L2 Speakers’ Strategy: A Study of Discourse Markers Peculiar to Nigerian English

Abstract

Despite Nigeria’s multilinguistic and multicultural diversity, it remains a national entity. This nationhood is maintained through certain variables, one of which is the use of a common language - the English language - which has arguably assumed a national outlook known as Nigerian English. This paper is essentially concerned with the analysis of discourse markers which are peculiar to Nigerian English. This paper also views Nigerian English as one of the learners’ strategies of owning the English language despite its position as a second language in Nigeria. It aims to represent discourse markers as central features of Nigerian English and indicators of ownership and identity in general discourses and texts. It also examines the importance of discourse markers in indigenous texts and how they provide insight into the existence of discourse markers in conversations. Several studies done on Nigerian English seem to focus on the different and unique features of lexical items, syntax, semantics, phonology, etc, but attention has not been given to the recognition of discourse markers as a peculiarity of Nigerian English which are mutually intelligible to Nigerian users. The paper adopts Labov’s Variability Theory which explains language variation in relation to social variables and their correlation with social structure. It is also concerned with speech evaluation and how it influences speech forms. Information about discourse markers were obtained from primary sources comprising the texts Night Dancer by Chika Unigwe and Yellow-Yellow by Kaine Agary. Excerpts were selected from the texts using the purposive sampling technique. Information about discourse markers were also obtained from secondary sources of written materials and journal articles, which were used for the analysis and discussion. The study concludes that indigenous discourse markers as found in Chike Unigwe’s Night Dancer and Kaine Agary’s Yellow-Yellow play important roles in depicting ownership in discourse and texts, and are intelligible to Nigerian users.