La Phraseology as a Stylistic Resource and Expression of Identity with Examples from L’empire du mensonge, by Aminata Sow Fall

Abstract

In this paper, literature is considered as a corpus for the study of phraseology. Specifically, the novel analysed is L’empire du Mensonge by Aminata Sow Fall, one of the most outstanding figures in Senegalese literature. Applying the theoretical-methodological foundations initially proposed, the reading of this novel has allowed to create an inventory list of twenty- five phraseological units (locutions, proverbs, and routine formulae), not of French, but of the author’s first language, namely Wolof. With this work, and due to the peculiarity of the novel under analysis, in which an outstanding presence of words and statements of the Wolof language can be found, I contemplate a double purpose in its use of phraseology: as a stylistic resource used in order to be understood by the Senegalese reader, and as the expression of identity.