Implications of Linguistic Hybridization and Appropriation in Khushwant Singh's Short Story "A BRIDE FOR THE SAHIB": A Postcolonial Stylistic Analysis

Abstract

The present research attempts to point out how a postcolonial text has become a field of intense enquiry to locate the centre envisaged/ created by Euro-centric cultures or societies and how Khushwant Singh, as a postcolonial writer has put his efforts to de-centre the colonizer's imposed identity and culture by appropriating the foreign language by using various ways in number of his works. The concept of "the Others" , their need to search and struggle for identity have become an omnipresent phenomena and apart from this, here the hegemonic relationships as well the cross cultural clashes not only between the two different societies i.e. the colonial and colonizer but also within a society is also taken into account. At the same time, the key concepts of linguistic determinism, abrogation, hybridization, ambivalence and appropriation devices are given consideration. The present research incorporates two linguistic models of language use propounded by Braj B. Kachru and Bill Ashcroft et al. to see how Khushwant Singh has deliberately appropriated a foreign language suited to the culture, theme, characters, contexts etc. by glossing, translation, using untranslated words, syntactical fusions, neologism, calques, proficiency levels in the uses of English and englishes according to different class, culture and society, code mixing and code switching etc. to point out the postcolonial issues in the most authentic and impressive manner.