The semantics of incongruous collocations in Chimamanda Adichie’s <i>Half of a Yellow Sun</i>

Abstract

Commenting on the significance of collocation to the study of the language of literature, Spencer and Gregory (1978) assert that the creative writer often realizes some of his effects through the interplay between congruous and incongruous collocations. This assertion is true of Chimamanda Adichie’s literary crafts which display a great deal of freedom of choice in collocational patterning. This paper examines incongruous collocations in Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun, the purpose being to determine her violation of the normal restrictions in the language code in order to establish her own unique paradigms. The paper is germane to the study of language-literature interface in that it provides an avenue for readers to appreciate linguistic breaches in literary discourse.

Keywords: Chimamanda Adichie, Collocation, Creativity, Incongruity, Prose fiction