This paper examines the concept and features of lexico-semantic 'intraference' in Educated Nigerian English (ENE). The tendency of nonnative speakers in a(n) ESL setting, like Nigeria, to redeploy the lexico-semantic rules of English to 'kill,' weaken, strengthen and reverse the SBE and native English meanings of words is termed lexico-semantic intraference in this paper. Questionnaires, interviews, library research, empirical studies, the Internet and recording of live linguistic events were used to gather data from 2004 to 2013. It was discovered that educated Nigerians regularly impose meanings on some words, extend the meanings of words, weaken or reverse word meanings and also redeploy the lexico-semantic dynamics of the language to fabricate lexical items with new meanings or meanings already in some well established SBE words. These habits generate words and meanings that distinguish ENE lexico-semantics from the lexico-semantics of SBE and some other international varieties of English.
Written English is one area in which Nigerian linguists and grammarians do not accommodate variations of spelling for any sociolinguistic reason, even though they at times misspell or forget the spelling of some confusing words. Most people agree that English spelling system is problematic and therefore needs urgent reform, but who bells the cat? This article examines the English spelling system against the backdrop of Educated Nigerian English and the concept of nativization, stressing the need for reform or nativized spelling in Nigerian English. Questionnaires, library research, and the Internet were used to gather data for this study. The qualitative approach has been adopted in the main for the interpretation of data. The educated Nigerians studied admit that the English spelling system is in part so confusing that they misspell words at times. Therefore, they support the reform or nativization of English spelling. Consequently, this article presents and illustrates proposed reformed spelling by deleting redundant letters, unnecessary clusters of letters, dropping useless silent letters, regularizing digraph, and spelling compound words in one form only. These changes will enhance spelling skills, teaching, reading, and writing in English as a Second Language.
Kola nut is a ubiquitous crop that is the most valued, respected and widely used of all foods and cash crops grown in Nigeria. The presence of kola nut at a gathering or the offer of it generates a whirlpool of feelings in the giver and the receiver. In addition to building on existing knowledge of the kola nut, this paper - semiotic in approach and based on many years of empirical study - establishes and elucidates the inherent qualities and contents that make kola nut unique, iconic and symbolic. The paper concludes that kola nut is a great icon of socio-economic, socio-cultural and religious values and thus it enhances national cohesion.
Educated Nigerians express and store socio-cultural concepts and experiences in various linguistic ways, three of which are examined in this paper: lexicalization, compounding and reduplication. They are conceptualized as intraference in the main because educated Nigerians apply internal linguistic rules arbitrarily, taking a cue from similar instances in the language. This linguistic habit of intraference then works together with contexts and socio-cultural settings to generate intriguing lexical variations. Hence this paper is variationist sociolinguistic. Examples in this paper were gathered through observation, library research, interview, live recording of some linguistic events across Nigeria from 2005 to 2012. The examples of the three morphological processes give ENE some distinctive morphological features. They clearly show how the contexts of use and socio-cultural dynamics constrain educated Nigerians to deploy the extant morphemic and lexico-semantic rules of the language to produce lexical variations.
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