Nigerian Pidgin English, which originally arises from the contact of the indigenous languages with the English language has nowadays become is a lingua franca, a means of communication commonly used by people. Its place in Nigerian literary creativity is all the more important as patterns of this variety of English occur in various pieces of writings. The aim of this paper is to, through a stylistic approach, examine the functions of Nigerian Pidgin English used in the poem entitled “The Prostitute”, published by FBO Akporobaro in his collection of poems The Lament of the Town Crier and other Poems. Through a descriptive research design based on the qualitative approach, the analyses of the poem, in its context of production, reveal that instances of phonology and cohesive features are used to provide aesthetic value to this text.
Keywords: Lingua Franca, Nigerian Pidgin English, Phonology, cohesive features, the prostitute
