Chapter Twenty-Four Morpho-Syntactic Analysis of Yorùbá Pet Names (original) (raw)
2022, Trends in Yorùbá Language, Literature and Culture
Introduction The term Names, according to Ogunwale (2016: 218), 'are semantic distinguisher through which opportunity exists for narrowing down the conceptual range of a denotata to afford specificity'. A semantic interpretation of this preceding definition posits that through names, entities, concepts or objects are functionally distinguishable and correctly identified from one another. In line with Oke's (2003: 18) submission, names, as aspect of culture, are the most important and influential idea in the twentieth century's social thought. This view reiterates Yorùbá's cultural belief on the socio-cultural functions of names in serving as social reality and identity that distinguish individuals from one another. As part of folk literature, names exert enormous influence on Yoruba people hence; they assign names that reflect their general lifestyle and experiences. The last assertion corroborates Yusuf's (2014: 187) view on names as an agent which symbolises peoples` culture'. Observably, Yorùbá people ascribe names to their children based on different factors among of which are the circumstances that surround the birth of a child, the profession of the family into which the baby is borne, the condition of the child at birth, the state of parents or family characteristics as well as the religious totem of the family. This assertion serves as evidence on why Yoruba children may have different names. As presented in some of the previous scholarly research works on Yoruba naming
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