JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE STUDIES AND ARTS

The work investigates verbal hygiene in Chimamanda Adichie‟s Americanah and how the practice of verbal hygiene or the lack thereof, shaped the relationships of the characters in the novel. It tries to establish a connection between verbal hygiene and the quality of relationships that exist among characters in the novel. Data were collected using purposive sampling technique from the novel, Americanah. This is to enable the researcher collect quality data that are of most relevance to the study. The collected data were analyzed textually through the lens of Politeness Theory by Brown and Levinson. It was found that verbal hygiene is very much present in Chimamanda Adichie‟s Americanah and that the practice of verbal hygiene helped the characters to build relationships that are peaceful and harmonious. This work also discovered that the words of some characters analysed in this work are verbally hygienic and aimed at enhancing the positive face of other characters. This contributes immensely to some of the characters having a strong positive face. The researcher recommends that verbal hygiene be taught as early as literature is introduced to pupils in schools to enable people who do not have the privilege of acquiring higher education to learn the importance of being verbally hygienic as this will help them become better parents, teachers and citizens.

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