A Pragmatic Analysis of Lexical Creativity in the Use of Nigerian English

The purpose of Language among human beings is to communicate ideas feelings or thoughts. However, human beings are found in groups characterized by various shades of linguistic habits which control their interactions. Hence, it is not farfetched that they become creative when using language in any given context. In view of this, this paper takes a pragmatic analysis of lexical creativity in the use of Nigerian English. Data were gathered from focused discussions among Higher National Diploma Students of Federal Polytechnic, Kebbi randomly selected from two departments of the school. It became evident that Nigerian English contains some lexical items through some morphological processes like borrowings, compounding, acronyms, among others, in a bid to make themselves understood as not break the sociocultural norms that rule the Nigerian linguistic context. Hence, their speeches most often can best be understood from the perspective of pragmatics.

Keywords: Pragmatics, Nigerian English, Lexical Creativity, Usage.