Lexico-Semantic Extension in Noun Usage in The English Language in Nigeria: A Corpus-Assisted Analysis of Authentic Language Data (Published)
This study investigates lexico-semantic extension in noun usage within the English language in Nigeria through a corpus-assisted analysis of authentic language data. Existing scholarship on English usage in Nigeria has largely focused on phonological variation, grammatical structures, lexical innovations, and debates surrounding the legitimacy and codification of Nigerian English. While these studies have significantly enhanced understanding of linguistic adaptation in multilingual contexts, comparatively little attention has been devoted to the systematic investigation of semantic variation in content words, particularly nouns. This study addresses that gap by examining how selected nouns acquire extended, specialized, and culturally conditioned meanings within the Nigerian sociolinguistic environment. The study adopts a corpus-assisted lexicosemantic approach and utilizes data extracted from the International Corpus of English-Nigeria (ICE-Nigeria). Concordance and collocational analyses generated through AntConc provide empirical evidence for the interpretation of lexical meaning in context. Rather than emphasizing statistical measures, the study focuses on semantic patterns revealed through recurrent usage contexts. Selected nouns including palliative, wahala, sachet water, and related lexical items are analysed to identify processes of semantic extension, semantic specialization, borrowing, and cultural adaptation. The findings reveal that noun meanings in the English language in Nigeria are shaped by local sociocultural realities, political experiences, economic conditions, and multilingual language contact. The study demonstrates that lexical variation is not random but systematic and socially motivated. It further shows that corpus-assisted analysis offers a more reliable basis for investigating semantic variation than earlier studies that relied primarily on intuition and isolated examples. The study contributes to scholarship on English usage in Nigeria by providing empirical evidence of meaning extension and by highlighting the dynamic relationship between language, culture, and society.
Keywords: English language in Nigeria, ICE-Nigeria, corpus-assisted analysis, language variation, lexical semantics, nouns, semantic extension