, or metafunction. This model which Halliday calls, systemic functional linguistics, performs three functions and is categorized as: the ideational, interpersonal, and textual. The analysis of data here reveals that the author uses lexical items in diverse ways to link ideology and the discourse of race. The paper observes that only Ifemelu, the major protagonist used lexical items that depict her love for her African origin. The rest of the characters are portrayed through their choices of lexical items as people who depicted various levels of inferiority complex. They would rather identify with the West through their imitation of accents and behavioural patterns. The paper thus concludes that the study of literature can be made very meaningful and interesting when the use of language of itsnarrative is studied. It thus concludes that critics and scholars should spend more time in the language of literature as an integral part of the discourse of literary appreciation.