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Africa Knows! It is time to decolonise minds

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Accepted Paper: D27b-13. To panel D27b.

Title of paper:

Author:

Abisoye Eleshin (University of Lagos).

Long abstract paper:
The widespread and acceptability of slang in the narratives of an urban African speech community is not unconnected with the indigenous structure of the society which allows close and steady communication among language users. One of the motivations for the spread of slang is the interactive condition of a speech communities. The conceptualization of slang in a society is strongly characterized by social groups and informal language-use (cf. Hatmann & James 1998, Saliyeva 2008). Lagos is a Nigerian city with Yoruba as the lingua franca. The city can be described as a potpourri of diverse sociolinguistic interaction in Nigeria with massive use of slang. This study examines the derivation, contents, structure and usage of slang involving Yoruba lexicons in Lagos. Population boost in Lagos has helped in the creation of numerous social groups, among which is the university community where students constitute a significant percentage of the population. This research will examine the use of slang with Yoruba lexicon among University students. Even though the language of instruction in the university is English, it is observed that the language of slang is mostly always Yoruba, which is the lingua franca of the immediate speech environment. This paper will investigate the reason why Yoruba is easily adopted for slang in the academic space despite the conspicuous representation of different ethnic nationals. Mixed research methodology is employed for this study. A certain number of students will be interviewed in order to investigate their proficiency level in the use of slang. Questionnaire method will be employed to evaluate the general opinion of both Yoruba and non-Yoruba university students as to the derivation, construction and spread of slang in their immediate environment. Furthermore, linguistic and sociolinguistic analysis of the slang will be done which will involve the semantic analysis of the slangs. Grammatical inquiry including morphosyntactic investigation will also be carried out. To achieve this, the generative theory of grammar and the foregrounding theory will serve as framework for the theoretical analysis. It is hypothesized that natural language should be represented with informal linguistic and sociocultural narratives. Therefore, this study is an attempt to reinvigorate the slang involving Yoruba language as a communication pattern of the traditional African community.

Keywords: Slang, Conventionalized, Morphosyntactic, Derivation, Lingua-franca.

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