THE USE OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN NIGERIAN TELEVISION DRAMA

THE USE OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN NIGERIAN TELEVISION DRAMA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background of the Study

Language is an essential ingredient in human communication. In fact, it is the only feature that distinguishes human beings from other animals. The ability of man to communicate in code sound make us a higher animal. Naturally, living things (animals) are created to communicate with one another, but in different forms, animals have a way of communicating with one another. The bark of a dog, the crew of the cock, moo of Cattles is means of communication. Instinctively, human beings have distinctive features which differentiate them from other creatures.

Every human being is endowed with language. He takes his ability to articulate and understand a meaningful configuration of sounds for granted. Adetugbo (1997) cited in Abiola (2009:1) describes language “as a purely human activity, which man uses to express himself, share ideas with others and to pass the ideas to succeeding generations.

Omenazu Oluchi (2010:13) quoted Akindele and Adegbije, (1999). Who describes language as a human phenomenon that has a form which can be described in terms of units of sound (phonemes), words, morphemes, phrases, sentences and paragraphs or discourse.

This definition shows that language has often been identified as the most unique attribute of man. It is through language that human beings grasp and understand reality and transmit it from one generation to another. NTA being a national and international television channel use the