Lexical Borrowing as a Resource for the Construction of Identities in Selected 21 st Century Nigerian Novels

Abstract

Studies within linguistics have proven that language expresses identity. However, the act of lexical borrowing from indigenous languages and non-English expressions by Nigerian novelists as resources for the construction of identity in the 21 st century Nigerian novel is yet to attract scholarly attention, and this tends to undermine the fundamental role of lexis in the construction of identity. The present paper therefore employs Castells’ identity framework to examine the extent to which lexical borrowing is a resource for identity construction in selected 21st century Nigerian novels. Four novels by Nigerian authors representing the four geographical zones of Nigeria were purposefully sampled. The analysis, which is both quantitative and qualitative, reveals that the use of lexical borrowing by Nigerian novelists to encode their Nigerian identity, and as counter-hegemonic devices to English is undermined by the universality of English on the one hand and by the very incoherent concept of identity on the other.