LINGUISTIC HYBRIDITY AND CULTURAL REPRESENTATION IN PAKISTANI POSTCOLONIAL FICTION: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDY OF SALT AND SAFFRON

This paper presents a corpus-based sociolinguistic analysis of code-switching and code-mixing in Kamila Shamsie’s novel Salt and Saffron (2000). Employing Poplack’s (1980) and Hoffman’s (1991) frameworks, the study quantitatively examines Urdu-English bilingual strategies within the narrative. Findings indicate that intra-sentential code-mixing is the predominant form, accounting for 52.58% of bilingual instances. Kinship terms emerge as the most frequent lexical category (63.80%), highlighting the culturally embedded nature of expressions in South Asian Englishes. The research also identifies Urdu-English hybridisation and linguistic innovation, demonstrating how Shamsie integrates Urdu lexicons to reflect cultural identity, address lexical gaps, and enhance contextual authenticity. This study contributes to understanding bilingual literary practices in postcolonial contexts and bridges quantitative corpus analysis with sociolinguistic inquiry.