Linguistic-stylistic exploration of Akachi Adimora-Ezigbo's Trafficked and Chimamanda Adichie's Americanah

This research paper is concerned with interrogating those salient features that underscore Akachi Adimora’s Trafficked and Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah” paying specific attention to the examination of the graphological features employed by Akachi Adimora and Chimamanda Adichie in their selected novels. It did so by utilizing the theoretical backcloth of Halliday (1985) Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) also known as Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG), which is a theory of language that is concerned with the study of the relationship between language and its functions in social contexts. It operates in three strata: meaning (semantics); sound (phonology); and wording or lexicogrammar (syntax, morphology, and lexis). The discussion of the paper revealed among other things that Akachi Adimora and Chimanada Adichie’s Americanah employed different graphological features of stylistic to embellish their works. Some of these features include but not limited to extensive use of capital letters, italicization of words/sentences, deliberate misspelling of words, abbreviation, use of bold words, question marks, abrupt use of full stop and the use of acronym to foreground some ideas in the novels. The paper further revealed that stylistics play significant roles in the aesthetic development of a novel, particularly African.