Papers by Abiodun C . Ayeni
African Journal of Arts and Humanities Vol. 10 (3), 2024
This paper examined the pragmatic roles that lexical choices play in understanding the communicat... more This paper examined the pragmatic roles that lexical choices play in understanding the communication between commercial motorists -taxi/bus drivers/conductors- and commuters in Lagos State, Nigeria. Using Jacob Mey’s Pragmatic Act Theory, the study identified, categorised, and analysed commercial motorists' lexical choices and language use at various bus stops and motor parks in Lagos. One hundred and eight (108) lexical items were collected from recorded conversations between motorists and commuters. These lexical items were categorised into the following categoriality practs: Pre-boarding, Boarding, On-board, and Disembarking. Fifty-four (54) lexical items were randomly selected and transposed into writing for analysis. Adopting mixed methods of qualitative and quantitative data analysis, the sampled data were coded according to the number of practal functions identified in each categoriality pract, to follow the thread of a particular pract. Seventeen (17) practal functions, one from each categoriality practs, were randomly selected and analysed. On-board categoriality pract had eight (8) practal functions, which happened to be the highest, followed by Pre-boarding with five (5), Boarding with three (3), and Disembarking with one (1) practal function. Seven of the identified practal functions appeared under more than one categoriality practs, making the types of practal functions found in the study, ten. They are; informing, instructing, requesting, inquiring, urging, warning, appealing, felicitating, demanding, and complaining. The study revealed that the lexical choices, coinages, and linguistic extensions (shaperly, agbero, how far, one-chance) used by commercial motorists and passengers in Lagos are informed by the mixture of the indigenous language (Yoruba), Popular Nigerian English, and Pidgin English. The paper concludes that the pragmatic engagement of these choices displays the tact commercial motorists and passengers use in achieving effective communication among themselves.
LITERACY AND READING IN NIGERIA, 2016
LANGUAGE AND LITERARY STUDIES IN SOCIETY, 2019
The National Pledge a document aims at national building and patriotism of the citizens in a nati... more The National Pledge a document aims at national building and patriotism of the citizens in a nation; but this turned out not being so in Nigeria, as most citizens are either indifferent or act contrarily to the pledge. The need to study what is recited in the Nigerian National Pledge has been necessitated by the lip service attitude of most Nigerians to this pledge. This paper critically examines what is said and expressed in the pledge and what is said and not expressed through a pragmatic lens viewing; the aspects of the speech act employed in the text, contextual extrapolations from the text, the implicature of what is said and what is left unsaid in the text and, the motivation behind the utterances. The data for this study is the Nigerian National Pledge and the methodology is a pragmatic analysis, using the Speech Act, as the theoretical framework for the study. The study finds extrapolation from the single stanza of the Nigerian National Pledge with is traced to the nonchalant attitudes of Nigerians to the National Pledge. This research therefore hopes to draw the attention of Nigerian to the need to develop a positive attitude towards the National Pledge by understanding and acting in accordance to the intended purpose of the document.
JELTAN: Journal of the English Language Teachers Association of Nigeria,, 2018
Nigeria‟s multilingual context presents serious challenges for a coherent language and education ... more Nigeria‟s multilingual context presents serious challenges for a coherent language and education policy. This paper reports on field observation and assessment of a nomadic school in Abuja, Nigeria where English is used as the language of instruction at all levels in spite of Hausa, Fulfulde and Gbagyi being the dominant local languages which represent 49.2%, 36.6%, 26.7% of the pupils‟ linguistic ability and competence respectively. The bewilderment and dilemma faced by learners in such an „alien‟ classroom as revealed in the results of the assessment of the pupils used in this study are examined. Based on classroom observation and assessment on some components of early grade reading indicators, the performance of the pupils on alphabetic reading showed that one pupil read zero alphabet and one pupil was only able to read one alphabet among the 14 pupils in Primary three who were available for the study. Two pupils were able to recognize 51-60 alphabets correctly. On the ability to read nonsense words, 79% of the pupils read zero word, 14% read between 1-5 words while 7% read between 6-10 nonsense words out of the 50 nonsense words presented to the pupils. Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations were made: the need to review the English studies curricula for early grade reading in Nigeria; refocusing of the teacher education contents to emphasis instruction on the core components of reading instruction in English; and the provision of adequate materials in English to enrich and enhance English language teaching on one hand and to improve learning in English for early grade reading for Nigerian children who speak other languages on the other.
veritas Journal of Humanities, 2021
Current concerns in the increasing use of slur utterances in Nigeria and globally, the dangers an... more Current concerns in the increasing use of slur utterances in Nigeria and globally, the dangers and threats such utterances pose and the difficulty of curbing them using legislation and criminalization motivate the need to seek alternative approaches to address slur utterances. This paper explores the nature and linguistic mechanics of slur utterances and how they can be reclaimed, using Brontsemaian hate speech acts model for the reclamation of slur utterances within the caveat of linguistic disarmament. Data for the study is a short anti-Igbo hate song on YouTube rendered in Hausa and translated into English by the researcher. The analysis which focused on a single lexical item -Inyamiri- amidst other hate-induced utterances, identified the characteristics of slur words and how they are deployed to cause harm. To neutralize, disarm and/or reclaim inyamiri in the Nigerian social media socio-cultural and political discourses, the paper suggests that the word should either be owned by those it pejoratively refers to by process of pejoration separation reclamation or reverse the referent through the process of pejoration inseparable reclamation. Through these two processes drawn from Brontsema‘s (2004) reformulated three processes, Inyamimi can be neutralized, reclaimed, disarmed of its hurt, and the value of its harm can be reversed in the interest of positive collective linguistic psyche of Nigerians.
IGWEBUIKE: African Journal of Arts and Humanities, 2020
This paper examines the conversation techniques used in an ELS real-life classroom interaction to... more This paper examines the conversation techniques used in an ELS real-life classroom interaction to establish how useful conversation techniques are to the realisation of effective classroom pedagogy. Working within conversation and discourse analysis theories, with restriction to five conversational techniques-turn-taking, turn design, sequence organisation, repair mechanism and overlapping-, data was drawn from six (6) teacher-student classroom interactions randomly recorded, transposed to writing, labelled and subjected to a quantitative methods of analysis. The transcripts labelled A-C were analysed based on the five conversation techniques above. The finding revealed that five conversation techniques-turn-taking, turn design, sequence organisation, repair mechanism and overlapping-were engaged in real-life classroom. It was also observed that turn-taking was the most frequently used conversation technique, followed by turn design and repair mechanism. While sequence organisation and overlapping were less frequently used because a classroom conversation is an organised type of conversation. The paper therefore concludes that turn-taking as a conversational technique will go a long way improving students' ability of getting involved in classroom interaction because turn-taking, as a vital aspect of conversation technique, enables one to start and be involved in an effective conversation.
Thesis Chapters by Abiodun C . Ayeni
M. A DISSERTATION, 2019
as well as Aunty Celia Chukwuma and Dr. Mrs. Augustina I. Anakwe for their support in every ramif... more as well as Aunty Celia Chukwuma and Dr. Mrs. Augustina I. Anakwe for their support in every ramification to the success of this study. Thank you all and may God bless you abundantly. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS
PH.D. THESIS, 2024
This study on pragmatic analysis of hate rhetoric was motivated by the need to interrogate and co... more This study on pragmatic analysis of hate rhetoric was motivated by the need to interrogate and conceptualize conflicting definitions of hate speech, the persistent use of social media to express hate, and how hate utterances can be mitigated and/or reclaimed beyond legislation and criminalisation in Nigeria. Specifically, the study identified the various speech acts of hate utterances, the rhetorical strategies used to express hate, the motivations of hate rhetoric as well as how hate utterances can be reclaimed and/or mitigated. The study adopted Austin’s and Searle’s Speech Act Theory, St. Clare’s Hate Speech Act Theory, Aristotle’s Theory of Appeal and Brontsema’s Theory of Hate Reclamation and Mitigation as theoretical models. Three thousand, one hundred and twenty-eight (3,128) hate utterances were extracted from six social media platforms -Facebook, X (Twitter), YouTube, WhatsApp, TikTok and Online Newspapers and Magazine- using Tweepy and Scrapy applications. Five hundred and seventy (570) hate utterances were purposely selected as those within the scope of the study (2014 to 2022) out of which sixty-three (63) hate utterances/songs were randomly selected for analysis. The study showed that Austin’s Performative and Constative speech acts accounted for 50% of occurrence. Commissive illocutionary speech act had the highest frequency of accounting with 35% occurrence. According to Searle’s speech act theory, Assertive hate expression accounted for the highest occurrence with 43.5%. For rhetorical analysis, Pathos, Hyperbole and Use of Identity were identified as the most used hate rhetorical strategies in the study out of which Pathos rhetorical genre accounted for the highest occurring rhetorical genre with 60%; Hyperbole rhetorical figurative expressions with 60% and Use of Identity rhetorical strategy with 35% respectively. For hate-motivated expression, Mission Offender-motivated hate expression accounted for the highest occurring with 52.2%. The study showed that hate utterances are identified by certain characteristics and are motivated by shared socio-political and historical experiences which are used as weapons of verbal defence, retaliation or response to hate utterances from an individual/group to another individual/group. The study also revealed that hate utterances were deployed by users to demean, dehumanise, subordinate and silence targets of hate utterances as well as to injure and/or malign the target. The study concludes that hate utterances can be disarmed, reclaimed and mitigated beyond legislation and criminalisation.
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Papers by Abiodun C . Ayeni
Thesis Chapters by Abiodun C . Ayeni