COINAGES IN NIGERIA ENGLISH: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

When a word or an idiom is employed to express a meaning which it does not hitherto convey, the meaning and referent are said to have been expanded. In other words, a change in the sense of a word causes a modification in the mental content that constitutes the meaning of such lexical item. A word can be given a new meaning by an individual or by the general public At times, a coinage receives public acceptance if it is considered the most appropriate word to capture a concept among a speech community. This is because the meaning ascribed to a word by its use in particular context will take precedence over its etymological derivation. In a nutshell, what this implies is that it is the use of the words that determines the meanings of words in a sentence (Allan 1986:77-78). This study will analyze how word derivations and coinages in Nigeria generate meaning. The words will be discussed from the perspective of factors leading to their emergence and use. First, to be discussed in this essay is the “Nigerians” in English. Nigerian English is a term used to describe the kind of English that reflects second language incompetence of the target standard forms of English. It is a phenomenon that has been described widely along the lines of differing fields of linguistic studies. Popular, among these studies have investigated English language usage in Nigeria, from the variational, phonological, grammatical or syntactico-semantic purviews. Among all these studies, lexical nativization, acculturation, Idiagbon and Olaniyi, Coinages in English domestication, etc. have been used to describe the kind of English being spoken as a second language in Nigeria.