innyobong okon | University of Uyo, Uyo, Nigeria (original) (raw)

Papers by innyobong okon

A closer and critical look at the vocabulary of English reveals that the language is one of the r... more A closer and critical look at the vocabulary of English reveals that the language is one of the richest- in the terms of vocabulary – in the world. The aims of this research word therefore is to bring out the reasons why English vocabulary is so rich with words which are most of the time not pronounced according to the known English phonological systems. It also attempts to reveal the puzzle where English vocabulary is full of synonyms.

Since this is an empirical research, previous works on English words were thoroughly and critically examined. The resultant findings showed that the English words we have today came from several sources and languages. And that they came into English vocabulary either historically or culturally. Historically, where English tessitory was colonized at different times by foreign powers with their diverse languages. Culturally, were the Englishman, through Cultural contacts, intermingled with the people from other linguistic groups and therefore borrowed some of their words either consciously or unconsciously, to expand their vocabulary. This resulted in a situation where sometimes words were borrowed from two or three languages to account for one entity or idea. This situation accounts for the reason whereby English vocabulary is rich with synonyms.

The situation with English is a good example of how a natural language can be expanded with words from other languages to account for phenomena, ideas and things which are not indigenous to the language. This will help in no small way especially in a changing world like ours where new items are daily being manufactured and distributed to all the nooks and crannies of the world. It will also help in this era where ideas are being discovered across the world.

Tutuola and Achebe are among the most outstanding Nigerian writers who have carved a niche for th... more Tutuola and Achebe are among the most outstanding Nigerian writers who have carved a niche for themselves through their unique and peculiar styles of writing. In appreciating their novels therefore, attempt is made in this research to identify and expound the different elements and features of their mother tongues, and their (mother tongues) influences on the language medium of their novels. The findings is based on a careful study of the languages of the two texts, and the isolation of the features which are not indigenous to the grammatical rules, conventions and practices of English – the language medium of their texts. Emphasis in this paper is only placed on linguistic features rather than on literary elements like proverbs, rhetoric, legend, fable, allusion etc.

Also, particular attention is given to words, phrases and some expressions and how their choices have successfully enhance, or otherwise, the intended meaning of the writers. In other words, lexical and semantic features are looked into, and phonological devices, graphology and syntactic structures are not covered in this particular study.

Dr Chris Egharevba is a well known Marxist who employs the doctrine of the Marxist ideology into ... more Dr Chris Egharevba is a well known Marxist who employs the doctrine of the Marxist ideology into his writings. His choice of words, phrases, clauses and sentences clearly portrays his beliefs and ideological leanings. This study tries to identify the sentence pattern used by Egharevba in his thunder series: Canopy of Thunder, Voices of Thunder and Legacy of Thunder. In doing this, sentences are randomly chosen from the three books under review.

This study applies the Marxist sociological theory which exposes how the oppressed can be conscious and disillusioned with their present state and march in solidarity to revolt against the oppressive class. This is believed will restructure the political system and guarantee the social stability. It applies the Freudian psychoanalysis and, to some extent, the Jungian archetypal criticism to the centrality of pain. Freudian psychoanalysis exposes the battered psyche of the traumatized masses and even that of the writer as outflow of accumulative, spontaneous more than the spur-of-the moment impulses. In Freudian psychoanalysis, therefore, a literary work is adjudged to have sprung from the battered psyche of a writer as evidenced in the linguistic elements employed in artistic works.

The systemic grammar by M. A. K. Halliday helps in explaining the structural and functional elements of the syntactic features in trilogy. The syntactic features shape the language of the trilogy as it is a known fact that, language is a product of mental processes. Different syntactic elements deployed in the trilogy conformed to the traditional grammatical rules governing sentence formation while some violated the rule. This stylistically confirms the non implementation of human rights in the society. The structural sentences comprise simple to compound complex sentences. Stylistically, this showcases the simple tone of persuasion by the political leaders while campaigning for political appointment but become harsh and complex while on the seat of governance. It also represents the complex nature of vices.

The research of this paper was conducted to analyse the English language spoken and written by me... more The research of this paper was conducted to analyse the English language spoken and written by members of the Nigeria Police during their official operations. The objectives were to establish whether the Nigeria Police Force officially uses the English language in a unique way, to determine what accounts for this uniqueness in the language of the Nigeria Police, to identify and analyse the speech features employed by the Nigeria Police, to examine the effects of such use of language on the behaviour and performance of members of the Nigeria Police, and to determine what insights the language of the Police bring into language use. Data used for the study were from selected Police signals and oral interviews granted by serving members of the Nigeria Police. The study analysed the syntactic and semantic features of the language of the police using M.A.K. Halliday's systemic grammar model as the theological framework. The study also outlined some lexical items and their meanings in the language of the Nigeria Police Force. Findings revealed that the Nigeria Police officially use the English Language in a unique way, which makes it a distinct speech community. We recommended that owing to the nature of Police duties which dictate the nature of Police language, government, through the Police Public Relations Committees across the states should create awareness for members of the public to appreciate why the Police must maintain group exclusiveness in their use of language; that the Police should understand and show restrain in the way they relate with members of the public, that the word "FORCE" be excised from the present name of the organization for it to be known as the Nigeria Police, as this will boost the civility content of the language, and the teachers in police colleges should teach them the use of civil terms with members of the public which they are meant to interact with and save in most cases.

The research of this paper was conducted to analyse the English language written by members of th... more The research of this paper was conducted to analyse the English language written by members of the Nigeria Police during their official operations. The objectives were to establish whether the Nigeria Police Force officially uses the English language in a unique way, to determine what accounts for this uniqueness in the language of the Nigeria Police, to identify and analyse the graphological features employed by the Nigeria Police, to examine the effects of such use of language on the behaviour and performance of members of the Nigeria Police, and to determine what insights the language of the Police bring into language use. Data used for the study were from selected Police signals. The study analysed the graphological features of the language of the police using M.A.K. Halliday's systemic grammar model as the theological framework. Findings revealed that the Nigeria Police officially use the English Language in a unique way, which makes it a distinct speech community. We recommended that owing to the nature of Police duties which dictate the nature of Police language, government, through the Police Public Relations Committees across the states should create awareness for members of the public to appreciate why the Police must maintain group exclusiveness in their use of language; that the Police should understand and show restrain in the way they relate with members of the public, that the word "FORCE" be excised from the present name of the organization for it to be known as the Nigeria Police, as this will boost the civility content of the language, and the teachers in police colleges should teach them the use of civil terms with members of the public which they are meant to interact with and save in most cases.

This work, Negation in Nigerian English: A Study of Deviation from the Norm, examined the use of ... more This work, Negation in Nigerian English: A Study of Deviation from the Norm, examined the use of Negation in Nigerian English with a view to discovering and ascertaining the degree of compliance to or deviation from the norm of usage by Nigerian speakers of English. It made use of data collected through the use of questionnaires administered on a sampled 35 Educated Nigerians (respondents) made up of 5 university lecturers, 15 final year students of the Department of English and 15 final year students of the Science Education Department. Out of the 5 Lecturers, 3 were drawn from the Department of English, while one each came from the Department of History and Political Science respectively. This selection was preferred because at these levels the respondents have considerable fluency, a variety of English which although characterized by Nigeria phonological and lexical content, occasionally approaches native speakers standard. The study was divided into two broad sectors. The fist concentrated on a brief examination of the syntactic and semantic features of Negation in English, while the second discussed deviations from the norms in the use of negation in Nigerian English. At the end of the study, it was ascertained that Nigerians do deviate from the norm in the use of Negation in English. Reasons for these were given and suggestions aimed at improving the situation were made.

Self-assertion is not the only theme in Samuel Selvon’s The Brighter Sun. It is just one of the d... more Self-assertion is not the only theme in Samuel Selvon’s The Brighter Sun. It is just one of the different themes of Caribbean literary works. In understanding the theme of Caribbean literary works, one has to study the history of Caribbean region to be able to appreciate why the literary artist of that region write the way they do, and therefore discover their preoccupation. Their zeal to write was fired by the socio-political, economic and social realities of the zone. Apart from the aborigines that the colonialist met on their “discovering” of what they called the “New World”, through slavery and slave trade, we have indigenes from Africa and Asia who were added to the Caribbean region. The European colonialists saw these people who were blacks and coloured as being less than humans. They were enslaved, maltreated and subjected to varied forms of inhuman treatment. But with time, these people grew into self-consciousness and self realization that they should not accept such ill-treatment from the colonialists. This necessitated the effort by writers to inspire the Caribbean with different literary works, through the exploration of different themes that would spur the people to action. This paper tries to explore extensively the attempt by Samuel Selvon to portray the theme of self-assertion as it affects the citizens of the Caribbean as exemplified by Tiger. We will not look at how the author portrays other themes and sub-themes in the text. Time and space would allow us to look at how other Caribbean writers portray the theme of self-assertion in their different literary works.

This is a research into the word formation processes of the Nigerian English-based pidgin. The co... more This is a research into the word formation processes of the Nigerian English-based pidgin. The corpus-based research method was used to identify the word formation processes of the Nigerian English-based pidgin, examine the concept of creativity in relation the Nigerian English-based pidgin, to suggest a unified spelling system for English-based pidgin words, and to compile a corpus of English-based pidgin words in circulation. The data used in this research reflect the linguistic backgrounds of the Nigerian people and also show how their languages help in constituting the word stock in English-based pidgin. Also, some words and expression were collected from a novel entitled Sozaboy written by a Nigerian author, Ken Saro-Wiwa, who uses the Nigerian English-based pidgin in his writings. Some extracts from the United Nations Information Handbooks were also added to the collection. From an examination of the corpus, the following findings were made: the Nigerian English-based pidgin forms its plural by the placement of an independent particle, the agentive morpheme. It was also discovered that verbs in the Nigerian English-based pidgin do not inflect to show tense, and that some indigenous Nigerian languages contribute to the word stock of the Nigerian English-based pidgin words form adjectives through the process of reduplication. it was also concluded that the Nigerian English-based pidgin is a distinct language and not a dialect of the English language.

This paper deals with the structure of words in Nigerian English-based pidgin and the analysis of... more This paper deals with the structure of words in Nigerian English-based pidgin and the analysis of word forms. It also attempts a validation of the preoccupation of theoretical linguistics which has to do with the investigation of the word structure and the rules which govern the formation of words in Nigerian English-based pidgin. The corpus-based research method was used to identify the structure of the Nigerian English-based pidgin, examine the concept of creativity in relation the Nigerian English-based pidgin, and to compile a corpus of English-based pidgin words in circulation. The data used in this research reflect the linguistic backgrounds of the Nigerian people and also show how their languages help in constituting the word stock in English-based pidgin. From an examination of the corpus, the following findings were made: the Nigerian English-based pidgin forms its plural by the placement of an independent particle, the agentive morpheme. It was also discovered that verbs in the Nigerian English-based pidgin do not inflect to show tense, and that some indigenous Nigerian languages contribute to the word stock of the Nigerian English-based pidgin words form adjectives through the process of reduplication. it was also concluded that the Nigerian English-based pidgin is a distinct language and not a dialect of the English language.

A Nation Adrift: A Study of J.P. Clark-Bekederemo’s The Raft and Femi Osofisan’s Another Raft is... more A Nation Adrift: A Study of J.P. Clark-Bekederemo’s The Raft and Femi Osofisan’s Another Raft is a critical examination of the degenerating state of Nigeria. Though the two plays handle the same subject matter, they differ in their treatment. The Raft uses the conventional Aristotelian technique; Another Raft employs the language of contemporary speech, songs, dirges and chants. These differences are attributed to the author’s different ideologies.
The struggle towards change and development in our comprehensive and inhuman society is part of the responsibilities and duties that the playwright owes his society. Hence, he creates awareness about the economic, social and political aberrations of the society and also helps to provide concrete and redeemable solutions to such inconvenient situations.
The writer observes with utmost disdain the subservient place arrogated to the playwright in the society which always results in numerous inhuman treatment being meted out to him in form of incarceration, murder, exile, etc. thus, the writer sets out to show the social relevance of the playwright and his role in ensuring a nationally developed society.

A closer and critical look at the vocabulary of English reveals that the language is one of the r... more A closer and critical look at the vocabulary of English reveals that the language is one of the richest – in terms of vocabulary – in the world. The aims of this research work therefore is to bring out the reasons why English vocabulary is so rich with word which are most of the time not pronounced according to the known English phonological systems. It also attempts to unravel the puzzle where English vocabulary is full of synonyms.

Since this is an empirical research, previous works on English words were thoroughly and critically examined. The resultant findings showed that the English words we have today came from several sources and languages. The research reveals that they came into English vocabulary either historically or culturally. Historically – where English territory was colonized at different times by foreign powers with their diverse languages. Culturally – where the Englishmen, through cultural contacts, intermingled with the people from other linguistic groups and therefore borrowed some of their words either consciously or unconsciously, to expand their vocabulary. This resulted in a situation where sometimes words were borrowed from two or three languages to account for one entity or idea. This situation accounts for the reason whereby English vocabulary is rich with synonyms.

Important as it is to explore all areas through which English language got words to enrich its vocabulary, for lack of space, this paper will not include the influences from the languages of the Low Countries like Flemish, Dutch, and Low German. Also, other cultural influences on the vocabulary of English like Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Indian, Hindustan, Tibetan, Chinese, Malayo-Polynesian, languages from Near Middle and Far East, and others, will not be covered here. This is primarily because their influence on the vocabulary of English was not so great.

A closer and critical look at the vocabulary of English reveals that the language is one of the r... more A closer and critical look at the vocabulary of English reveals that the language is one of the richest – in terms of vocabulary – in the world. The aims of this research work therefore is to bring out the reasons why English vocabulary is so rich with word which are most of the time not pronounced according to the known English phonological systems. It also attempts to unravel the puzzle where English vocabulary is full of synonyms.

Since this is an empirical research, previous works on English words were thoroughly and critically examined. The resultant findings showed that the English words we have today came from several sources and languages. The research reveals that they came into English vocabulary either historically or culturally. Historically – where English territory was colonized at different times by foreign powers with their diverse languages. Culturally – where the Englishmen, through cultural contacts, intermingled with the people from other linguistic groups and therefore borrowed some of their words either consciously or unconsciously, to expand their vocabulary. This resulted in a situation where sometimes words were borrowed from two or three languages to account for one entity or idea. This situation accounts for the reason whereby English vocabulary is rich with synonyms.