This paper examined the segmental phonology of 25 purposively sampled bilingual Nigerian adult Broca's aphasics from a Nigerian teaching hospital. Data were collected by tape-recording the speech of each of the aphasic. The data were analysed perceptually, complemented with frequency count and simple percentage. The way the subjects ranked constraints were then examined, using Optimality Theory. Three main forms of deviation were noticed in their speech: deletion, substitution and epenthesis, with substitution having the highest frequency, followed by deletion. The deviation affected consonants more than vowels. Plosives and alveolars were more affected by the brain damage than any other sound. Some of the effects of Nigerian English on the speech of the subjects were still retained after the brain damage. The Broca's aphasics sampled ranked constraints in such a way that markedness dominated faithfulness.

In interactions, the culture of the participants influences their contributions and interpretations. Stand-up comedians articulate contemporary culture by making mutually manifest cultural beliefs and representations within the performance space, and teach the audience how to use them. This paper investigated how Nigerian stand-up comedians employ cultural assumptions and representations in their performances. Using relevance theory for analysis and seven routines from seven Nigerian stand-up comedians as the data, this study explored how Nigerian stand-up comedians bring shared cultural knowledge into their performances. Nigerian stand-up comedians joke with culture by manipulating shared cultural representations, distorting collective knowledge, manipulating stereotypes and projecting personal beliefs. By joking with cultural beliefs and representations within the performance space, Nigerian stand-up comedians mediate and negotiate what “contemporary culture” should be.

This paper investigated the generic structure potential of feature articles in four Nigerian newspapers: The Punch, The Nation, Vanguard and Nigerian Tribune. Halliday and Hassan’s concept of Generic Structure Potential served as the theoretical framework. The feature articles analysed had three obligatory elements: Headline, Orientation and Addressing the Issue, and three optional elements: Feature Lead, Proffering a Solution and Moral Lesson. A Nigerian newspaper feature article typically starts with a headline that may or may not be followed by a feature lead. This is followed by an orientation, an issue to be addressed, which is then followed by either a suggested solution or a moral lesson. The study posited that the GSP of feature articles in Nigerian newspapers can be catalogued as H^ [(FL) ^O^][AI^(PS).(ML.)].

Of all the levels of linguistic analysis, it is at the phonological level that differences in the dialects of a language are more easily noticed (Ogu, 1992: 82). The phonology of a language can be investigated at two sub-levels: segmental and suprasegmental. Investigating the segmental micro-level entails looking at phonemes – the vowels and the consonants. Suprasegmentals are linguistically significant elements that go beyond individual segments, and include syllable, tone, stress, rhythm and intonation.

Studies on humour in Nigeria have been extensively carried out from the perspectives of stand-up comedy and computer-mediated communication. There is a dearth of scholarly enquiries on humour in situation comedies (sitcoms). This paper investigates humour in the interactions of characters in Jenifa’s Diary and Professor JohnBull, with a view to accounting for the manifestations of humour, the humour strategies deployed and the functions that the humorous utterances serve in the sitcoms. The work is situated in Culpeper’s Impoliteness Theory. Eight excerpts from the sitcoms were subjected to pragmatic analysis. Two discourse functions of amusing and castigating are discovered in the data. The former serves the function of facilitating discourse and changing presumed power and status, while the latter serves the function of maintaining one’s own space and autonomy, and demanding respect. Allusion, parody, retort, tease, banter and putdown are the humour techniques employed in the sitcoms. The study corroborates the claim of earlier studies that humour in every sphere of language use serves certain functions beyond the interactional need to create amusement.