A Variationist Analysis of Zero Quotative in Nigerian English (original) (raw)

2024, Dutsin-Ma Journal of English and Literature (DUJEL)

This study explores the ways speakers of Nigerian English recreate their own speech and the speech of others in narrative discourse using zero quotative. It investigates how the speaker's choice of zero quotative is constrained by both linguistic (the content of the quote, grammatical person of the quotative, and tense/time reference of the quotative) and social (age, regional origin, sex, and social class) factors. The quotative forms in this study were transcribed from sociolinguistic interviews conducted with 180 participants in Nigeria. The study adopts Variationist Sociolinguistics (Labov 1963, 1966; Tagliamonte 2012), using a mixed-methods approach that relies on both quantitative and qualitative analyses. For multivariate analysis of the quotative forms, a statistical program called Rbrul (Johnson, 2009) was used. The findings establish that zero quotative has an important presence in Nigerian English and the speakers of this variety of English use zero quotative in marking dramatic effects and creating immediacy. This study offers insight into understanding the mechanisms of linguistic change and how zero quotative functions in Nigerian English.