Author:Gladys Bulus, Blossom Shimayam Ottoh-Agede & Adam Al-Amin Abdullahi
Date: 05/07/2026
In reading a literary text, it is important for readers not to concentrate only on the story line but also on how the story is being developed, that is, considering the words selected among alternatives and the way they are structured. Language plays a major role in the development of every text. The aim of the study is to explore how Jefferies (2010) Critical Stylistic tools, Naming and Describing, and Representing Actions/Events/States, aids in bringing out the ideologies of race and identity in the text Americanah. The objective is to examine the lexical choices Adichie used in the text. Using the critical stylistic framework proposed by Jeffries in 2007 as its theoretical framework, the study adopts the naming and describing, representing actions/events/and states and the assuming and implying tools for its analysis. Purposive sampling technique was used as method of data collection from the texts which are relevant excerpts that depicts the ideologies. The findings of the research reveal that Adichie used the naming and describing tool to choose alternative names that represent race and identity ideologies in the text, also the Material Action Intentional (MAI), Verbalisation process, Mental processes and the Assuming and Implying tools made significant appearance in the text. The study concludes that the choice of words a writer employs skillfully aids in projecting the ideology in the text and recommend that further study could be carried out on the other tools suggested by Jeffries (2010) which were not analysed in this study.
Keywords: Critical Stylistics, Naming and Describing, Representing, Race, Identity.
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