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Domestication of the english language in Nigeria: an examination of morpho-syntactic trends in Nigerian english (NigE)
IJLLL
Domestication of the English Language in Nigeria: An
Examination of Morpho-Syntactic Trends in Nigerian
English (NigE)
Chibuzo Nathaniel Nwoko
Department of Languages (English Unit), NorthWest University, Kano, Nigeria.
E-mail: manbuz@yahoo.com. Tel: +2348038962136
This paper examined certain developmental patterns Nigerian English (NigE) demonstrates
in recent times, particularly at the linguistic levels of morphology and syntax. While
studying these current trends, a sociolinguistic approach, as enunciated and popularized by
Labov (1966), was adopted. The principal source of data for the corpus was the use of 100
questionnaires containing 11 objective tests administered to the respondents. The first part
of the work provided an overview of the place of NigE as one of the World Englishes, today,
while the second part which is the core of the work is an examination of the nature of foray
the typology has made on the construction and use of English by Nigerians of a broad
social spectrum. The study established that the uniqueness of NigE is considerably realized
in such linguistic features as conversion, acronym, composition, redundancy, coinage and
reduplication. It was, as well, observed that some NigE forms exhibit the same
morphological and syntactic patterns as those of Standard English (SE) while some exhibit
significant variations.
Key Words: Nigerian English, Standard English, Mutual intelligibility, Morpho-Syntax, Lexemes
INTRODUCTION
A language or its variety keeps accommodating new
lexical items that graduate to form new and distinct
phrases, clauses and sentences which reflect the
socio-political, economic and cultural situations of a
society and such constructions generate new meanings
that fulfil the communicative functions of such a
linguistic environment, just as Jowitt (1991:26)
enunciates that ”language and society develop side by
side, social changes bring linguistic changes.” This
implies that from time to time, there will be emergence
of new words and new patterns of expressions that at
the same time generate mutual intelligibility, possibly
because such constructions enjoy the tacit knowledge
of the members of the speech community or a
substantial group of the members of the society of a
broad social spectrum. According to Kujore (1985),
Jowitt (1991) and Salami (1968), such words and
expressions are used by a considerable number of
Nigerians, representing a fairly large social group and
the geographical areas of ethnic groups such as
Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, etc..Therefore, this paper dwells
on certain recent morphological and syntactic attributes
identified in Nigerian English such as acronyms,
conversion and neologisms. Others include
compounding, redundancy or repetition of lexical
items, reduplication and coinages which have become
a fundamental characteristic of NigE, as exemplified
by the following lexical items: root causes, anti -
third termites, KAROTA, NAPEP, due process, super
glue, runs, etc.
Morpho - Syntactic Trends in Nigerian English
Morphology and syntax are related sub fields of
grammar. While morphology deals with various
patterns of forming words out of smaller units, syntax is
a progression of morphology by graduating to various
ways in which words can be combined to form phrases,
clauses and sentences, as in: "He is a hardworking
student", not "He is a working student hard." In morpho-
sytax, variant forms of words collocate to form words,
phrases, clauses as well as sentences. By morpho-
International Journal of Literature, Language and Linguistics
Vol. 3(1), pp. 126-130, May, 2016. © www.premierpublishers.org, ISSN: 1036-4568x
Research Article
Domestication of the english language in Nigeria: an examination of morpho-syntactic trends in Nigerian english (NigE)
Nwoko CN 126
syntactic trends in NigE, it means certain formation of
words, combination of words,phrases, clauses and
sentence constructions that have become distinctively
Nigerian in recent times. Given this explanatory
background, let us proceed to examine those distinct
trends.
METHODOLOGY
Library based and fieldwork approaches constitute the
methodology of this research work. In respect of the
library based approach, documented evidence of the
newly emerging words and their usage are presented,
and this proves that people do use them. With regard
to field work approach whose major instrument is the
questionnaire, the reason, among others, is to
determine the rate of variation in the choice of NigE
constructions among the respondents, using some
social variables. Each questionnaire has 11 objective
questions. The options are provided in such a way that
in each question, some of the options are SE and NigE
constructions respectively. Over hundred and fifty-five
questionnaires were given to the respondents,
expecting them to return not less than 100 in the end
for analysis. Sources of data collection through library-
based approach include texts such as dailies, literary
texts, scholarly works, book chapters, articles and
journals which are analysed. The research population
and subjects are a cross section of Nigerians made up
of students, teachers, lecturers, business men and
women. This choice was informed by the fact that these
people constitute different social classes and are likely
to respond and exhibit different social variables and
communicative adequacy or competence in their
choices. Importantly, in order to avoid a lopsided
analysis, frequency of usage is worked out by using
average and simple percentage methods thus:
Av = Number of respondents in favour of choice of lexical item
Total number of respondents
% of morpho-syntactic choice = Total no. of choice of respondents in
favour of a variety
100 x 100
Literature Review
Jibril (2005) avers that the ontological debate the
legitimacy and existence of Nigerian English generated
between 1960s and 1970s has now been settled in the
affirmative, given an extensive description of its
semantics, phonology and lexis made by such erudite
linguists as Banjo (1996), Awonusi (1985), Jowitt
(1991), Bamiro (1994) and Patridge (1961).
Interestingly, a trailblazing feat has been achieved by
Igboanusi (2002) in respect of the formal code and
lexicon of this variety of English.
Domestication of the English Language in the
environments where it is used as a Second Language
(L2) or Foreign Language (EFL) is no more a bizarre
phenomenon, but a welcome development because the
language has today, emerged as a global one,
therefore no longer an exclusive preserve of the British
or its ancestral home. For this reason, the user can no
more be subjected to the English assumptions of
correctness and this accounts for the emergence of
such expressions today as 'New Englishes or "World
Englishes”. While acknowledging the emergence of
new Englishes in Africa, Grieve in Emezue (1998:4)
argues: "If English is to be an effective means of
communication in Africa ... it is essential that it adapt
itself so as to be able to express African concepts.”
To prove to Grieve that this domestication to express
African concepts is already in progress, our kinsman, a
towering literary icon, Chinua Achebe (of blessed
memory), in his Arrow of God, aptly demonstrates
nativization of the English Language by making a
wholesale Mother Tongue (MT) transfer to the
language thus:
I want one of my sons to join these people and be my
eyes there. If there's nothing in it you will come back.
But if there is something there you will bring home my
share. The world is like a mask dancing... my spirit tells
me that those who do not befriend the white man today
will be saying had we known tomorrow (pp.45-46).
Kachru (1988) labels this type of construction
“Africanized version of English”, whose Standard
English (SE) version, according to Emezue (1998:8),
could be realized: “I send one of my sons to be my
representative among those people. One has to move
with the times, otherwise, one is left behind. I have an
inkling or a suspicion that those who fail to come to
terms with the Westerners may later regret their lack of
foresight.”
The celebrated literary giant demonstrates this form of
nativization of English in his novel after he had already
declared, according to Kachru (1988) that the English
language will be able to carry the weight of his African
experience, but that it will be a new English, still in full
communication with its ancestral home, but altered to
suit its new African surrounding.Much as there are clear
demonstrations of the existence of NigE and the fact
that it has begun to gain currency, one may not wish
away some negative aversions to it and its intelligibility,
coming from some scholars. The meaning of NigE is
demonstrably captured by Walsh (1967) while making
use of a house-hold cliche in NigE which we always
hear on the Nigerian radio, television, and read in the
dailies : „The escaper fled into the bush for his dear life'.
According to him, intelligibility is not what is at issue
because any user of English, whether as English as
Native Language (ENL) or English as a Second
Language (ESL) will no doubt understand the meaning
of the sentence and will also know that it is not the
World Standard English (WSE) generally adopted by
Domestication of the english language in Nigeria: an examination of morpho-syntactic trends in Nigerian english (NigE)
Int. J. Lit. Lang. Ling. 127
educated users throughout the world, which its
standard and correct version is: „The escaper ran for
dear life into the bush.‟ In the light of this, NigE means
those words and expressions that have been so
fossilized in Nigeria that they have ceased to be merely
imperfectly learned British English and have now
become part and parcel of the English Language used
in Nigeria. Walsh (1967:47), again, labels them
'Acceptable Local Variants,‟ the same way 'Car park' is
British, but 'parking lot' American English.
RESULTS
The table below sums up the responses of the 100
respondents to the eleven questions. The result of
each test item is obtained using the simple percentage
method and average.
Table 1. Summary of Responses
TEST No. of
Respondents
(NigE) % Average SE Average Others Average
1 100 15 0.15 75 0.75 Nil Nil
2 100 43 0.43 46 0.46 11 0.11
3 100 59 0.59 30 0.3 11 0.11
4 100 41 0.41 36 0.36 23 0.23
5 100 39 0.39 Nil Nil Nil Nil
6 100 34 0.34 38 0.38 28 0.28
7. 100 35 0.35 34 0.34 39 0.39
8 100 20 0.2 70 0.7 10 0.1
9 100 79 0.79 6 0.06 15 0.15
10 100 70 0.7 16 0.16 14 0.14
11 100 37 0.37 10 0.1 53 0.53
TOTAL 472 4.72 361 3.16 204 2.04
Discussion and Findings
In this section, the formation processes of the NigE
lexemes and constructions selected in this study
are examined.
RUNS (N)
The morphological process here is the same as those
of conversion and neologism because its SE usage
where it is derived does not conform to that of NigE, but
NigE has appropriated and converted it to mean the SE
equivalent of examination malpractice. The word is
more commonly heard among students or people that
belong to such social groups where slangs are largely
used.This sociolinguistic characteristic may have
accounted for low choice of the word by the
respondents, with only 15% opting for it.
Root Cause (N + N)
The formation pattern of the expression is reduplication
as well as redundancy which according to Pei (1966) is
common in the grammar of Nigerian languages, and he
further says that reduplication occurs when a part of a
word or a whole word or phrase is repeated to form
new words and generate new meanings as in; buga
(base form) = to hit, bugabuga (reduplicated form =
hitting; Maza (baseform) = quick, Mazamaza
(reduplicated form = quickly, (in Hausa Language). In
NigE, however, reduplication assumes a different
dimension, giving rise to redundancy: a situation where
two different words or phrases that are synonymous
and in complementary distribution are joined together
and repeated.
Bamiro (1995) makes a similar observation and
describes this morphological trend of NigE as lexico-
semantic duplication and redundancy. On page 40 of
Daily Sun Thur. March 31, 2004, evidence of this
feature is found thus: “But why the MTN recharge card
scarcity? It is yet unclear what the root cause of the
problem is?” Even on Tuesday 14
th
May, 2013, former
President Goodluck Jonathan, in his nation -wide
broadcast said ".... to unravel the root cause of the
problem". In SE, either one should say root or cause,
not to coalesce the two words as if they collocate with
each other.
Third Term Agenda (Det + N + N)
The word formation process of this expression is
composition or compounding where free morphemes
are merged to form a compound, as in SE blackbird,
dining room, water bottle, dove tail, etc. Small wonder
this SE word formation process has resulted in the
NigE Third Term Agenda, a coinage that was invented
a little after 2004 by the political class. It has become a
household expression to date. It stands for an idea of
tenure elongation or tenure extension of former
President Olusegun Obasanjo. The phrase is so well
known now that it is heard in every circle, including
academic, without recourse to its SE form, extension of
tenure. It is not surprising that the majority of the
respondents made it their choice ,as shown in the table
above.
Super - Glue (Adj + N)
This derivation has come to stay in NigE probably to
corroborate Bamiro (1994) who contends that such
neologisms emerge so as to suit new realities, social
norms and ecological needs as well as to adapt to the
socio - cultural logic and imperatives of the West
African geolinguistic environment. The process of
realizing this phrase is conversion: where an item
moves to another lexical category as in affixation
(Quick, Randolph and Greebaum, 1987). English words
undergo this process to acquire new meaning. The SE
equivalent of this expression is tight fisted, meaning not
to be generous or spendthrift.
The Due Process (Det + Adj + N)
Although this is an SE expression with an unmarked
English syntax, its meaning is converted in NigE,
referring to a government parastatal known as the
Domestication of the english language in Nigeria: an examination of morpho-syntactic trends in Nigerian english (NigE)
Nwoko CN 128
Bureau for Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit which
is a unit responsible for monitoring contract awards and
their execution to ensure that the procedures followed,
prior and during the award and its execution conform to
the approved guidelines, hence no favouritism and
nepotism. It has so become a phrase appropriated in
the nation's geolinguistic context that many of us in
Nigeria have almost forgotten its real and full meaning
to the extent that the first head of the parastatal, Oby
Ezekwesili, earned the sobriquet, 'Madam Due
Process.‟
SHOW-BOY (N + N)
This refers to the outer layer of meat that covers its
flesh which was formerly known as kpomo in NigE.
Despite that kpomo is still in use, currently showboy
has overtaken and substituted for it as this is what so
many people order in eateries or restaurants, with 34%
of the population in favour of it. What is interesting in
the formation process is that it agrees to SE
compounding feature.
JOINT
The use of this word in the Nigerian context
demonstrates the principle of conversion which is
popular in the English Language (Atchison, 1989). Joint
in SE means quite different things from its meaning in
NigE. Its possible meanings in SE are a part of the
body and owned by more than one person, while in
NigE it means a hidden place of relaxation or a hidden
place where one relaxes with a member of the opposite
sex. Cannon (1985) makes a prognosis of the
activeness of such converted words in the future. Little
wonder joint has now gained currency, especially in the
social circles in Nigerian English.
ROLL LEATHER (V + N)
The SE form is to play football. Roll leather is more
widely used by footballers and their fans in Nigeria. The
formation trend is akin to composition. One of the
attributes of NigE composition is a mixture of lexemes
belonging to English and those of Mother Tongue from
any of the languages spoken in the Nigerian
environment, but some compounded NigE forms are
known and pure English lexemes, as in sugar-daddy,
cash-madam, quota-system, bottom-power, chicken-
change, bush-meat, etc and when such compounds
come together in NigE formations, they make
completely new impressions that may no longer be
seen as Nigerian. This demonstrates the level of
potentiality and ingenuity inherent in this variety of
English.
Super - Private (Adj + Adj)
This is another NgE expression that demonstrates the
level of creativity this type of English exhibits. The
expression is almost in use now by all and sundry, with
the advent of Global System for Mobile Communication
(GSM) in the country, today, just like all neologisms
which have to do with invented trade names for any
invention of a product like Xerox, e-mail, nylon, aspirin,
etc. The expression in NigE means a telephone line
that is not shared with every member of the public, but
with only the few one takes into one‟s confidence.
His hands are full (Pro + N + V + adj)
This expression is a syntactic aspect of NigE. The SE
syntactic structure is pro + v + det + n + adj , giving rise
to He had his hand full, meaning one is so busy that
one cannot offer any help to somebody else. This
practice is synonymous with the principle of syncope of
SE words in NigE.
Nigerian English Constructions in the Dailies
It is a common knowledge that newspapers are one of
the channels for disseminating information. Although
when words and expressions appear in the dailies, they
conform to its style which includes informality and
chattiness of language, lexical repetition, coining of new
and outlandish adjectival formations (Crystal and Davy,
1969). The NigE constructions depict the uniqueness of
this variety in the Nigerian environment. The NigE
realizations include:
Palm Rubbing (N + V) (Daily Sun, September 30,
2004, p.32).
Its SE literal form is bribery. Idiomatically, it means
greasing somebody's palm. Its NigE form today is
informed by the grievousness of calling the act bribery,
hence it is euphemistically called palm rubbing or palm
oiling.
To Show One Pepper (Prep + V + Art + N)
It means to defeat or to have an advantage over one's
opponent. In Vanguard, December, 2002, former
President Obasanjo used the NigE expression when he
was encouraging the National Football team on the
telephone to go ahead and defeat their opponents.
Media Practitioner (N + N)
The formation process, no doubt, is the same as that of
SE. Its use in NigE is possibly as a result of wrong
analogy to some SE words that follow such a pattern as
in medical practitioners, legal practitioners, etc. The
adjective before the noun shows what these
professionals practise. According to Oguntase in the
Daily Sun of June 16, 2005, the analogy is wrong
because media cannot be practised, rather journalism
is what can be practised. Therefore, the SE form is
media professional.
Presidential Material (Adj + N)
The phrase is frequently used in the country in the
media. In SE, it is President material. The variation is in
Domestication of the english language in Nigeria: an examination of morpho-syntactic trends in Nigerian english (NigE)
Int. J. Lit. Lang. Ling. 129
the realization of the allomorph '-ial' which is
functionally adjectival as in such standard English
expressions as presidential aspirant or presidential
hopeful. In other words, the English rule that informs
most of the English words ending in 'ial' to belong to the
adjectival class is over generalized in NigE hence
presidential material (The News July, 31, 2006). The
phrase stands for the people‟s popular choice in a
presidential election.
Bus Stop Parliamentarians (N + N + N) (Vanguard,
Wednesday Dec. 13, 2006). In NigE parlance, this
refers to politically conscious Nigerians who meet at
bus stops to discuss political matters of interest. This
type of discussion is highly argumentative, the way it is
done on the floor of the National Assembly or State
Houses of Assembly.
Electioneering Campaign (Adj + N) (Daily Sun July,
2006) This is a feature of lexical repetition. SE has it as
either electioneering or campaign, not the two
together or one modifying the other. In NigE usage, as
found in Nigerian newspapers, electioneering
undergoes conversion from the nominal class to the
adjectival class.
A level playing ground (Art + N + Adj + N) SE
realizes it as a level playing field (the News 31 July,
2006).
Nigerian English Acronyms in Use
An acronym could be a word formed from the initial
letters of a name or part of a series of words This
accounts for such English acronyms as FANZINE,
ATM, SWOT, WAEC, NATO, MOTEL, etc. In the same
manner, NigE, in parodying SE, also utilizes acronyms
as its own word formation process as in the following:
NAPEP (ADJ + N + PREP + N + N + N)
This stands for National Agency for Poverty Eradication
Programme. Although its formation process is the same
as that of SE, its uniqueness is realized in its use which
sounds derogatory in the social circle, especially at the
inception of the programme. The reason is that people
were using it in the pejorative sense for somebody who
was poor and lived below poverty level. In other words,
the acronym was highly associated with poverty and to
demonstrate that, special tricycles were exclusively
reserved for the poor and low income earners who
were thought not to be able to afford fares for the usual
modes of transportation. People hardly remember or
care to reproduce its original and full meaning, hence, it
has become a popular coinage associated with poverty
in Nigeria.
KAROTA (N + N + N + N)
KAROTA, whose full form is Kano Road Traffic
Agency, is one of the metropolitan acronyms in Kano
city that is so beginning to gain wide currency,
especially in Kano metropolis that once it is mentioned,
people know that Kano State Road Traffic Marshalls
are around. To football fans, the meaning is now being
extended to football teams in yellow jerseys, as
Borussia Dortmund Football Club in Germany is
referred to as Yan KAROTA. It should be observed that
one interesting thing about NigE acronyms is that once
in use, the users hardly remember the full form. Its use
is increasingly spreading among all the members and
segments of the population in the city, even in jocular
situations.
EFCC (Adj + Adj + N + N)
This is an acronym for Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission which is an agency that handles financial
and economic related cases. The ellipted form is mostly
in use as one usually hears people talk about inviting or
calling in EFCC, and once it is mentioned, it sends
some shocking waves to the culprit who may have
committed a financial or economic crime, even non
related ones like examination malpractices. Like other
NigE acronyms, the full form of EFCC is hardly heard
among Nigerians.
PHCN (N + N + N + N)
The morphological process is the same as that of
EFCC. It is a lexical formation recently imported into the
NigE vocabulary to replace the old NEPA. The acronym
stands for Power Holding Company of Nigeria. The
morphological process agrees with that of coinage
which is also a feature of neologism in the English
Language. As it applies to all NigE acronyms, Bamiro
(1994) holds a similar view that NigE users contract
words or word groups that not only help in collapsing
potentially longer expressions and structures.
CONCLUSION
This paper, I believe,has given credence to the
existence of NigE as found in the speeches and
scholarly literatures of Nigerian users of English. It is
equally a proof that there are some levels of variation
between SE and NigE in respect of morphology and
syntax, while at some linguistic levels, there are points
of convergence. Very interestingly, it is observed that
geo-linguistic situations make the use of NigE
indispensable as in fashion: fella trousers; food: tuwo,
egusi, pepper soup; music: awilo and other aspects of
life where mutual intelligibility between interlocutors
requires its use.
It is equally imperative to state that this work could spur
other researchers to engage in future studies on NigE,
given the inevitability of societal dynamisms which
encourage emergence of new words, expressions and
constructions.Significantly, given this paper, the
audience may appreciate the emergence and challenge
NigE poses to SE, for some of the words and sentence
constructions in our use of English in Nigeria are
Domestication of the english language in Nigeria: an examination of morpho-syntactic trends in Nigerian english (NigE)
Nwoko CN 130
typically Nigerian. Therefore, we should be able to draw
a line between NigE and SE forms, especially in
pedagogical settings.
REFERENCES
Achebe C (1964). Arrow of God. Heinemann: Nigeria.
Atchison J (1989). Words in the Mind: An Introduction
to the Mental Lexicon._Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Awonusi V (1985) Sociolinguistic Variations in Nigerian
(Lagos) English. Unpublished Ph.D Thesis. University
of London.
Bamiro E (1994): Innovation in Nigerian English.
English Today. (39) Vol. 10, No. 3 Cambridge: CUP
Bamiro E (1995). Nigerian Englishes in Nigeria
Literature: Word Englishes. 10 (1): 7-17
Banjo A. (1996) Making a Virtue of Necessity: An
Overview of the English Language in Nigeria. Ibadan:
University Press.
Cannon G (1985).Functional Shift in English.
Linguistics. 23, pp 411 -431
Crystal D, Davy D. (1969): Investigating English Style.
London: Longman Group Limited
Emezue G I(1998). Understanding Discourse Analysis.
Nigeria: Creative Educational Mananagement
Consultants.
Grieve D (1964):English Language Examining._Lagos:
AUP
Igboanusi H (2002): A Dictionary of Nigerian English
Usage.Ibadan: Eincrownfit Publishers
Jibril M (2005): Phonology of Nigerian English. Lecture
Notes. BUK., Nigeria.
Jowitt D (1991). Nigerian English Usage. An
Introduction.Ibadan University Press: Nigeria.
Kachru B (1988). The Mouth with which to tell of the
Suffering: The Role of Narrator and Leader in
Achebe's Things Fall Apart. Commonwealth Essays
and Studies 11.1 (1988).
Kujore O (1985). English Usage: Some Notable
Nigerian Variations. Ibadan, Evans Brothers.
Labov W (1966): The Social Stratification of English In
New York City. Washington DC: Centre for Applied
Linguistics.
Patridge E (1961). A Dictionary of Slang and
Unconventional English. London: RKP.
Pei M (1966). Glossary of Linguistic Terminology. New
York: Garden City.
Povey F (1977): African Arts. Vol. 10, No. 2
Salami A (1968): Defining a Standard Nigerian English.
Journal of the Nigeria English Association V. 2, No.
1968, pp. 99- 106
Quick R et al (1997) A Comprehensive Grammar of
the English. Essex: Longman
Walsh N (1967) "Distinguishing Types and of Varieties
of English in Nigeria". JNESA 2. pp 47 – 55
DAILIES
Daily Sun._ Thurs, September 2004, V. 012, No. 338,
p.32 Daily Sun: Thurs, June 16, 2005, Vol. 2, No.
477. p. 36 Daily Sun: July 21, 2006 The News: July
31, 2006 Vanguard: Wed, December 13, 2006
Vanguard: Thurs, November, 2006
APPENDIX
THE TESTS
A respondent is required to fill in the blank space with
one of the four lexical items or expressions.
Q.1. Jerry told his classmate that he was good at
examination…
(a) cheating (b) malpractice (c) runs (d)
activities
Q.2. It is yet not clear what the … of fuel scarcity are.
(a) root causes (b) roots (c) causes (d) matters
Q.3. The legislator was accused of supporting … (a)
extension of tenure (b) elongation of tenure (c) politics
(d) third term agenda
Q.4. The local government chairman has --- hands,
hence he lost out in the subsequent election.
(a) tight fisted (b) tight (c) gummy (d) super
glue
Q.5. … checks abuses of the process of award and
execution of public contrasts. (a) ICPC (b) ASUU (c)
COEASU (d) The due process.
Q.6. The boy told the food vendor that his choice of
meat was…. (a) kpomo (b) show boy (c) the skinny part
(d) Kanda
Q.7. After having a busy day, John likes to relax his
nerves in a …… (a) joint(b) relaxation centre (c) hotel
(d) restaurant
Q.8. Arsenal and Manchester United are going to ……..
today.
(a) play soccer (b) roll leather (c) dine (d)
wine
Q.9. Lizzy has two GSM lines. One is general, the
other one is … (a) super private(b) best (c) good
(d) better
Q.10. Ugo was told by the legislator representing his
constituency that he could not help him because (a) his
hands were tied (b) his hands were full (c) he had his
hands tied (d) his hands were fully
Q.11. Sharing of the money after the party‟s meeting
resulted in a …
(a) free-for-all fight (b) free for all (c) nagging
(d) separation
Accepted 31 March, 2016.
Citation: Nwoko CN (2016). Domestication of the
English Language in Nigeria: An Examination of
Morpho-Syntactic Trends in Nigerian English (NigE).
International Journal of Literature, Language and
Linguistics, 3(1): 126-130.
Copyright: © 2016 Nwoko CN. This is an open-access
article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any
medium, provided the original author and source are
cited.

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Domestication of the English Language in Nigeria: An Examination of Morpho-Syntactic Trends in Nigerian English (NigE)

  • 1. Domestication of the english language in Nigeria: an examination of morpho-syntactic trends in Nigerian english (NigE) IJLLL Domestication of the English Language in Nigeria: An Examination of Morpho-Syntactic Trends in Nigerian English (NigE) Chibuzo Nathaniel Nwoko Department of Languages (English Unit), NorthWest University, Kano, Nigeria. E-mail: manbuz@yahoo.com. Tel: +2348038962136 This paper examined certain developmental patterns Nigerian English (NigE) demonstrates in recent times, particularly at the linguistic levels of morphology and syntax. While studying these current trends, a sociolinguistic approach, as enunciated and popularized by Labov (1966), was adopted. The principal source of data for the corpus was the use of 100 questionnaires containing 11 objective tests administered to the respondents. The first part of the work provided an overview of the place of NigE as one of the World Englishes, today, while the second part which is the core of the work is an examination of the nature of foray the typology has made on the construction and use of English by Nigerians of a broad social spectrum. The study established that the uniqueness of NigE is considerably realized in such linguistic features as conversion, acronym, composition, redundancy, coinage and reduplication. It was, as well, observed that some NigE forms exhibit the same morphological and syntactic patterns as those of Standard English (SE) while some exhibit significant variations. Key Words: Nigerian English, Standard English, Mutual intelligibility, Morpho-Syntax, Lexemes INTRODUCTION A language or its variety keeps accommodating new lexical items that graduate to form new and distinct phrases, clauses and sentences which reflect the socio-political, economic and cultural situations of a society and such constructions generate new meanings that fulfil the communicative functions of such a linguistic environment, just as Jowitt (1991:26) enunciates that ”language and society develop side by side, social changes bring linguistic changes.” This implies that from time to time, there will be emergence of new words and new patterns of expressions that at the same time generate mutual intelligibility, possibly because such constructions enjoy the tacit knowledge of the members of the speech community or a substantial group of the members of the society of a broad social spectrum. According to Kujore (1985), Jowitt (1991) and Salami (1968), such words and expressions are used by a considerable number of Nigerians, representing a fairly large social group and the geographical areas of ethnic groups such as Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, etc..Therefore, this paper dwells on certain recent morphological and syntactic attributes identified in Nigerian English such as acronyms, conversion and neologisms. Others include compounding, redundancy or repetition of lexical items, reduplication and coinages which have become a fundamental characteristic of NigE, as exemplified by the following lexical items: root causes, anti - third termites, KAROTA, NAPEP, due process, super glue, runs, etc. Morpho - Syntactic Trends in Nigerian English Morphology and syntax are related sub fields of grammar. While morphology deals with various patterns of forming words out of smaller units, syntax is a progression of morphology by graduating to various ways in which words can be combined to form phrases, clauses and sentences, as in: "He is a hardworking student", not "He is a working student hard." In morpho- sytax, variant forms of words collocate to form words, phrases, clauses as well as sentences. By morpho- International Journal of Literature, Language and Linguistics Vol. 3(1), pp. 126-130, May, 2016. © www.premierpublishers.org, ISSN: 1036-4568x Research Article
  • 2. Domestication of the english language in Nigeria: an examination of morpho-syntactic trends in Nigerian english (NigE) Nwoko CN 126 syntactic trends in NigE, it means certain formation of words, combination of words,phrases, clauses and sentence constructions that have become distinctively Nigerian in recent times. Given this explanatory background, let us proceed to examine those distinct trends. METHODOLOGY Library based and fieldwork approaches constitute the methodology of this research work. In respect of the library based approach, documented evidence of the newly emerging words and their usage are presented, and this proves that people do use them. With regard to field work approach whose major instrument is the questionnaire, the reason, among others, is to determine the rate of variation in the choice of NigE constructions among the respondents, using some social variables. Each questionnaire has 11 objective questions. The options are provided in such a way that in each question, some of the options are SE and NigE constructions respectively. Over hundred and fifty-five questionnaires were given to the respondents, expecting them to return not less than 100 in the end for analysis. Sources of data collection through library- based approach include texts such as dailies, literary texts, scholarly works, book chapters, articles and journals which are analysed. The research population and subjects are a cross section of Nigerians made up of students, teachers, lecturers, business men and women. This choice was informed by the fact that these people constitute different social classes and are likely to respond and exhibit different social variables and communicative adequacy or competence in their choices. Importantly, in order to avoid a lopsided analysis, frequency of usage is worked out by using average and simple percentage methods thus: Av = Number of respondents in favour of choice of lexical item Total number of respondents % of morpho-syntactic choice = Total no. of choice of respondents in favour of a variety 100 x 100 Literature Review Jibril (2005) avers that the ontological debate the legitimacy and existence of Nigerian English generated between 1960s and 1970s has now been settled in the affirmative, given an extensive description of its semantics, phonology and lexis made by such erudite linguists as Banjo (1996), Awonusi (1985), Jowitt (1991), Bamiro (1994) and Patridge (1961). Interestingly, a trailblazing feat has been achieved by Igboanusi (2002) in respect of the formal code and lexicon of this variety of English. Domestication of the English Language in the environments where it is used as a Second Language (L2) or Foreign Language (EFL) is no more a bizarre phenomenon, but a welcome development because the language has today, emerged as a global one, therefore no longer an exclusive preserve of the British or its ancestral home. For this reason, the user can no more be subjected to the English assumptions of correctness and this accounts for the emergence of such expressions today as 'New Englishes or "World Englishes”. While acknowledging the emergence of new Englishes in Africa, Grieve in Emezue (1998:4) argues: "If English is to be an effective means of communication in Africa ... it is essential that it adapt itself so as to be able to express African concepts.” To prove to Grieve that this domestication to express African concepts is already in progress, our kinsman, a towering literary icon, Chinua Achebe (of blessed memory), in his Arrow of God, aptly demonstrates nativization of the English Language by making a wholesale Mother Tongue (MT) transfer to the language thus: I want one of my sons to join these people and be my eyes there. If there's nothing in it you will come back. But if there is something there you will bring home my share. The world is like a mask dancing... my spirit tells me that those who do not befriend the white man today will be saying had we known tomorrow (pp.45-46). Kachru (1988) labels this type of construction “Africanized version of English”, whose Standard English (SE) version, according to Emezue (1998:8), could be realized: “I send one of my sons to be my representative among those people. One has to move with the times, otherwise, one is left behind. I have an inkling or a suspicion that those who fail to come to terms with the Westerners may later regret their lack of foresight.” The celebrated literary giant demonstrates this form of nativization of English in his novel after he had already declared, according to Kachru (1988) that the English language will be able to carry the weight of his African experience, but that it will be a new English, still in full communication with its ancestral home, but altered to suit its new African surrounding.Much as there are clear demonstrations of the existence of NigE and the fact that it has begun to gain currency, one may not wish away some negative aversions to it and its intelligibility, coming from some scholars. The meaning of NigE is demonstrably captured by Walsh (1967) while making use of a house-hold cliche in NigE which we always hear on the Nigerian radio, television, and read in the dailies : „The escaper fled into the bush for his dear life'. According to him, intelligibility is not what is at issue because any user of English, whether as English as Native Language (ENL) or English as a Second Language (ESL) will no doubt understand the meaning of the sentence and will also know that it is not the World Standard English (WSE) generally adopted by
  • 3. Domestication of the english language in Nigeria: an examination of morpho-syntactic trends in Nigerian english (NigE) Int. J. Lit. Lang. Ling. 127 educated users throughout the world, which its standard and correct version is: „The escaper ran for dear life into the bush.‟ In the light of this, NigE means those words and expressions that have been so fossilized in Nigeria that they have ceased to be merely imperfectly learned British English and have now become part and parcel of the English Language used in Nigeria. Walsh (1967:47), again, labels them 'Acceptable Local Variants,‟ the same way 'Car park' is British, but 'parking lot' American English. RESULTS The table below sums up the responses of the 100 respondents to the eleven questions. The result of each test item is obtained using the simple percentage method and average. Table 1. Summary of Responses TEST No. of Respondents (NigE) % Average SE Average Others Average 1 100 15 0.15 75 0.75 Nil Nil 2 100 43 0.43 46 0.46 11 0.11 3 100 59 0.59 30 0.3 11 0.11 4 100 41 0.41 36 0.36 23 0.23 5 100 39 0.39 Nil Nil Nil Nil 6 100 34 0.34 38 0.38 28 0.28 7. 100 35 0.35 34 0.34 39 0.39 8 100 20 0.2 70 0.7 10 0.1 9 100 79 0.79 6 0.06 15 0.15 10 100 70 0.7 16 0.16 14 0.14 11 100 37 0.37 10 0.1 53 0.53 TOTAL 472 4.72 361 3.16 204 2.04 Discussion and Findings In this section, the formation processes of the NigE lexemes and constructions selected in this study are examined. RUNS (N) The morphological process here is the same as those of conversion and neologism because its SE usage where it is derived does not conform to that of NigE, but NigE has appropriated and converted it to mean the SE equivalent of examination malpractice. The word is more commonly heard among students or people that belong to such social groups where slangs are largely used.This sociolinguistic characteristic may have accounted for low choice of the word by the respondents, with only 15% opting for it. Root Cause (N + N) The formation pattern of the expression is reduplication as well as redundancy which according to Pei (1966) is common in the grammar of Nigerian languages, and he further says that reduplication occurs when a part of a word or a whole word or phrase is repeated to form new words and generate new meanings as in; buga (base form) = to hit, bugabuga (reduplicated form = hitting; Maza (baseform) = quick, Mazamaza (reduplicated form = quickly, (in Hausa Language). In NigE, however, reduplication assumes a different dimension, giving rise to redundancy: a situation where two different words or phrases that are synonymous and in complementary distribution are joined together and repeated. Bamiro (1995) makes a similar observation and describes this morphological trend of NigE as lexico- semantic duplication and redundancy. On page 40 of Daily Sun Thur. March 31, 2004, evidence of this feature is found thus: “But why the MTN recharge card scarcity? It is yet unclear what the root cause of the problem is?” Even on Tuesday 14 th May, 2013, former President Goodluck Jonathan, in his nation -wide broadcast said ".... to unravel the root cause of the problem". In SE, either one should say root or cause, not to coalesce the two words as if they collocate with each other. Third Term Agenda (Det + N + N) The word formation process of this expression is composition or compounding where free morphemes are merged to form a compound, as in SE blackbird, dining room, water bottle, dove tail, etc. Small wonder this SE word formation process has resulted in the NigE Third Term Agenda, a coinage that was invented a little after 2004 by the political class. It has become a household expression to date. It stands for an idea of tenure elongation or tenure extension of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. The phrase is so well known now that it is heard in every circle, including academic, without recourse to its SE form, extension of tenure. It is not surprising that the majority of the respondents made it their choice ,as shown in the table above. Super - Glue (Adj + N) This derivation has come to stay in NigE probably to corroborate Bamiro (1994) who contends that such neologisms emerge so as to suit new realities, social norms and ecological needs as well as to adapt to the socio - cultural logic and imperatives of the West African geolinguistic environment. The process of realizing this phrase is conversion: where an item moves to another lexical category as in affixation (Quick, Randolph and Greebaum, 1987). English words undergo this process to acquire new meaning. The SE equivalent of this expression is tight fisted, meaning not to be generous or spendthrift. The Due Process (Det + Adj + N) Although this is an SE expression with an unmarked English syntax, its meaning is converted in NigE, referring to a government parastatal known as the
  • 4. Domestication of the english language in Nigeria: an examination of morpho-syntactic trends in Nigerian english (NigE) Nwoko CN 128 Bureau for Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit which is a unit responsible for monitoring contract awards and their execution to ensure that the procedures followed, prior and during the award and its execution conform to the approved guidelines, hence no favouritism and nepotism. It has so become a phrase appropriated in the nation's geolinguistic context that many of us in Nigeria have almost forgotten its real and full meaning to the extent that the first head of the parastatal, Oby Ezekwesili, earned the sobriquet, 'Madam Due Process.‟ SHOW-BOY (N + N) This refers to the outer layer of meat that covers its flesh which was formerly known as kpomo in NigE. Despite that kpomo is still in use, currently showboy has overtaken and substituted for it as this is what so many people order in eateries or restaurants, with 34% of the population in favour of it. What is interesting in the formation process is that it agrees to SE compounding feature. JOINT The use of this word in the Nigerian context demonstrates the principle of conversion which is popular in the English Language (Atchison, 1989). Joint in SE means quite different things from its meaning in NigE. Its possible meanings in SE are a part of the body and owned by more than one person, while in NigE it means a hidden place of relaxation or a hidden place where one relaxes with a member of the opposite sex. Cannon (1985) makes a prognosis of the activeness of such converted words in the future. Little wonder joint has now gained currency, especially in the social circles in Nigerian English. ROLL LEATHER (V + N) The SE form is to play football. Roll leather is more widely used by footballers and their fans in Nigeria. The formation trend is akin to composition. One of the attributes of NigE composition is a mixture of lexemes belonging to English and those of Mother Tongue from any of the languages spoken in the Nigerian environment, but some compounded NigE forms are known and pure English lexemes, as in sugar-daddy, cash-madam, quota-system, bottom-power, chicken- change, bush-meat, etc and when such compounds come together in NigE formations, they make completely new impressions that may no longer be seen as Nigerian. This demonstrates the level of potentiality and ingenuity inherent in this variety of English. Super - Private (Adj + Adj) This is another NgE expression that demonstrates the level of creativity this type of English exhibits. The expression is almost in use now by all and sundry, with the advent of Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) in the country, today, just like all neologisms which have to do with invented trade names for any invention of a product like Xerox, e-mail, nylon, aspirin, etc. The expression in NigE means a telephone line that is not shared with every member of the public, but with only the few one takes into one‟s confidence. His hands are full (Pro + N + V + adj) This expression is a syntactic aspect of NigE. The SE syntactic structure is pro + v + det + n + adj , giving rise to He had his hand full, meaning one is so busy that one cannot offer any help to somebody else. This practice is synonymous with the principle of syncope of SE words in NigE. Nigerian English Constructions in the Dailies It is a common knowledge that newspapers are one of the channels for disseminating information. Although when words and expressions appear in the dailies, they conform to its style which includes informality and chattiness of language, lexical repetition, coining of new and outlandish adjectival formations (Crystal and Davy, 1969). The NigE constructions depict the uniqueness of this variety in the Nigerian environment. The NigE realizations include: Palm Rubbing (N + V) (Daily Sun, September 30, 2004, p.32). Its SE literal form is bribery. Idiomatically, it means greasing somebody's palm. Its NigE form today is informed by the grievousness of calling the act bribery, hence it is euphemistically called palm rubbing or palm oiling. To Show One Pepper (Prep + V + Art + N) It means to defeat or to have an advantage over one's opponent. In Vanguard, December, 2002, former President Obasanjo used the NigE expression when he was encouraging the National Football team on the telephone to go ahead and defeat their opponents. Media Practitioner (N + N) The formation process, no doubt, is the same as that of SE. Its use in NigE is possibly as a result of wrong analogy to some SE words that follow such a pattern as in medical practitioners, legal practitioners, etc. The adjective before the noun shows what these professionals practise. According to Oguntase in the Daily Sun of June 16, 2005, the analogy is wrong because media cannot be practised, rather journalism is what can be practised. Therefore, the SE form is media professional. Presidential Material (Adj + N) The phrase is frequently used in the country in the media. In SE, it is President material. The variation is in
  • 5. Domestication of the english language in Nigeria: an examination of morpho-syntactic trends in Nigerian english (NigE) Int. J. Lit. Lang. Ling. 129 the realization of the allomorph '-ial' which is functionally adjectival as in such standard English expressions as presidential aspirant or presidential hopeful. In other words, the English rule that informs most of the English words ending in 'ial' to belong to the adjectival class is over generalized in NigE hence presidential material (The News July, 31, 2006). The phrase stands for the people‟s popular choice in a presidential election. Bus Stop Parliamentarians (N + N + N) (Vanguard, Wednesday Dec. 13, 2006). In NigE parlance, this refers to politically conscious Nigerians who meet at bus stops to discuss political matters of interest. This type of discussion is highly argumentative, the way it is done on the floor of the National Assembly or State Houses of Assembly. Electioneering Campaign (Adj + N) (Daily Sun July, 2006) This is a feature of lexical repetition. SE has it as either electioneering or campaign, not the two together or one modifying the other. In NigE usage, as found in Nigerian newspapers, electioneering undergoes conversion from the nominal class to the adjectival class. A level playing ground (Art + N + Adj + N) SE realizes it as a level playing field (the News 31 July, 2006). Nigerian English Acronyms in Use An acronym could be a word formed from the initial letters of a name or part of a series of words This accounts for such English acronyms as FANZINE, ATM, SWOT, WAEC, NATO, MOTEL, etc. In the same manner, NigE, in parodying SE, also utilizes acronyms as its own word formation process as in the following: NAPEP (ADJ + N + PREP + N + N + N) This stands for National Agency for Poverty Eradication Programme. Although its formation process is the same as that of SE, its uniqueness is realized in its use which sounds derogatory in the social circle, especially at the inception of the programme. The reason is that people were using it in the pejorative sense for somebody who was poor and lived below poverty level. In other words, the acronym was highly associated with poverty and to demonstrate that, special tricycles were exclusively reserved for the poor and low income earners who were thought not to be able to afford fares for the usual modes of transportation. People hardly remember or care to reproduce its original and full meaning, hence, it has become a popular coinage associated with poverty in Nigeria. KAROTA (N + N + N + N) KAROTA, whose full form is Kano Road Traffic Agency, is one of the metropolitan acronyms in Kano city that is so beginning to gain wide currency, especially in Kano metropolis that once it is mentioned, people know that Kano State Road Traffic Marshalls are around. To football fans, the meaning is now being extended to football teams in yellow jerseys, as Borussia Dortmund Football Club in Germany is referred to as Yan KAROTA. It should be observed that one interesting thing about NigE acronyms is that once in use, the users hardly remember the full form. Its use is increasingly spreading among all the members and segments of the population in the city, even in jocular situations. EFCC (Adj + Adj + N + N) This is an acronym for Economic and Financial Crimes Commission which is an agency that handles financial and economic related cases. The ellipted form is mostly in use as one usually hears people talk about inviting or calling in EFCC, and once it is mentioned, it sends some shocking waves to the culprit who may have committed a financial or economic crime, even non related ones like examination malpractices. Like other NigE acronyms, the full form of EFCC is hardly heard among Nigerians. PHCN (N + N + N + N) The morphological process is the same as that of EFCC. It is a lexical formation recently imported into the NigE vocabulary to replace the old NEPA. The acronym stands for Power Holding Company of Nigeria. The morphological process agrees with that of coinage which is also a feature of neologism in the English Language. As it applies to all NigE acronyms, Bamiro (1994) holds a similar view that NigE users contract words or word groups that not only help in collapsing potentially longer expressions and structures. CONCLUSION This paper, I believe,has given credence to the existence of NigE as found in the speeches and scholarly literatures of Nigerian users of English. It is equally a proof that there are some levels of variation between SE and NigE in respect of morphology and syntax, while at some linguistic levels, there are points of convergence. Very interestingly, it is observed that geo-linguistic situations make the use of NigE indispensable as in fashion: fella trousers; food: tuwo, egusi, pepper soup; music: awilo and other aspects of life where mutual intelligibility between interlocutors requires its use. It is equally imperative to state that this work could spur other researchers to engage in future studies on NigE, given the inevitability of societal dynamisms which encourage emergence of new words, expressions and constructions.Significantly, given this paper, the audience may appreciate the emergence and challenge NigE poses to SE, for some of the words and sentence constructions in our use of English in Nigeria are
  • 6. Domestication of the english language in Nigeria: an examination of morpho-syntactic trends in Nigerian english (NigE) Nwoko CN 130 typically Nigerian. Therefore, we should be able to draw a line between NigE and SE forms, especially in pedagogical settings. REFERENCES Achebe C (1964). Arrow of God. Heinemann: Nigeria. Atchison J (1989). Words in the Mind: An Introduction to the Mental Lexicon._Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Awonusi V (1985) Sociolinguistic Variations in Nigerian (Lagos) English. Unpublished Ph.D Thesis. University of London. Bamiro E (1994): Innovation in Nigerian English. English Today. (39) Vol. 10, No. 3 Cambridge: CUP Bamiro E (1995). Nigerian Englishes in Nigeria Literature: Word Englishes. 10 (1): 7-17 Banjo A. (1996) Making a Virtue of Necessity: An Overview of the English Language in Nigeria. Ibadan: University Press. Cannon G (1985).Functional Shift in English. Linguistics. 23, pp 411 -431 Crystal D, Davy D. (1969): Investigating English Style. London: Longman Group Limited Emezue G I(1998). Understanding Discourse Analysis. Nigeria: Creative Educational Mananagement Consultants. Grieve D (1964):English Language Examining._Lagos: AUP Igboanusi H (2002): A Dictionary of Nigerian English Usage.Ibadan: Eincrownfit Publishers Jibril M (2005): Phonology of Nigerian English. Lecture Notes. BUK., Nigeria. Jowitt D (1991). Nigerian English Usage. An Introduction.Ibadan University Press: Nigeria. Kachru B (1988). The Mouth with which to tell of the Suffering: The Role of Narrator and Leader in Achebe's Things Fall Apart. Commonwealth Essays and Studies 11.1 (1988). Kujore O (1985). English Usage: Some Notable Nigerian Variations. Ibadan, Evans Brothers. Labov W (1966): The Social Stratification of English In New York City. Washington DC: Centre for Applied Linguistics. Patridge E (1961). A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. London: RKP. Pei M (1966). Glossary of Linguistic Terminology. New York: Garden City. Povey F (1977): African Arts. Vol. 10, No. 2 Salami A (1968): Defining a Standard Nigerian English. Journal of the Nigeria English Association V. 2, No. 1968, pp. 99- 106 Quick R et al (1997) A Comprehensive Grammar of the English. Essex: Longman Walsh N (1967) "Distinguishing Types and of Varieties of English in Nigeria". JNESA 2. pp 47 – 55 DAILIES Daily Sun._ Thurs, September 2004, V. 012, No. 338, p.32 Daily Sun: Thurs, June 16, 2005, Vol. 2, No. 477. p. 36 Daily Sun: July 21, 2006 The News: July 31, 2006 Vanguard: Wed, December 13, 2006 Vanguard: Thurs, November, 2006 APPENDIX THE TESTS A respondent is required to fill in the blank space with one of the four lexical items or expressions. Q.1. Jerry told his classmate that he was good at examination… (a) cheating (b) malpractice (c) runs (d) activities Q.2. It is yet not clear what the … of fuel scarcity are. (a) root causes (b) roots (c) causes (d) matters Q.3. The legislator was accused of supporting … (a) extension of tenure (b) elongation of tenure (c) politics (d) third term agenda Q.4. The local government chairman has --- hands, hence he lost out in the subsequent election. (a) tight fisted (b) tight (c) gummy (d) super glue Q.5. … checks abuses of the process of award and execution of public contrasts. (a) ICPC (b) ASUU (c) COEASU (d) The due process. Q.6. The boy told the food vendor that his choice of meat was…. (a) kpomo (b) show boy (c) the skinny part (d) Kanda Q.7. After having a busy day, John likes to relax his nerves in a …… (a) joint(b) relaxation centre (c) hotel (d) restaurant Q.8. Arsenal and Manchester United are going to …….. today. (a) play soccer (b) roll leather (c) dine (d) wine Q.9. Lizzy has two GSM lines. One is general, the other one is … (a) super private(b) best (c) good (d) better Q.10. Ugo was told by the legislator representing his constituency that he could not help him because (a) his hands were tied (b) his hands were full (c) he had his hands tied (d) his hands were fully Q.11. Sharing of the money after the party‟s meeting resulted in a … (a) free-for-all fight (b) free for all (c) nagging (d) separation Accepted 31 March, 2016. Citation: Nwoko CN (2016). Domestication of the English Language in Nigeria: An Examination of Morpho-Syntactic Trends in Nigerian English (NigE). International Journal of Literature, Language and Linguistics, 3(1): 126-130. Copyright: © 2016 Nwoko CN. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are cited.