Diglossic Situation in Sri Lankan Novels: A Study Based on Lexicon Used in 'Madol Doova' by Martin Wickramasinghe

Abstract

Diglossia is the use of two varieties, namely High (H) and Low (L) of a language in a single speech community is wide-spread. (H) is usually the written variety whereas (L) is the spoken variety. In linguistics, lexicon is considered to be the language's inventory of lexemes. This includes information about the appropriate usage of words and phrases. As Sinhalese language is a diglossic language Sri Lankan novelists have to use it in novels. "Madol Doova" is one of the Sri Lankan novels in which this diglossic situation is used. The aim of this research is to reveal that both High and Low varieties of Sinhalese language are used in Sri Lankan novels and this study based on the lexicon used in the novel "Madol Doova" by Martin Wickramasinghe. As the methodology, data were collected by referring "Madol Doova" and other subject related sources. When considering lexicon used in the novel it shows that low variety is used in dialogues and high variety is used in narrative. In that sense it is apparent that both (H) and (L) varieties of the Sinhalese language are used in Sri Lankan novels. Moreover it enlightens (L) the spoken language is also used in written form. This has significantly affected the quality of Sri Lankan novels. This will be a theoretical study which is mostly based on linguistics factors.