A Pragmatic Analysis of Ethno-Linguistic Texts in Adichie's Purple Hibiscus"

This paper examines Adichie's use of ethno- linguistic expressions as constituting writing elements and strategies in her novel, Purple Hibiscus. Ethnolinguistics is a branch of linguistics which studies language as an aspect or part of culture. It is sometimes called cultural linguistic. Cultural linguistics explores the relationship between language and cultural conceptualizations in a society. In Adichie's Purple Hibiscus, there are obvious traces of the adoption of ethnolinguistic and cultural elements as a discourse style as reflected in the relationship existing among textual elements and processes within the novel. The author's use of language and linguistic elements in the novel by way of integrating Igbo cultural elements resonates her identity and distinguishes her style of writing. The paper examines the reason behind the adoption of certain Igbo cultural elements in a novel written in English. The ethnolinguistic elements of Igbo origin as incorporated by the writer in her literary narrative constitute the data for the study. These Igbo cultural elements are drawn from the story through a purposive sampling technique and are subjected to Searles's (1969) speech act analysis to explicate the communicative underpinning of the narrative.