Functional Approaches to Language and Literary Studies: Essays in Honour of Segun Awonusi SPOKEN NIGERIAN ENGLISH: INTERROGATING THE ERAS

Journal of the Nigerian English Studies, 2012

The authors investigate specific Nigerianisms in Nigerian English with a view to evaluating their grammaticality and acceptability. Data were collected from the responses of 192 educated Nigerians (male and female, 125 graduates and 67 undergraduates) in two Nigerian university settings, to an "acceptability and grammaticality" questionnaire designed for the study. Findings suggested that educated Nigerian users of English would not accept certain 'popular' grammatical constructions in Nigerian English, as many of them tend to violate specific grammatical rules of Standard English. The implications of the findings for codifying Nigerian English (NE) are considered along five significant dimensions: (a) the place of grammar (b) educated usage and standardization (c) choice of appropriate functional models for description, (d) systematic data collecting procedures, and (e) institutionalization of features Introduction Scholars' arguments have centered on whether Standard Nigerian English exists or not and whether Nigerian English comprises a bundle of errors when compared with Standard British English (Brosnaham, etc.). Like phonology, the domain of grammar has been observed to evince some significant differences between British and Nigerian English, such as omission and diverging use of articles, prepositions, and phrasal verbs; concord; modal auxiliaries; and pronouns. Thus, variations in the grammar of English have often been used as part of the data to support the claim of the emergence of Nigerian English, including its standard form.

2016

This paper examined certain developmental patterns Nigerian English (NigE) demonstrates in recent times, particularly at the linguistic levels of morphology and syntax. While studying these current trends, a sociolinguistic approach, as enunciated and popularized by Labov (1966), was adopted. The principal source of data for the corpus was the use of 100 questionnaires containing 11 objective tests administered to the respondents. The first part of the work provided an overview of the place of NigE as one of the World Englishes, today, while the second part which is the core of the work is an examination of the nature of foray the typology has made on the construction and use of English by Nigerians of a broad social spectrum. The study established that the uniqueness of NigE is considerably realized in such linguistic features as conversion, acronym, composition, redundancy, coinage and reduplication. It was, as well, observed that some NigE forms exhibit the same morphological and...

Theory and Practice in Language Studies

The study discusses the structure of Nigerian English with a view to examining the influence of Nigerian indigenous languages on this variety of standard English. Data for the analysis were obtained from twelve respondents selected from each of the three major national languages, namely; Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. This study was carried out using a case study design. Oral test by reading three different texts, and observation were used as instrument to elicit data. The corpus revealed that interlanguage transfer is a major factor that influences the students in the pronunciation of English words. A number of grammatical issues borne out of mother tongue interference were equally discovered. The prominent roles ascribed to the English language led to the desperation by Nigerians to speak the language to the extent of inclusion of some linguistic forms from different indigenous languages. However, the paper affirms that Nigerianism should not be seen as evidence of weak proficiency in En...

2017

This paper argues that English plays a complementary rather than a conflicting role in the Nigerian linguistic context. Nigeria is the most linguistically heterogeneous country in the African continent, with more than 500 indigenous languages spoken within its borders. With such a linguistically diverse landscape, a common language is needed to facilitate inter-ethnic communication and social interaction among the people. English, like French and Portuguese in other parts of Africa, has played this role since the post-colonial era. As an exoglossic lingua franca and the official language of the country, the use of English has helped to minimize inter-ethnic rivalry and conflict that would erupt if any indigenous language were imposed to play these roles in Nigeria. The paper further argues that there is a stable diglossic relationship between English and the indigenous languages in Nigeria because these languages have maintained clearly distinct linguistic domains in which they func...

International Journal of English and Literature, 2014

The influence of Nigerian English on British Standard English is one of the controversial issues in our country (Nigeria) today. The Nigerian scholars dispute among themselves over its existence or otherwise. While some scholars among many proclaim the existence of Nigerian English and strongly advocated for its development. Attempts to the definition of Nigerian English and its varieties. Also, it takes a brief survey of phonological and semantic component of Nigerian English. This research paper attempt to establish the existence of Nigerian English and it’s varieties. Also, it takes a brief survey of phonological and semantic component of Nigerian English as well as providing possible solution for further research work.

The paper studies the conceptualization of everyday English words in the minds of speakers of Nigerian English and compares it to that of speakers of American English

2016

Last year the speakers of the different Nigerian languages had every justification to join in the celebration of ten years of democracy in the country, for democracy has created the enabling environment for them to exercise their freedom of choice in their use of their language without feeling intimidated. Although linguistics in Nigeria has been a strong aid in this development, it however does not seem to present a similar picture of democratization in its own history. This paper uses some issues in the history of linguistics in Nigeria to argue that the term “democratic choice ” has not really been realized in linguistic theory in the country. The conclusion is that different linguistic theories should be allowed to offer what they can to the development and uplift of Nigerian languages.

Analisa dan Perancangan Aplikasi E-Learning