Saying X: The Pragmatics of a Nigerian Context

John Emike Acheoah

Abstract


The study investigates the pragmatic motivations of linguistic choices contained in selected mobile-phone text messages written by Nigerians. As an effort towards cross-cultural pragmatics, the study examines “Nigerianisms” in the use of English. Bach and Harnish’s concept of mutual contextual beliefs (MCBs) is mainly relied upon as a theoretical framework, although insights from other scholars of pragmatics and sociolinguistics give the study a more illuminating theoretical base. The study reveals “that in saying x (producing different utterances), Nigerians may violate the norms of the English language and alienate even the native speakers who are bereaved of the social realism that underpin the Nigerian speakers’ communicative strategies. This practice is informed by the existential experiences which constitute the socio-cultural and diachronic Nigerian context.

Keywords


Pragmatics; Mutual contextual beliefs; Sociolinguistics; Discourse

Full Text:

PDF

References


Allan, K. (1986). Linguistic meaning. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Austin, J. (1962). How to do things with words. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Bach, K. & Harmish, R. (1979). Linguistic communication and speech acts. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

Bronislaw, M. (2004). Language in social context. In O. Grady W. & Archibald, J. (Eds.), Contemporary Linguistic Analysis: An Introduction (pp. 424). Canada: Pearson Education.

Emuchay, J. (1999). A pragmatic analysis of selected newspaper cartoons. (Doctoral dissertation). Ilorin: Department of Modern European Languages, University of Ilorin.

Fowler, R. (1981). Literature as social discourse: The practice of linguistic criticism. Bloomington: Indiana UP.

Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In Cole and Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and Semantics, 3.

Jolayemi, D. (2000). Language and style: A systematic text-linguistic study of olu obafemi’s plays. In Oni D, Ododo S. (Eds.), Larger Than His Frames: Critical Studies and Reflections. on Olu Obafemi (pp. 118). Lagos: Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization, National Theatre.

Leech, G. (1983). Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman.

Lucas, J.M. (2002). Content packaging for mass communication transactions in Nigeria: challenges and prospects. In Aliyu et al (Eds.). Work in Progress, 13(13), 33. Zaria: Department of English and Literary Studies.

Medubi, O. (2006). Nigerian English: Some sociolinguistic considerations. Text of a Paper Presented at the 23rd Annual Conference of the Nigerian English Studies, Ilorin.

Olaniyi, K. (2006). The suprasegmentals of Nigerian English. Text of a Paper Presented at the 23rd Annual Conference of the Nigerian English Studies, Ilorin.

Searle, John. (1969). Speech Acts: An essay in the philosophy of language. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Wang, D. (2013). Applying corpus linguistics in discourse analysis. Studies in Literature and Language, 6(2), 35-39. Laval: Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture.

Wierzbicka, A. (1991). Cross-cultural Pragmatics. New York: Mouten de Gruyter.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/n

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c)



Share us to:   

 

Online Submission: http://cscanada.org/index.php/sll/submission/wizard


Reminder

How to do online submission to another Journal?

If you have already registered in Journal A, then how can you submit another article to Journal B? It takes two steps to make it happen:

1. Register yourself in Journal B as an Author

Find the journal you want to submit to in CATEGORIES, click on “VIEW JOURNAL”, “Online Submissions”, “GO TO LOGIN” and “Edit My Profile”. Check “Author” on the “Edit Profile” page, then “Save”.

2. Submission

Go to “User Home”, and click on “Author” under the name of Journal B. You may start a New Submission by clicking on “CLICK HERE”.


We only use three mailboxes as follows to deal with issues about paper acceptance, payment and submission of electronic versions of our journals to databases: caooc@hotmail.com; sll@cscanada.net; sll@cscanada.org

 Articles published in Studies in Literature and Language are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY).

 STUDIES IN LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE Editorial Office

Address: 1055 Rue Lucien-L'Allier, Unit #772, Montreal, QC H3G 3C4, Canada.
Telephone: 1-514-558 6138 
Website: Http://www.cscanada.net; Http://www.cscanada.org 
E-mail: office@cscanada.net; office@cscanada.org; caooc@hotmail.com

Copyright © 2010 Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture