A Linguistic analysis of the Lexical borrowings in The Whirlwind by A. Santhan

Most of the postcolonial writers are used to maintaining a strategic vocabulary to make sure that they propagate their ideologies by means of implication. In this context, many bilingual writers have adopted the strategy of language mixing by means of integrating lexical borrowings to make their work sound native to their home environments. As a result, in Sri Lankan Anglophone literature, most writers tend to incorporate lexical borrowing to reflect their ideological dimensions related to various issues they are confronted with in their daily lives. Against this background, this research focuses on The Whirlwind by A. Santhan, which describes issues of the identity, history, culture, and way of life of the Tamil people living in Jaffna, in Northern Sri Lanka, during the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) occupation in the late 1980s. The award-winning novel in English, The Whirlwind by the Jaffna Tamil writer A. Santhan, uses lexical borrowing as a powerful tool for portraying ideological struggles and power dynamics. So, the linguistic patterns and contexts of these lexical borrowings are analyzed to explore their ideological implications. Strevens’ cultural presupposition framework, along with Norman Fairclough’s textual analysis using mixed methods, examines the types, patterns, and ideological implications of borrowings. The findings of the study reveal the distinctive forms of borrowings shaped by various socio-cultural ideologies.