literature review on investigated the syntactic analysis of reduplication in Nigerian pidgin using the formal descriptive method of analysis
LITERATURE
REVIEW
2.0 Introduction
This
chapter deals with the theoretical framework adopted for this research,
conceptual review and empirical review.
2.1 Theoretical framework
Several
scholars have put forward different theories in an attempt to account for the
origin of pidgin. As presented by Elugbe and Omanor (1991) cited in Ayuwo
(2013) these theories include:
2.1.1 The baby-talk theory
The
theory states that European sailors and explorers arrived south East Asia and
Africa in the 15th century for trading purposes. They could not
bring themselves to learn the native language of their subjects, whom they
likened to “linguistically small children” (Ayuwo 2013:125). The theory sees
pidgin as the imperfect mastery of a language of which in its initial stage in
the child with its first language and in the group within a second language
learnt by imperfect method, leads to superficial knowledge of the most
indispensable words with total disregard of grammar.
The
theory implies that the Europeans did not attempt to simplify their speech so
they resorted to “baby talking” when communicating with the natives. This raised
some doubt because, it failed to explain why pidgin is often mutually
unintelligible with the language they are suppose to come from.
2.1.2 Independent Parallel Development Theory
The
theory states that the similarities that exist between pidgin languages can be
accounted for by acknowledgement that these languages all derive from the
Indo-European Stock. Ayuwo (2013) views that with regards to the Atlantic
varieties, the majority of speakers share “a common west African substratum”
and has to come to terms with physical and social condition. As convincing as
this theory may be, it fails to account for the structural and lexical common
feature noticeable in Atlantic and Pacific pidgin.
2.1.3 The Nautical Jargon Theory
The
theory suggests that the sailors’ lingua franca formed the core of pidgin and
creole language. According to Ayuwo (2013), the sailor and crew who were made
of men from different nationalities needed a common language to communicate
amongst themselves. Holmes (1998) claims that pidgins are real languages not
baby talk, because they are used for serious purposes (p.81). The sailors’
lingua franca provides this need which was expanded according to the model of
the learner’s mother tongue. Decamp (1987) describes pidgin as an incidental
communicate language within a multilingual settings which is the native
language of nobody. The theory helps to account for the similarities and
dissimilarities of pidgins of the world.
2.1.4 The monogenetic/relexification theory
This
theory postulates that all European language based pidgins derive from a
fifteenth century Portuguese pidgin (Todd 1974:33). This may be possible
because of the early European trade contact with Africans which was dominated
by Portuguese-based trade language (Ayuwo 2013:128).
2.1.5 The synthesis approach
According
to Ayuwo (2013), this theory assumes that pidgins are due to the universal
patterns of linguistic behaviour appropriate to contact situations. It
postulates that pidgins are similar because languages are similar and
simplification processes are basically the same.
2.1.6 The Neo-African language hypothesis
Ayuwo
(2013) cited Elugbe and Omanor (1991) asserts that the need for communication
between Europeans and Africans was responsible for the rise of pidgin. Those
who have had contact with Europeans learnt to speak their language in
substandard form.
2.2 Conceptual review
In
this subsection, we consider the definitions of pidgin, origin of pidgin in
Nigeria, the development of pidgin in Nigeria, status and role of Nigerian
pidgin, internal structure of Nigerian pidgin and reduplication.
2.2.1 Definitions of pidgin
The
term pidgin does not have a universal definition it has been defined by
different scholars based on their different area of research.
According
to Brumfit and Roberts (1983), pidgin is a language composed of elements of two
or more languages and used only for the purpose of contact and especially for
trading, between people speaking different languages but not serving as a
mother-tongue. This definition shows that pidgin was a supplementary language
arising as a result of certain communication need, whose users are people of
different linguistics background. The language was created for the purpose of
commerce and to satisfy communication needs amongst people.
For
a language to be true pidgin: two conditions must be met, its grammatical
structure and its vocabulary must be reduced (Hall 1966:12). This is because they serve a very narrow
range of function in a very restricted set of domain. Todd (1974) defines,
pidgin as a marginal language which arises to reveal certain restricted
communication need among people who have reveal certain restricted
communication needs among people who have no common language. Pidgin is no
one’s native language.
Pidgin
is a language which has arisen as a result of contact between people of
different languages. There must be language contact as a result of culture
contact. The resultant language must be mixed (UNESCO 1963). This assertion was
countered by Ayuwo (2013). He argued that pidgin is not mixed. What is
partially mixed is the lexicon which is adapted to the sound system of the
lexifier language. A pidgin has its grammar, phonology, morphology and
semantics. He also added that the process of pidginization requires at least
three languages, one of which is dominant over the others. If only two
languages are involved, there is likely to be a direct struggle of dominant,
the speaker of two or more inferior languages appear to play a crucial role in
the development of pidgin. The dominance language is called the superstrate
(and sometimes the lexifier language) and the inferior language the substrate.
2.2.2 The origin of pidgin in Nigeria
Pidgin
in Nigeria dates as far back as the 1400s when the first contact was made
between Europeans and Africans in the West coast of Africa. Ryde (1969) puts
the data of first contact no further back than 1469. History also has it that
the Portuguese who were established traders of this coast, were the first
Europeans in 1472 to visit West Africa. They used Sabir which was the lingua
franca of the Mediterraneam. Odumah (1987:1) states that a Portuguese pidgin
developed from attempts by Portuguese traders to speak Sabir, an already
pidginized form. The result was a language called ‘Fotoko’ a Portuguese pidgin,
which was used as a language of trade between Europeans and Africans as a trade
language. It died out as its usefulness was fulfilled and was replaced by an
English based pidgin.
History
also states that the first contact between Nigeria and European group was
between the Portuguese and the coastal people of the Niger Delta (Elugbe and
Omamor, 1991). It was in this first contact that all type of Jargon developed
between the Portuguese visitors and the Nigerian trading partners. The
Portuguese could not automatically communicate with their Nigerian host in
Sabir, which as pervasive lingua Franca of the trade world in the age of discovery. Elugbe and Omamor
(1991) said “we are of the opinion that the speech form that developed between
the Portuguese and their Nigerian host was some kind of very limited Portuguese,
i.e. some kind of pidgin Portuguese. Evidence in support of this position is to
be found in a very curious situation is Sao Tomense, the Creole of Sao Tome, an
Inland in the Gulf of Guinea”.
According
to Ferraz (1978), Sao Tomense is a Portuguese based pidgin. The Nigeria delta
(also includes the Fdoid and related languages such as Edo (Benin). Isoko,
Urhobo and Itsekiri) ended speaking some kind of Portuguese pidgin.
However,
what we have today is not a Portuguese Nigerian pidgin, something must have
happened to the marginal language which developed between the Portuguese and
the Nigerian, thus according to Elughe and Omamor (1991:5) the conditions which
gave rise to a ‘jargonized’ Portuguese cease to exist when the Portuguese were
forced to terminate their interest in Nigeria. Had the Portuguese continued in
Nigeria, the original contact language would have expanded. Nigeria pidgin is
among the most widely spoken languages in Nigeria and yet the least documented.
An
estimated thirty million people speak Nigerian pidgin in Nigeria (faradas
1986:9) and there is continued spread in places such as the south eastern part
of Nigeria, where it is said to be spoken by at least two million people, it
has been suggested that the language itself is creolizing, this however, has
brought some sort of controversy. For example Marchese and Schnuk al (1982:217)
says of the pidgin in Warri “it has without doubt, become the lingua franca and
according to the formal criteria of creolization it is definitely the creole of
the community in the region.
2.2.3 Development of pidgin in Nigeria
The
development of Nigerian pidgin in Nigeria is as a result of the multi-lingual
situation in Nigeria and the presence of the English language. Other factors
are trade, education and internal mobility-in Nigeria, as Bamgbose in Spencer
(1971: 36) estimates… there are about 400 local languages in Nigeria.
Urbanization
in Nigeria required that a central language became essential. This is because
urban centres now comprised people of different tribes who speak various
comprised people of different tribes who speak various languages. Ofiaja
(1989:7) specifically point out that:
“Pidgin English, which is
central to the lives of many Nigerians, is essential a product of urbanization.
The rapidly growing towns have become the melting pots of many tribes and
races…”.
It
is safe to say that Nigeria pidgin emerged as there was a need for a contact
language in trade, during socialization process of children from various tribes
who interact with one another, for informal communication of by Junior staff in
the office. In the case of trade, it eases the stress of communication for the
buyer and seller alike, thus creating easy means of transaction. Some children
in the urban areas also find the Nigerian pidgin useful in communicating
effectively with their playmates especially when they are of different tribes.
It is also a contact language for families living on large compounds or yards,
where they all come from different tribes. It is also a contact language for
families living in large compounds or yards, where they all come from different
tribes. Most primary and secondary schools pupils use it unofficially to
interact with their friends at schools and in the case of inter-tribal marriages,
the husband and wife use pidgin as their contact language so as to fully
understand each other.
2.2.4 Spread and maturity of pidgin in Nigeria
Nigerian
pidgin can be said to be matured and spreading because it has left its basic
function as a contact language to operate as a language of primary importance
for many towns, children and parents. The factors responsible for this
development are education, urbanization, rise in status, use in literary works
and realization.
Pidgin
is the beginning point of a Creole and there is evidence to prove that pidgin
is creolizing in some areas of Nigeria like Warri in other words, it is now the
first language of a speech community (Marchese and Shnukal 1980).
In
relation to creolization, a lot of argument has been put up as to whether
Nigerian pidgin could be regarded as creolizing. Donwa-Ifode (1983:203)
maintains that:…
If creolizing means a situation where
pidgin has become common first language or a primary language or given
community then Nigerian pidgin is well on the way to becoming a creole.
Donwa-Ifode
stated further that if this situation is true of creole then creolized should
give another definition as to what happens in Sierra Leone. Her reason is that
speakers of Nigerian pidgin have another language different from standard
English with which they identify with, unlike the speakers of Kno who have
standard English as the only other languages. But going by Hall (2005)
distinction between pidgin and creole Nigerian pidgin can conveniently be said to
be a creole. Mafeni in Spencer (1971:95) has this to say to Hall’s distinction
as it concerns creoles.
A
first language which has developed out of an original pidgin, and as a result
of becoming the mother tongue of a community, expanded its resources and
functions.
From
Hall (2005) assertion and with the present situation of things in most
developing cities in Nigeria, one cannot help but agree with him. This is
because Nigerian pidgin is now used in the homes of the uneducated where they
do not need it as a contact language. And its presence in homes may be due to
multilingualism arising from inter-tribal marriages, where the husband and wife
use pidgin and then their children pick it up, using it in their neighbourhood
with other children, and from here the spread continues.
Ofiaja
(2006: p6) also states that students of higher institution in Nigeria use
Nigerian pidgin during light and non academic conversation amongst themselves
(Ofiaja, 1989:9). According to Dadzie (1987), the growth of Nigerian pidgin is
being hindered by the problem of orthography. Some of the words used in Pidgin
are not English words and therefore should not be seen as such, rather there
should be a conscious effort to write the words as they are pronounced.
The
author also noted that Nigerian pidgin is widely used. it is not restricted
only by trade, it is used extensively among students especially those in
Federal schools as an informal code. It is also noted that in some parts of
Delta, the people use it as their first language. According to Dadzie (1987)
with it continued spread, Nigeria pidgin started raising its status in Nigeria,
thought it has not gained official and governmental acceptance, literary artist
use it in their works. The mass media and entertainment industry use Nigerian
pidgin, with most performing artiste using them on their works and most
literary artists who use pidgin in their works too, to show class differences
or the mentality of the people or person they are writing about.
It
is used by the mass media such as the radio, television and newspapers.
Thereby, giving credence to the common man, because the majority of the people
who will buy the products are the ordinary people to whom pidgin is more
acceptable than the Standard English. This is because they know the importance
of pidgin in the lives of most Nigerians so it is used to augment news and
entertainment at the expense of Standard English and the indigenous languages.
The newspapers also have some of their columns done in pidgin. Example of such
newspaper and magazine includes, the Sunday Tide, Ikebe super etc. The world of
entertainment is not left out in the steady spread of the use of Nigerian
pidgin. Old and new musicians alike use pidgin in their songs. Thus, the use of
this language is one of the factors that contribute to its popularity.
2.2.5 Status and role of Nigerian pidgin
The
role pidgin plays and the social status it is given are quite different. In
terms of role, pidgin plays a very active part in the lives of Nigerians. This
is because it is used in important areas such as the mass media, entertainment
and arts.
Despite
its role in all these important areas, the various governments and the society
have refused to officially recognize the use of pidgin, thus refusing it recognition
as one of the languages in Nigeria.
But
the same government that has not officially permitted its use in any
educational institution use it to promote advertise and publicize its programs
in the electronic media in particular. Programs, jingles especially on family
planning, road safety and security of lives and properties are mostly produced
in Nigerian pidgin. The whole aim of the use of Nigerian pidgin is to get the
message across to a greater number of people than when such jingles are done with
the use of Standard English. But the function it renders notwithstanding, the
government has still refused to accept it as an official language.
In
Nigeria, Nigerian pidgin is widely spoken by many towns and city dwellers.
Nigerian pidgin plays an important role especially in the life of the young
ones; many of the young people in the city seem to be polyglots, using pidgin,
Standard English, and one or more Nigerian languages as occasion warrants. The
growth of Nigerian pidgin is being hindered by the influence of some parents
and schools authorities who have often discouraged its use because they
consider it a debased form of English and not a language in its own right.
Apart from the government not accepting Nigerian pidgin, societal attitude
towards pidgin is that of stigmatization. They see it as a language for
traders, the uneducated, touts and never-do-wells. The educated people only use
it when they come into contact with any of these people: even then, it is still
used on a minimal basis.
2.2.6 The internal structure of Nigerian
pidgin
Nigerian
Pidgin itself has guiding principles that constitute phrase structure rules.
Spencer
(1971:97) states that: Nigeria pidgin with which we are here concerned is
itself relatively complex and exhibits variety in form and in function, from
region to region and from community to community. If we are to postulate a West
African Pidgin related to English of which Nigerian pidgin, Cameroon pidgin,
Sierra lone krio among others are branches, it can be best seen at the present
state of research as sub-varieties of both pidgin and creole languages Spenser (1971:5)
says “that pidgin exisst in considerable variety, separable by register as well
as region”. Within Nigeria, various varieties of Nigeria pidgin have been cited.
These varieties in faradas (1986) are distinguished into: Mid-Western variety,
Eastern veriety, western variety and Northern variety. Within these regional
varieties are found among other dialects of Nigerian pidgin, such as Warri
Pidgin (from mid-western variety), Rivers State pidgin and Cross River State
pidgin (Eastern variety).
This
language has acquired great importance in its usage among Nigerians. Faradas
(1986:2) described it as a language which; “for many years has been useful to
all Nigerians but which has at the same time, been so underrated by those
responsible for language policy in Nigeria” it is sometimes said that Nigerian
pidgin is infact a ‘broken’ form of English and is a sub-standard form of
English.
Mafeni
(1971) examines the nature and structure of Nigerian pidgin. According to him,
Nigerian pidgin is essentially a product of the process of urbanization, while
its origin lie historically in the early contacts between the European and
African on the coast, its development and spread, is the result of contact
between Africans ‘it is a lingua franca for many as well as a mother tongue for
a number of families in certain areas and communities” according to him, the
different varieties found in the form and content of pidgin is as a result of
the identity of the various vernacular languages which have contributed to
their phonological, lexical and syntactic resources. He views pidgin language
as consisting of a “base language” –in this case English which is being
modified by one or more other languages, these languages are known as the
“substrate”. In Lagos the major substrate is Yoruba, while that of Port
Harcourt is Igbo.
Mafeni
(1971) identifies two problems connected with writing in Pidgin. The first is
lack of standard form of Nigerian pidgin; this is because the Nigerian pidgin
is a dialect cluster and there is no laid down rules and principles with which
it should be spoken. The second problem is the lack of a uniform orthography
for the language. He is of the view that Nigerian pidgin has a structure of its
own with similarities at certain levels and in varying degrees to English and
to the various substrates, although the bulk of the vocabulary is derived from
English. Some of the have been so modified that it is often difficult to tell
whether they have been adopted from English. For instance words like.
Pis- Urine or to urinate
Bobi- Breast
Shit- Excrement or to defecate
Words
such as these are hard to trace back to English either they are absolete or
they are derived from some regional dialect. The Nigerian pidgin is syllable
time and the intonation bears some relation to English but unlike English,
Nigerian pidgin is a tone language.
A
lot of people have their different views of the structure of Nigerian pidgin
but Elugbe and Omamor (1991:75) asserts that the views of Mafeni among the
best. According to Mafeni (1971) there are twenty four consonant phonemes and
seven oral vowels. He clearly does not recognize significant vowel
nasalization. He believes that consonant clusters are allowed at the beginning
and at the end of syllables (Elugbe and Omamor, 1991). At the peak of nucleus
of syllable, vowels and a syllabic nasal are allowed-thus:
sto ‘store’
a-ks ‘ask’
n-ko ‘so what? /what if?! What about?
For
Mafeni (1971) words such as ‘prawd’ (proud) and ‘smalyl (smile) end in
consonant clusters. There are thus no vowel sequences and no diphthong in
Nigerian pidgin (NP). Mafeni also analysed Nigerian pidgin as a tone language
which made him see Nigerian pidgin as a language requiring its own analysis.
According to Mafeni (1971) Nigerian pidgin has two tones: high tone [ ̄] and low tone [ ̀ ].
This distinctive function of tone is
observable in pan’s such as:
a.
(bà bà) ‘father’
(bábá) ‘barbe’
b.
(sīsì) ‘asiter, or a
female'
(sísì) ‘six as a number’
c.
(fàdá) ‘ a Roman Catholic Priest’
(fádá ‘father’
According
to Elugbe and Omamor (1991:77) Mafeni found out that Yoruba has the most
similar vowel and consonant system to Nigerian Pidgin. Mafeni (1971) cites as a
proof of this fact that the Nigerian Pidgin as he describes has seven oral
vowels which sounds like the Yoruba ones. The occurrence of (kp) and (gb) are found
in pidgin as well as in Yoruba.
A
different view of the structure of Nigerian pidgin was done by Elugbe and
Omamor (1991:79) twenty five consonants were used in a typical variety of the
Nigerian pidgin, words such as ‘measure’ may be pronounced /mE/ by some
speakers. /gg/ and /kp/ do not occur very frequently. Elugbe and Omamor
(1991:80). They occur in onomatopoeic words and other words traceable to the
languages indigenous to the Nigerian pidgin environment. E.g. (Gbagbāti)
‘unnecessary show of power’ (Kàmkpé) ‘real good’
(Kpekere) ‘friend unripe plantain’
(kpōi) ‘fantastic’.
According
to Elugbe and Omamor (1991:82) Nigerian pidgin has seven oral vowels /i.e. Li a
o u !/and a feature of significant vowel nasalization which is represented as
in 1 after the vowel on which it is realized. This view of the structure of
Nigerian pidgin agrees with Mafeni that vowels in Nigerian pidgin are seven in
number. Oyebade (1983) presented a vowel system /i.e.eaou/ and they are in
contrast with nasalized counter parts /õ ã ĩ ë ü/. At the syllable structure,
both Mafeni (1971) and Oyebade (1983) are essentially in agreement that
clusters of two consonants are allowed at the beginning and at the end of
syllables.
At
the supra segmental level, Ovebada (1983:60-71) describe the Nigerian pidgin as
a pitch accent language, a system in which “both the tonal and the
international pitch systems have become… intertwined” while in the view of
Elugbe and Omamor (1991:86) pitch is used in a syntagmatic relation in Nigerian
pidgin while its use in a tone language is paradigmatic. These researchers have
taken time to investigate and develop the structures of pidgin.
2.2.7 Reduplication
Reduplication
is an affixation process in which some part of a base repeated either to the
left or to the right or occasionally in the middle (Spencer, 1991:13). Spencer
(2001:130) cited in Yusuf (2007) also defined reduplication as “…a
morphological operation which … (is) a species of affixation of a prosodic
template to a stem, followed by copying that stem and association to the
template”.
Holmes (1998: 88) defines reduplication
as:
“…a mechanism for forming new words. It involves the
repetition of a word (or part of a word) resulting in a distinct lexical item
slightly different in meaning”.
Reduplication
is assumed to be a special case of suffixation. It is an operation which
suffixes as a copy of the stem (Marantz 1982, Steriade 1988). Reduplication
process copies part or whole of the stem and attaches it unto the stem, either
before, or after it (Yusulf, 2007). Mowarin (2010) reduplication is a
lexico-semantic process that substrate languages subjects words borrowed from
the lexifier language into Naija (Nigerian languages). In agglutinating and
inflectional languages, the constituent of the lexical item reduplicated can be
a bound morpheme which functions as prefix, infix, and suffix. This phenomenon
is absent in Nigerian languages, which is very poor in morphology, and kwa
languages which are mainly isolating analytic in terms of morphological cross
linguistic typology. A whole word can be material for reduplication.
Nose
(2011) reduplication is a morphological process in which the attested base X is
doubled and the reduplicated from xx (or possibly, the form xx whit an affix)
is derived. In contrast repetition forms happen to have a repeated from yy;
however, the form y is not attested as an independent morpheme, as such, it
cannot be used as an independent word or as part of another word.
2.2.7.1 Types of reduplication
There
are different types of reduplication. As will be seen in what follows:
2.2.7.1.1 Partial
reduplication: Partial reduplication occurs when only part of the stem is copied (Yusuf
2007). Partial republication could be simple consonant germination or vowel
lengthening (Rubino, 2005).
2.2.7.1.2 Complete or total
Total
reduplication occurs when the whole stem is reproduced (Yusuf, 2007). This type
of reduplication is recognized by Fabb (2001:60) as a whole word reduplication
or repletion compounds and is defined as “..whole word reduplication is
sometime described as a compounding process because each part of the resulting
words corresponds to an independently attested word.
Mensah
(2011:11) say that reduplication is a very important device informing adverbs,
adjectives and nouns and can also perform grammatical functions too. He also
stated that the only category of reduplication found in Nigerian Pidgin (NP) is
complete or total reduplication. He said that some reduplication are products
of derivation, while some others are frozen reduplication, which are basically
non-derived reduplication. In otherwrods, each of the reduplication
constituents does not have, a meaning in isolation, but a meaning is obtained
from their combination.
From
the above, it is clear that reduplication forms a major in Nigerian Pidgin and
has helped Nigerian Pidgin in forming new words, and giving meaning to them. It
also helps in grammatical roles as opined by Mensah.
2.2.7.1.3 Multiple reduplication
Novotna
(2000) added that a third kind of reduplication may occur, allowing three
identical elements next to one another.
2.3 Empirical review
A
great amount of interesting works have been done in reduplication, however this
empirical review is done on a particular research work.
Nose Masahiko in the summer of 2010
did a survey reduplication in Tok pisin. The study was based on the data
collected from field research in see in village is an attempt to investigate
the function and characteristics (forms and uses) of reduplication in the
language. The study showed that Tok Pisin is a creole language and its lexicon
derives from English-based verbs. Through the process of reduplication, Tok
pisin acquires additional or aspectual meaning from their original English-based
words. People speaking Tok Pisin created the words through daily conversations.
The derivation process is easy and innovative and as a result Tok Pisin can
increase number of semantically-related words without using other words. The
resulting reduplicated words do not exist in the English language. Moreover the
resulting meaning of the verbs differ from the original English meanings.
Nose concluded that Tok Pisin has
relatively few reduplicated forms and therefore, its formation is less
productive. Reduplication mainly forms as a function to increase the degree of
an action. In other words, Tok Pisin reduplicates several English-based verbs,
constructs them and adds new meaning to them.
This
research work is, however distinct, from nose Masahiko’s work because it is
focused on the syntactic analysis of reduplication, with the aim of finding out
the grammatical function, semantic relevance and environment in which reduplicated
forms occur in Nigerian Pidgin.
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