4.3 Intensification and mitigation discourse strategies
5.1.3 Collocation/Colligation
The analysis of the application of language to re-create social realties from the textures of the selected novels - Purple Hibiscus (PH), Half of a Yellow Sun (HOAYS) and AMERiCANAH (AH), reveals how Adichie has graciously used collocation as an intra or inter sentential device which has enhanced lexical ties that strengthen textual cohesion and foreground discursive style that evoke aspects of social solidarity in the novels. The following Extract [30] drawn from PH, demonstrates collocational patterning of lexical items:
Extract [30]: [i] Things started to fall apart at home when my brother, Jaja, did not go to communion and Papa flung his heavy missal across the room and broke the figurines on the étagère. [ii] We had just returned from church.
[iii]Mama placed the fresh palm fronds, which were wet with holy water, on the dining table and then went upstairs to change. [iv] Later, she would knot the palm fronds into sagging cross shapes and hang them on the wall beside our gold-framed family photo. [v]They would stay there until next Ash Wednesday; when we would take the fronds to church, to have them burned for ash. [vi] Papa, wearing a long, gray robe like the rest of the oblate, helped distribute ash every year… (PH: p.11)
In Extract [30], the following words: ‘started to fall apart’ in sentence [i] collocate with one other. For instance, ‘started’ (the main verb) collocates with ‘fall apart’ (the phrasal verb, which is acting as an adverb). Conversely, the lexical items: ‘just’ and ‘returned’
cited in ‘… had just returned…’ found in the sentence [ii] collocate with each other.
There is collocation in the verbal group: ‘had just returned’. The verb ‘had’ collocates with the adverb ‘just’, to modify ‘returned.’ Similarly, the following words ‘fresh palm fronds’ in sentence [iii] also collocate. In this intra-sentential collocative situation, the adjectival group: ‘fresh palm ‘collocate with the noun ‘fronds’ to give it a specific
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denotational meaning. Furthermore, there is intra-sentential collocation between the adjective and noun in the expression: ‘sagging cross [Adj] + shapes [N]’, ‘gold-framed family [ad] + photo [N]’, ‘Ash [ad] + Wednesday [N]’, and ‘long, grey [ad] + robe [N].’
Beside the above intra-sentential collocations, there are lexical situations in which words co-occur outside their immediate environment of occurrence or at the inter-sentential level. Firth refers to this as ‘colligation’; a situation in which the occurrence of some lexical items, though not in a pair, still collocates with each other. For instance, the appearance of ‘figurines’, ‘communion’, and ‘missal’, colligate with ‘church.’ In this sense of relation in meaning therefore ‘sagging cross-shape’ collocates with ‘perfect cross’ just like ‘palm fronds’ and ‘Ash Wednesday’ does. The significance of
‘colligation’ as emphasised by Firth is that though these words occur at different intervals within the text, their occurrence instigates cohesive chains embedded in their relations which enhance lexical patterning.
The following Extract [31] drawn from PH also demonstrates a similar kind of lexical patterning in which the lexical items collocate with each other either at the intra or inter-sentential level:
Extract [31]: [i] Dust-laden winds of harmattan came with December. [ii]They brought the scent of the Sahara and Christmas, and yanked the slender, ovate leaves down from the frangipani and needle–like leaves from the whistling pines, covering everything in a film of brown. [iii]We spent every Christmas in our hometown. [iv] Sister Veronica called it a yearly migration of the Igbo. [v]She did not understand; she said in that Irish accent that rolled her words across her tongue, why many Igbo people built houses in their hometowns, where they spent only a week or two in December, yet were content to live in cramped quarters in the city the rest of the year. (PH: p.61)
In the extract, the occurrence of the following lexical items in an order, for instance, as in: ‘dust laden [an adjective (ad)]’ with ‘winds’ [a Noun (N)] in sentence [i] do not only collocate but has intensified an interrelated chain in the lexical patterning. In this cohesive situation therefore, the placing of the pair: ‘whistling [ad]’ + ‘pines [N]’ in sentence [ii] forms a sequential relation that enhances collocative chain leading to ties of lexical items resulting to textual cohesion. The co-occurring pairs: ‘yearly [ad] + migration [N]’, in sentence [iii] and ‘Irish [ad] + accent [N]’ and ‘cramped [ad] + quarters [N]’ in sentence [v] cohere with each other forming a network of sequential relation culminating to lexical cohesion in the text.
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Furthermore, just like in Extract [30] which demonstrates the fact that co-occurring pairs are not necessarily involved in strictly fixed intra-sentential sequences, the co-occurring pairs in sentence [31] demonstrates the Firthian concept of ‘colligative relations’ of lexical items. Consequently, the lexical items: ‘Dust-laden winds’ in sentence[i] collocates with ‘the scent of Sahara’ found in the first clause of sentence [ii]
therein enhancing lexical cohesion. And the pairs ‘slender, ovate leaves’ in the second clause of sentence [ii], though in antonymous relation, coheres with ‘needle-like leaves’
cited in the third clause of the same sentence [ii]. A similar antonymous relation is exhibited in the ‘colligative’ chains as demonstrated in the following pairs found in the adjacent clauses in sentence [v]. These lexical items include: ‘huge houses’ in the third clause of sentence [v] which ties with ‘cramped quarters’ situated in the fifth clause of the same sentence. Furthermore, a similar lexical tie is established in the colligative relationship existing between: ‘Dust-laden winds’ found in the first sentence [i] and
‘scent of Sahara’ which is situated in the first clause of sentence [ii] and ‘film of brown’
in the fifth clause of the same sentence [ii]. On the other hand: ‘hometowns’ in the fifth clause of sentence [iii] forms a colligative relation with ‘city’ in the sixth clause of the same sentence [iii]. In a similar colligative relationship: ‘December’ found in the fourth clause of sentence [v] is in a colligative antonymic relation with ‘rest of the year’, used in the fifth clause of the same sentence. As demonstrated in the above samples, these words or phrases depend, to a large extent, on the presence of each other for meaningful deductions; a relation that enhances textual cohesion and varied meanings of the text.
In a similar situation, the various lexical patterning in HOAYS, once again, demonstrate Adichie’s use of collocation to achieve textual cohesion of the various strands of information in her recreation of social realities. The various syntactic relations shown in Extracts [32, 33 and 34] below, which are drawn from HOAYS, demonstrate how these relations set up the linguistic atmosphere suitable for lexical cohesion in the novel.
Extract [32]: [i] Ugwu cleared the dining table slowly. [ii] He removed the glass first, then the stew-smeared bowls and cutlery, and finally he stacked plate on top of plate. [iii] Even if he hadn’t peeked through the kitchen door as they ate, he would still know who had sat where. [iv]Master’s plate was always the most rice strewn, as if he ate distractedly so that the grains eluded his fork. [v] Olanna’s glass had crescent-shaped lipstick marks. [vi] Okeoma ate everything with a spoon, his fork and knife pushed aside.
[vii]Professor Ezeka had brought his own beer, and the foreign-looking
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brown bottle was beside his plate. [viii]Miss Adebayo left onion slices in her bowl. [ix]And Mr Richard never chewed his chicken bones … (HOAYS: p.83)
In Extract [32], the syntactic relation demonstrated in lexical items: ‘cleared [verb (V)]’
and ‘slowly [adverb (adv)]’ in the structure: ‘Ugwu cleared the dining table slowly’ in sentence [i], demonstrates intra-sentential collocational relationship, thus enhancing lexical cohesion. The lexical items ‘‘stew-smeared’’ situated in the second clause of sentence [ii]: ‘…stew-smeared bowls…’ collocate with each other. The adjective ‘stew-smeared’ coheres with the noun ‘bowls’ it qualifies. Similarly, lexical items comprising of the verb and adverb: ‘ate distractedly’ found in the second clause of sentence [iv]
(‘…as if he ate distractedly…’) also collocates with each other. The syntactic relation that exists between the adjectives ‘… crescent- shaped lipsticks…’ with the noun ‘marks’ in sentence [v] also display cohesion between the lexical items. The verb ‘ate’ coheres with the adverb ‘distractedly’, forming a network of sequential relation. The same cohesive relation is found in the tie between adjective and the nouns. The adjectival group:
‘foreign-looking brown bottle’ coheres with the noun: ‘bottle’ in sentence [vii]. Cohesive tie is also established between adverb ‘never’ and the verb ‘chewed’, and the adjective
‘chicken’ and the noun ‘bones’ in sentence [ix]. These syntactic relations project a network of semantic relations which have enhanced lexical cohesion.
In addition, just like in the previous cases where these syntactic relations facilitate intra-sentential relations, there are instances in Extract [32] above in which some of these lexical patterns ‘colligate’ with each other to form ties at the inter-sentential level; a distribution that facilitates lexical cohesion in the texture of the novels. For instance,
‘dining table’ situated in sentence [i], in the sense of the application of Firthian idea of colligation, coheres with ‘glasses’, ‘stew-strewn bowls’, ‘the cutlery’, and ‘plates’ in sentence [ii]. Apparently, since there is hypernymic and hyponymic relations between
‘rice-strewn’ and ‘grains’ found in the first and second clauses in sentence [v], respectively, the two lexical items, therefore, collocate given Firth’s idea of colligation.
The same could be said of the relationship that exists between ‘cutlery’ in sentence [ii]
and its occurrence in sentence [vi] as: ‘spoon’, ‘fork’, and ‘knife.’ These lexical patterning whose distribution are found throughout the novel, facilitate lexical cohesion of the items.
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The next Extract [33] also illustrates how the use of the device of collocation has enhanced intra-sentential cohesion of the various lexical items in HOAYS; drawing a unique texture in the novel.
Extract [33]: [i] Dust swirled around, like a see-through brown blanket. [ii]The main road was crowded; women with boxes on their heads and babies tied on their backs, barefoot children carrying bundles of clothes or yams or boxes, men dragging bicycles. [iii] Ugwu wondered why they were holding lit kerosene lanterns although it was not dark. [iv] He saw a little child stumble and fall and fall and the mother bend and yank him up, and he thought about home, about his little cousins and his parents and Anulika.
[v]They were safe. [vi] They would not have to run because their village was too remote. (HOAYS: p.179)
In Extract [33], the two lexical items: ‘dust’ [N] and ‘swirled’ [V] in the first clause of sentence [i] collocate with each other. The adjective ‘see-through brown’ in the second clause of sentence [i] also collocates with its noun ‘blanket’; these tie to enhance cohesion as each of the lexical items coheres with each other, forming a network of sequential relation. In the third clause of the second sentence [ii], ‘barefoot’ [ad] +
‘children’ [N], and ‘bundles’ [ad] + ‘clothes’ [N], cohere with each other. In a similar situation, the verb ‘carrying’ in the third clause of sentence [ii] coheres with the nouns
‘yams’ and ‘boxes.’ Furthermore, in sentence [iii], the adjective ‘kerosene’ coheres with the noun ‘lanterns.’
The concern for welfare of others, which is a prime objective of social solidarity, is demonstrated in sentence [v] ‘They were safe’. The effect of the war which is projected in the imageries of ‘women with boxes on their heads and babies tied on their backs, barefoot children carrying bundles of clothes…men dragging bicycles’ have prompted familial solidarity, and Ugwu is particularly concerned about the safety of his family. He is sure that ‘they were safe…because their village was too remote’ from the crises.
Furthermore, owing to Firthian theory of colligation, therefore, the meaning ‘dust’
in the first clause of sentence [i] ties with ‘brown blanket’ in the second clause of the same sentence [i]. And ‘lit kerosene lanterns’ is in antonymous relation with ‘dark’; these are all situated in adjacent clauses of the same sentence, enhancing colligative relation.
Just like in the above novels, there are also syntactic and lexical relations in AMERiCANAH which have enhanced lexical cohesion in the novel. The following extracts [34 and 35] demonstrate this literary style.
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Extract [34]: [i] Princeton, in the summer, smelled of nothing, and although Ifemelu liked the tranquil greenness of the many trees, the clean streets and stately homes, the delicately overpriced shops and the quiet, abiding air of earned grace, it was this, the lack of smell, that most appealed to her, perhaps because the other American cities she knew well had all smelled distinctly.
[ii] Philadelphia had a musty scent of history. [iii] New Haven smelled of neglect. [iv] Baltimore smelled of brine, and Brooklyn of sun-warmed garbage. [v] But Princeton had no smell. [vi] She liked taking deep breaths here. [vii] She liked watching the locals who drove with pointed courtesy and parked their latest-model cars outside the organic grocery store on Nassau Street or outside the sushi restaurants or outside the ice cream shop that had fifty different flavours including red pepper or outside the post office where effusive staff bounded out to greet them at the entrance. [viii]
She liked the campus, grave with knowledge, the Gothic buildings with their vine-laced walls, and the way everything transformed, in the half-light of night, into a ghostly scene. [ix] She liked, most of all, that in this place of affluent ease, she could pretend to be someone else, someone specially admitted into a hallowed American club, someone adorned with certainty. (AH: p.3)
In extract [34] above, the lexical items in the third clause of sentence [i]: ‘smelled of nothing’ collocates to form a network of sequential relation. The verb ‘smelled’ in the first part of these pairs coheres with the expression which begins with a preposition ‘of nothing.’ In a similar collocative relations, the adjective: ‘tranquil’ and the noun:
‘greenness’, which occur in sequence in the third clause of sentence [i] cohere with each other just like the collocative relations exhibited in the following lexical items: ‘clean [ad] + ‘streets [N]’, ‘stately [ad] + homes [N]’, ‘delicately [ad] + overpriced [ad] + shops [N]’, ‘abiding [ad] + air [N] + of earned grace [expression with preposition] and smelled [V] + distinctly [adv]’. Apparently, the entire lexical items in sentence [ii] cohere with each other forming a network of sequential relations. These lexical items in sentence [iii]:
‘smelled [V] + of neglect [prep]’ collocate, therein, tying with each other to boost lexical cohesion.
The same tie which is perceived in the first sentence [i] has also occurred in other sentences. For instance, in sentence [ii] ‘musty [ad]’ collocates with ‘scent [N]’ which ties with ‘of history [prep.].’ These lexical items in sentence [iii]: ‘smelled [V]’ + ‘of neglect [prep]’ collocate, enhancing cohesion in the structure. The lexical items in the first and second clauses of preceding sentence [iv]: ‘smelled [V]’ + ‘of brine [prep]’, and
‘sun-warmed [ad]’ + ‘garbage [N]’ collocate, consequently enhancing lexical cohesion.
In the same vein, the adjective: ‘latest-model’ collocates with the preceding noun ‘cars’
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in sentence [vii] just like ‘Gothic [ad]’ + ‘buildings [N]’ in the second clause of sentence [viii].
Furthermore, going by Firth’s idea of colligation; the lexical item: ‘greenness’ and
‘trees’ in the second clause of sentence [i] colligate. Similarly, there is a hypernymic and hyponymic relationship between ‘shops’, ‘organic store’, ‘sushi restaurants’ and ‘ice cream shops’ to form lexical cohesion. Hyponymic relations can also be explicated from the colligative relations existing between: ‘American cities’ situated in sentence [i] and these cities: ‘Philadelphia’, ‘New Haven’, ‘Baltimore’, and ‘Brooklyn’, which occur in sentences [ii], [iii] and [iv] respectively. The lexical item ‘flavour’ colligates with ‘red pepper’ since they share a hypernymic/hyponymic relationship. And also ‘smell’, which occurs severally in the text, colligates with ‘scent’ which is categorised at various intervals in the text as ‘musty’, ‘brine’, ‘sun-warmed garbage’, and ‘neglect’, are of factory sense relation words. These ties, aside from enhancing textual cohesion, have nomination and predicational linguistic effects that amplify Ifemelu’s solidarity by harnessing her perspective which demonstrates her preference of Princeton; the town ‘she liked’ in comparison with other towns which had ‘peculiar smell’.
In a similar situation, the various lexical items in the next extract [35] are related to each other, thus forming a sequential relation which has enhanced lexical cohesion in the texture of AH.
Extract [35]: [i] When Obinze first saw her e-mail, he was sitting in the back of his Range Rover in still Lagos traffic, his jacket slung over the front seat, a rusty-haired child beggar glued out-side his window, a hawker pressing colourful CD’s against the other window, the radio turned on low to the Pidgin English news on Wazobia FM, and the grey gloom of imminent rain fall all around. [ii] He stared at his Black Berry, his body suddenly rigid. [iii] First, he skimmed the e-mail, instinctively wishing it were longer. [iv] He read it again slowly and felt the urge to smooth something, his trousers, his shaved-bald head… [v] in the last e-mail from her … [vi]
in sunny sentences and mentioned the black American she was living with… [vii] He hated it so much that he googled the black American … (AH: p.19)
These lexical sets: ‘still Lagos [ad]’ + ‘traffic[N]’, ‘a rust-haired child [ad]’ + ‘beggar [N]’, ‘hawker [N]’ + ‘pressing [V]’, ‘colourful [ad]’ + ‘CD’s [N]’, ‘Pidgin English [ad]’
+ ‘news [N]’, ‘grey gloom’ [ad] + ‘of imminent rain [pp]’ which occur in sentence [i]
cohere with one another to form a network of sequential relations for lexical cohesion in
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the sentence. In sentence [ii]: ‘suddenly [adv]’ + ‘rigid [N]’ are also in collocational relation.
Given Firth’s concept of ‘colligation’, the tendency of words to co-occur is not only at the intra but at inter- sentential level, therefore the lexical item ‘e-mail’, in first clause of sentence [i] ties with: ‘Black Berry’, which occurs in the first clause of sentence [ii]. And features of an intra-sentential colligation, these lexical items in the seventh clause of sentence [i]: ‘radio’, ‘Pidgin English news’ colligate with ‘Wazobia FM’ in sentence [i].
Some of the lexical items listed in Extract [35] function as inter-sentential relation markers; they tie with other lexical items which occur at a distance portion in the narration. For instance, through anaphoric referential relations, some of the lexical items colligate with the previous ones that occur in an earlier context in the narration, thus enhancing textual cohesion. This is demonstrated in the relationship existing between some lexical items in extract [35], which are drawn from page 19 and those in extract [36] drawn from page 20.
Extract [36]: [i] He read it again slowly… [ii] On third Mainland Bridge … [iii] On Lekki Express Way, the traffic moved swiftly in the waning rain and soon Gabriel was pressing the horn in front of the high gates of his home. [iv]
Mohammed, the gateman, wiry in his dirty white caftan, flung open the gates and raised a hand in greeting …[iv] CNN would be on downstairs, while the television upstairs …(AH: p.21)
The lexical item ‘Lagos traffic’ cited in second clause of sentence [i] of extract [35], for instance, shares a hypernymic and hyponymic colligative relationship with ‘Third Mainland Bridge’ which occurs in sentence [ii], and ‘Lekki Express Way’ in sentence [iii] of extract [50]. Similarly, ‘skimmed’ in sentence [ii] of extract [35] colligates with
‘read’, which occurs in sentence [i] of extract [36]. The expression ‘still Lagos traffic’
situated in the second clause in extract [35] coheres with ‘on Lekki Express Way, the traffic moved swiftly…’ These two lexical items: the adjective ‘still’, and the adverb
‘swiftly’ which occur in the two sentences prompt this kind of relation. A similar kind of relationship could be said to exist between ‘radio (Wazobia FM)’ in extract [35] shares colligative relationship with ‘television (CNN)’ in Extract [36]. These items colligate, forming a network of sequential relation, consequently, there is cohesion in both the syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations of the various lexical units in the narration.
The use of names such as Gabriel and Mohammed in sentences [iii] and [iv]:
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[iii] On Lekki Express Way, the traffic moved swiftly in the waning rain and soon Gabriel was pressing the horn in front of the high gates of his home. [iv]
Mohammed, the gateman, wiry in his dirty white caftan, flung open the gates and raised a hand in greeting…
This is a nomination and predication discourse strategy which has evoked tribal/ethnic affirmatives therein suggesting national solidarity in the case of the Nigerian scene. The nominal ‘Mohammed’ is described as ‘the gateman, wiry in his dirty white caftan’, and Gabriel, in this instance, ‘the boss’ whose gate is manned by Mohammed. These names suggest where the characters are from and the nature of the roles assigned to them activates ethnic affirmatives therein set the pace for sentiments.
Apparently, with these syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations, Adichie has built a narrative network with a rich textual quality. This must have informed Joyce Carol Oates’ description of HOAYS in her preface to it as ‘vividly written, thrumming with life…’ Adichie’s use of these style devices does not only enhance and enriched the textual quality but has also contributed to the semantic quality of expressions in these novels as well. Apparently, some of these linguistic proximate do not only underline issues of power and ideology, neither do they concern only gender and religion nor are they just a simple historical account of human experiences, like the Nigeria’s civil war, but have, within the lexical and grammatical confluences, projected concerns for social solidarity as well.
5.2 Devices for grammatical cohesion in Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus (PH), Half