Incipient Grammatical Variation in Educated English Use in Nigeria: A Decline in the Use of the -s Third Person Singular Verb Inflection in Nigerian Newspapers
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18533/5zyahb39Keywords:
Key words and phrases: incipient grammatical variation, third person singular,-s verbal inflection, Nigerian print media, educated English useAbstract
The -s inflection performs two functions in grammatical number. It is a marker of plurality in count-nouns and singularity in lexical verbs. This study observes a decline in the use of the -s third person singular, present tense inflection in lexical verbs in Nigerian newspapers and investigates this phenomenon to establish its significance. Data collected from news reports and feature stories in a cross-section of Nigerian newspapers over a period of seven years (2015 to 2021) were examined. The study is situated within variation theory; it adopts observational, quantitative and interpretive methods of enquiry. The findings reveal that the use of the -s third person singular, present tense inflection in lexical verbs is declining in new generation Nigerian newspapers and the uninflected verb form is increasingly replacing it. This suggests an incipient, morphosyntactic variation, emerging in the Nigerian print media. The study also counters existing literature which asserts that variation does not occur in educated written language.
References
References
Adger, David & Trousdale, Graeme. 2007. Variation in English syntax: theoretical implications. Volume 11, Issue 2: 261-278. (Special issue on English dialect syntax) Published online by Cambridge University Press on 12 July 2007. Retrieved on 16 Dec. 2016 from https://doi.org/10.1017 S1360674307002250
Alo, Moses. A. & Mesthrie, Rajend. 2004. Nigerian English: morphology and syntax. In B. Kortmann & E. W. Schnider (Eds.). A handbook of varieties of English: a multimedia reference tool. Vol.2. Berlin: Mouton de Gryter. 323 – 339.
Ayeomoni, Stella. A & Akande, Timothy. A. 2013. Aspect in Standard Nigerian and American English. Ibadan Journal of English Studies. 9. 103 – 118.
Bamiro, E. 1995. Syntactic Variation in West African English. World Englishes. 142. 189 – 204.
Bussman, Hadumond. 2006. Routledge dictionary of language and Linguistics. London: Taylor and Francis.
Crystal, David. 2008. A dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. Sixth edition. U. K. Blackwell Publishers.
Embick, David. 2008.Variation and morphosyntactic theory: competition fractionated. Language and Linguistics Compass. 2.1. 59 – 78.
Honeybone, Patrick. 2011. Variation and linguistic theory. In M. Warren & M. Mcahon (Eds.), Analyzing variation in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 151 -- 177.
Jowitt, David. 1991. Nigerian English usage: an Introduction. Lagos: Longman.
………. 1994. The English of Nigerian newspapers. English Today. 10. 04: 23-28.
Kroch, Anthony. 1994. Morphosytactic variation. In K. Beals, J. Denton, R. Knippen, L. Melnar, H. Susuki & E. Zeinfield (Eds.) Papers from the 30th Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society: Parrasession on variation and linguistic theory. 180-201.
Labov, Willian. 1971. Some principles of linguistic methodology. Language in society. 1: 97-120.
………. 1981. What can be inferred about change in progress from synchronic descriptions? In D. Sankoff and H. Cedergren (Eds.), Variation Omnibus. [NWAVE VIII]. Edmonton, Alberta: Linguistic Research.
………. 1984. Field methods of the project on linguistic change and variation. In J. Baugh & J. Sherzer (Eds.), Language in use. Englewoods Cliffs: New Jersey: Prentice Hall. 28-53. GURT '84: 43-70.
Lado, Robert. 1957. Linguistics across cultures. Michigan: University of MichiganPress.
Nigeria: news & media: open directory project. Most widely read Nigerian newspapers. Retrieved January 5, 2015 from www.dmoz.org
Nigeria newspapers worldcat. USA.Most widely read Nigerian newspapers. Retrieved January 5, 2015 from www.worldcat.org
Poplack, Shana.1993. variation theory and language contact. In D. Preston (Ed.) American dialect research: an anthology celebrating the 100th anniversary of the American dialect society. 251-263. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Quirk, Randolph, Greenbaum, Sidney, Leech, Geoffrey & Svartvik, Jan. 1985. A Grammar of Contemporary English. USA. New York: Seminar Press Inc.
Sankoff, David. 1982. Sociolinguistic method and linguistic theory. In L. Cohen et al (Eds.), Logic, methodology, Philosophy of Science VI. Amsterdam: North Holland. 679 -- 687.
………. 1988. Sociolinguistics and syntactic variation. In Frederick Newmeyer (Ed.), Linguistics: the Cambridge survey. New York: Cambridge University Press. 140-161.
Sankoff, Gillian & Labov, William. 1985. Variation theory. Paper presented at NWAVE-XIV. Georgetown University.
Svartvik, Jan & Leech, Geoffrey. 2006. English: one tongue, many voices. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Taiwo, Rotimi. 2013. Morphosyntactic features of Nigerian English. In Bernd Kourtmann (Ed.), The Mouton World Atlas of Variation in English (WAVE). Berlin: Mouton de Gryter. 410 – 416
Weinreich, Uriel. Labov, William. & Herzog, Marvin. 1968. Empirical foundations for a theory of language change. In Lehmann, W. P. & Malkiel, Y. (eds.), Directions for historical linguistics. Austin: University of Texas Press. 95–188.
Wolfram, Walt. 2006. Variation and language, an overview. In Encyclopedia of language and Linguistics. 2nd edition. New York: Elsevier.
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Bernadette Ogbonna
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
