Language And Culture Among The Yoruba: A Study Of Argot, Cant, Jargons And Slang As Forerunners Of The New Idioms And Idiomatic Expression In The 21st Century (Published)
Argot, Cant, Jargons and slang are phenomenal forerunners of the new idioms and idiomatic expressions in Yoruba. They are universal phenomenon and aspect of social language that cannot be underestimated in every sense of functional human society where language and culture are seen as natural, divine and systemic in the 21st century. This paper attempts to discuss the historical evolution, definition, denotative and connotative meanings of these sociolects especially in relation to the existence and emergence of the new idiom and idiomatic expression in Yoruba with a view to expunging their similarities and differencia specifica.
Keywords: Yoruba, forerunners., idiomatic expression, language and culture, social language
New Yoruba Idioms and Idiomatic Expressions: A New Mode of Expression in Political Arena (Published)
New idioms and idiomatic expressions, which are modern stock expressions, constitute communicative clogs in Yorùbá routine discourses because of their semantic complexity and deviant nature. Existing studies have established their scope of usage in Yorùbá music but have hardly addressed their communicative adaptability in politics. This paper investigated issues expressed with these idioms, context and strategies for using them in political arena. This is with a view to establishing their communicative and stylistic relevance in Yorùbá discourses. The paper adopted Mukarovsky’s theory of Standard Language because of its capacity to explain the “differential specifica” between the language of everyday interaction and literary language. Data were collected from different routine communicative discourses of politicians and party members on radio, during political rallies or campaigns and were subjected to pragmatic and stylistic analysis. Political issues were expressed using new idioms and idiomatic expressions in the following sociopolitical contexts: Eté for corruption/stealing; Ojúyọbọ́ for under achiever; Yóó wọlé ẹ̀ẹ̀ken si for deceit; Ó bọ̀jẹ́ tì for collective support; Oyin ni o for a successful tenure; Ajímọ̀bi for collective responsibility; Nàìjá for affection/disappointment and Kárí go/Kárí kọọ̀mù for continuity and discontinuity. Nominalisation, Pidginisation and dialect expressions were the strategies employed for the formation of new idioms in this paper. These strategies were used to express different political happenings contextualized in underachievement, sloganeering for support, deceit, and acceptance/rejection for second term in office respectively. New idioms and idiomatic expressions, used to express sociopolitical issues in Yorùbá routine communication, occurred in mediated and non-mediated contexts and were conveyed through nominalization, pidginisation, and dialect expressions. These idioms reflect dynamism and modernity-constrained stylistic choices in Yorùbá.
Keywords: New Idioms, Politics Stylistics, Strategies., Yoruba
New Yoruba Idioms and Idiomatic Expressions: A New Mode of Expression in Political Arena (Published)
New idioms and idiomatic expressions, which are modern stock expressions, constitute communicative clogs in Yorùbá routine discourses because of their semantic complexity and deviant nature. Existing studies have established their scope of usage in Yorùbá music but have hardly addressed their communicative adaptability in politics. This paper investigated issues expressed with these idioms, context and strategies for using them in political arena. This is with a view to establishing their communicative and stylistic relevance in Yorùbá discourses. The paper adopted Mukarovsky’s theory of Standard Language because of its capacity to explain the “differential specifica” between the language of everyday interaction and literary language. Data were collected from different routine communicative discourses of politicians and party members on radio, during political rallies or campaigns and were subjected to pragmatic and stylistic analysis. Political issues were expressed using new idioms and idiomatic expressions in the following sociopolitical contexts: Eté for corruption/stealing; Ojúyọbọ́ for under achiever; Yóó wọlé ẹ̀ẹ̀ken si for deceit; Ó bọ̀jẹ́ tì for collective support; Oyin ni o for a successful tenure; Ajímọ̀bi for collective responsibility; Nàìjá for affection/disappointment and Kárí go/Kárí kọọ̀mù for continuity and discontinuity. Nominalisation, Pidginisation and dialect expressions were the strategies employed for the formation of new idioms in this paper. These strategies were used to express different political happenings contextualized in underachievement, sloganeering for support, deceit, and acceptance/rejection for second term in office respectively. New idioms and idiomatic expressions, used to express sociopolitical issues in Yorùbá routine communication, occurred in mediated and non-mediated contexts and were conveyed through nominalization, pidginisation, and dialect expressions. These idioms reflect dynamism and modernity-constrained stylistic choices in Yorùbá.
Keywords: New Idioms, Politics Stylistics, Strategies., Yoruba
Paradigm Shifts in the Yoruba Anthroponyms: A Critical Discourse Analysis on Yoruba Reincanated-Child`s Names (Published)
The main thrust of the paper is the illumination of the interactions between the language use and the Yoruba cultural anthropology as attested to by a set of Yoruba names known as the àbíkú (reincarnated child`s) names. The names are considered as registers because they aptly identify discourse that occurs in particular recurrent situations within the contexts of the people’s social experience and beliefs. The factors that make the usage of these names to become atrophied are identified to illustrate the paradigm shifts in the people`s cultural anthropology. In doing this, the sociolinguistic values of Yoruba names are expatiated and categorized to elicit the contemporary perception of the names. The study found that àbíkú names stand out linguo-culturally in Yoruba onomastics and are significantly complex to be merely positioned within either the purview of core linguistics or socio-religious perspectives alone as their expositions also include anthropological identities and situational parameters of variation. Among other things, this verbal text provides unique opportunities for the people to externalize social- psychology to capture the name giver`s emotions and in the process, aptly casts identifiable marks on the bearer, thus stratifying the society in a way. Conclusively it is contended that this brand of name-words represent the signposts which encode the social perceptions on certain individuals and episodes of enduring identities in the past which have now been regrettably eroded and debased by critical waves of the so-called modernity.
Keywords: Africa Language, Child Name, Language, Linguistic, Yoruba