Linguistic Hybridization in Tricia Nwaubani's <i>I Do Not Come to You By Chance</i>

Drawing on linguistics and postcolonial studies, this article examines linguistic hybridity, defined as a process in which two independent entities produce another entity which shares some qualities with each of its sources, in I Do Not Come to You By Chance by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani. It investigates the instances of hybridization used by the author and the linguistic levels at which they operate. Like most Anglophone postcolonial authors, Nwaubani wrote her work in English but permeated it with new meanings through semantic extension and unusual collocations rooted in the grammatical structures of Nigerian indigenous languages, with the aim of challenging the monopoly of standard English in Nigerian literature and exposing the societal issues in postcolonial Nigeria.