CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE’S AMERICANA: A RELEVANCE THEORETICAL INTERPRETATION

IGWEDIBIA, ADAOMA E. and ANIEKE, CHRISTIAN and OKWELU, NNEKA BERNADINE (2019) CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE’S AMERICANA: A RELEVANCE THEORETICAL INTERPRETATION. Godfrey Okoye University, Ugwuomu Nike, Enugu. (Unpublished)

Text new article on relevance on americana for ikenga.docx Download (36kB)

Abstract

This study looks at the role of context in communication and understanding using the novel ‘Americanah’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie as it is integrated in relevance theory. Sperber and Wilson emphasize that understanding an utterance is not simply a linguistic decoding. It involves identifying what the speaker intended to say. In most cases, the writer or speaker is the controller of his words. The way language is used makes the paper meaningful to the listener. However, this work exposes race and identity problem in America using relevance theory as a useful apparatus. The work has a frame work of pragmatics theory. Relevance theory as a string of pragmatics creates awareness of race/identity, economic and cultural problems in America through this novel. Sperber and Wilson’s relevance theory attempts to explain and share Grice’s central claims that utterances create expectations which guide the hearer towards the speaker’s meaning. Its focus is in pragmatic processes which contribute to explicit truth-conditional content and the role of deliberate maxim violation in utterance. More so, interpretation and the treatment of figurative utterances as deviations from a maxim or convention of truthfulness are also accounted for in this pragmatic process. The search for relevance is a basic feature of human cognition which communicators may exploit. This paper through communicative principle exposes intentions, attitude and contexts. In other words, it reveals communication process that not only encodes, transfers and decodes messages, but also involves other elements like inference and context. And the goal of inferential pragmatics is to explain how the hearer introduces the speaker’s meaning on the basis of the evidence provided. Relevance is a function of effort and effect. This paper, therefore, attempts to analyze Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel ‘Americanah’ within the frame work of relevance theory.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PE English P Language and Literature > PR English literature
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts > Faculty of Law > Faculty of Management and Social Sciences
Depositing User:	miss ifeoma agbo
Date Deposited:	02 Apr 2019 11:54
Last Modified:	02 Apr 2019 11:54
URI:	http://eprints.gouni.edu.ng/id/eprint/1065

Actions (login required)

View Item