LEXICAL ELABORATION IN NAIJA

Abstract

Lexical elaboration, a strategy in which new lexical items are developed, is a manifest feature of languages, including Naija. Extant linguistic studies on Naija focused mainly on the sociological and attitudinal dimensions, with little attention paid to strategies for vocabulary expansion. This study was, therefore, designed to investigate lexical elaboration in Naija, with a view to describing its lexical features and morphological processes. Uche Oyali’s model of Language Elaboration was adopted as the framework, while the ethnographic design was employed. Edo and Delta States were purposively selected based on prominence of usage of Naija. Four cities were conveniently sampled on account of being part of the old Bendel State, known for prominent usage of Naija: Benin (Edo) and Sapele, Warri, and Ughelli (Delta). Natural speeches were recorded from 19 participants (Benin–6, Sapele–6, Ughelli–4, Warri–3). Additional data were sourced from NaijaSyncor project, which comprised a spoken (31-hour long recorded speeches from 321 participants from 10 cities: [Lagos (Lagos State), Onitsha (Anambra State), Ibadan (Oyo State), Benin (Edo State), Abuja (Abuja-FCT), Jos (Plateau State), Kaduna (Kaduna State), Port-Harcourt (Rivers State) and Kano (Kano State)] and textual corpora. The data were subjected to morphological analysis. English, Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Portuguese, Edo, Efik, Urhobo, Kalabari, French, Estako, Hindi, Wolof and Batonum are major lexical sources for Naija. Two main lexical features were identified: initial non-high prosody and multifunctionality. Initial non-high prosody occurs in non-monosyllabic words, while multifunctionality is evident in lexical items performing different functions without overt morphological change. Nine morphological processes were identified: borrowing/lexification, clipping, blending, affixation, reduplication, compounding, conversion, grammaticalisation and acronymisation. Lexification results in phonological and semantic changes. Clipping manifests in the truncation of the final syllable of the source word but adds an epenthetic vowel if the clipped word ends in a closed syllable. Blending selects words from any two lexical sourcesː hybrid blends or from one lexical sourceː non-hybrid blends. Twenty-one affixes were identified: eighteen suffixes ( [-a], [-e], [-i], [-aly], [-o], [-ed], [-est], [-ful], [-ie], [- ing], [-s], [-is], [-ite], [-ito], [-late], [-licious], [-koko] ) and three prefixes ( [dis-], [re-], [mis-] ). Twenty of the affixes identified are derivational, one is inflectional. Suffixes yield nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Prefixes yield verbs. Reduplication operates by copying whole or part of a word resulting in intensification or creation of lexical items There are two classes of compounds. Class 1 compounds have an initial high, while class 2 compounds have an initial non-high prosody. Lexical category conversion results in the change of word class without any overt morphological change. Words in Naija may become grammaticalised, transforming from lexical words to functional words grammaticalised (ímPART /ĩ́/ (< ímPro /ím/), mákeAUX /mék/ (< mákeVERB /mék/), tákeAUX /ték/ (< takeVERB /ték/), conAUX /kɔ̃́/ (< comeVERB / /kɔ̃́m/). Acronymisation manifests in the formation of lexical items from acronyms (itk /aǐtǐké/ (< I too know), oyo /ǒwaǐó/ (<on your own). Lexical elaboration in Naija is driven by morpho-phonological processes which are employed to create new words.