The present study examines lexico-semantic variation in Nigerian English with particular reference to the novels of three prominent Nigerian authors: Chukwuemeka Ike, Kole Omotoso and Zaynab Alkali. Ten categories of lexico-semantic variation in Nigerian English are identified as follows: (a) loanshift, (b) semantic underdifferentiation, (c) lexico-semantic duplication and redundancy, (d) ellipsis, (e) conversion, (f) clipping, (g) acronyms, (h) translation equivaients, (i) analogical creation and (j) coinage. The fact that all three authors consciously or subconsciously use Nigerian English expressions in their novels indicates that Nigerian English usage cuts across not only various social and educational strata but also first language backgrounds. Several of the Nigerian English expressions appearing in the novels have been institutionalized to such an extent that they are found across the novels analyzed in the study. The implications of this research are discussed in light of the on-going debate between the 'pedagogic unreality' and 'sociolinguistic reality' schools concerning the ontological status of the new Englishes.

This paper examines the notion 'Nigerian English,' using examples drawn from the novels of two prominent Nigerian authors, Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe. With particular emphasis on the polylectal speech situation in Nigeria, Nigerian English is discussed under three main headings: basilect, mesolect and acrolect. It is argued that notions of 'inappropriateness' are inadequate to explain Nigerian English. It is suggested that an analysis of the use of Nigerian English, especially in literary contexts, can provide deep insight into the principles underlying the linguistic behavior of Nigerians. This analysis can best be conducted within the frameworks of sociolinguistics and social psychology. The examples analyzed in the novels also illustrate specific types of linguistic behavior among Nigerian users of the English language, such as translating directly from Nigerian languages, obeying the principles of least effort and economy of expression, subjecting English language forms and norms to the socio-cultural logic and imperatives of the Nigerian environment, and displaying 'hypercorrected behavior' towards the norms and code of the native speaker of English.

The present paper employs the semiotic distinction between underdetermined and overdetermined language use to probe the nativization of English in Achebe's fiction. Language use is underdetermined when it subverts the hegemony of English through the strategy of nativization of linguistic forms that are altered to have different cultural overtones when used by African and other non-native English speakers and writers. Conversely, an overdetermined language use relates to heteroglossic social discourses arising from conflicts of race, class, gender, and ethnicity, especially in the postcolonial literary context. The study points out that although Achebe has done more than any other African writer in indigenizing the English language in the African literary context, his failure to interrogate the patriarchal linguistic structures of his world makes his rhetoric complicit with the English language's devaluation and semantic pejoration of the female Other in the Nigerian context. However, given the power of English to consolidate male dominance and give men representational prominence, more studies are needed on how non-verbal communication and certain linguistic devices and discursive formations mask the ingrained patriarchal prejudices not only in Achebe's writing but also in postcolonial English literatures in general.

The present study explores the politics of code-switching with reference to the novels of two prominent Nigerian authors, Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe. In addition to drawing a theoretical distinction between overt and covert modes of code alternation, the study points out that at the primary degree of delicacy, code-switching not only reveals the tensions and conflicts in the Nigerian social structure, but this linguistic phenomenon is also used to mark identity, solidarity, exclusion from an in-group membership, status manipulation, and social and communicative distance. At the secondary degree of delicacy, the politics of code-switching reveal that in the sociolinguistic balance of power, English dominates the local languages identified in the study. The sociolinguistic situation described in the study is thus symptomatic of the linguistic situation in Nigeria generally where the local languages are in a subtractive polyglossic relationship with English. Subtractive polyglossia, in turn, results in the Nigerian English users' subtractive bilingualism and linguistic schizophrenia. And unless urgent steps are taken to redress the geolinguistic imbalance between English and Nigeria's minority languages in the hierarchy of code functions, Nigeria's local dialects -except Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba -face continuous decline and degeneration, if not possible death.

The major focus of this paper is a description of syntactic variation in West African English with examples from West African English literature. The following categories of syntactic variation in West African English are identified and described: subjectless sentences, deletion of the -ly morpheme in manner adjuncts, omission of function words, reduplication, formation of interrogatives without changing the position of subject and auxiliary items, tag questions, the use of the progressive aspect with mental processes, non-distinctive use of reciprocal pronouns, substitution of prepositions in idiomatic usage, and focus constructions. The fact that many of the syntactic features of West African English are also found in other varieties of non-native Englishes around the world indicates that, contrary to the speculation of some scholars, the new Englishes have acquired some stable linguistic characteristics and that their usage cuts across various educational and socio-economic strata in countries where English is used as an institutionalized second language. However, more comparative studies need to be done to uncover additional facts about the mutual linguistic relationships among the new Englishes.