Code mixing in Tunji Ogundimu’s The insiders

Abstract

Code mixing is a process which is characteristic of African literary creation. It is represented by the use of at least two languages (a mother tongue and a second or foreign language) in a literary work. This quasi generalisation of this technique of writing in African literature, being it in French or English, arouses many questions that can enrich linguistic analysis. Whatever the reasons why African novelists choose to “mix” two languages in their literary works, it is evident that they have some difficulties to describe African realities in a European language. Code mixing plays thus an important role insofar as it has a sociolinguistic, referential and discursive value. The purpose of this paper is to study the use of code mixing as linguistic choice by Tunji Ogundimu, a Nigerian writer, to provide certain linguistic pragmatic functions in his novel entitled The Insiders. This study has also discussed the situations in which this process is used.