Reduplication in Nigerian English
Reduplication in Nigerian English
Abstract of Reduplication in Nigerian English
This research work is concerned with reduplication in Nigerian English from the speeches and utterances of some students in the Department of Modern European Languages and Linguistics, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto. The study shows that reduplication occurs to signify contrastive meaning, pluralism, emphasis and creation of new words with different semantic forms. Reduplication was therefore further discovered to be one of the features of Nigerian English.
Chapter One of Reduplication in Nigerian English
INTRODUCTION
Reduplication is a morphological process in which the root of a word or a part of it is repeated. In many languages, reduplication is used in inflections to convey grammatical functions and in lexical derivations to create semantic functions. Kachru (1982) noted that the reduplication of items belongs to various word classes. For instance, some English words are often reduplicated or repeated consecutively, either for emphasis, pluralisation or to create new meanings. Bobda (1994) identified three categories of words which generally undergo the process of reduplication; numerals, intensifiers and quantifiers.
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Reduplication is an important phenomenon in language studies. Its attributes have long been studied in terms of various formalist theories. However, there is a general consensus that the role of reduplication in English language has been widely ignored.