Department: Linguistics African and European Languages
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1
Lexical Analysis of Values in Nigerian Pidgin Proverbs
The paper explores the resourcefulness of the Nigerian variety of Pidgin proverbs as an expression of the Nigerian indigenous value system. The study employs the theoretical and analytical procedures of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), an analysis of discourse, especially public discourse, aimed at uncovering ideological values and other hidden meanings embedded in texts. With CDA, we are able to discover the extent to which the Nigerian Pidgin Proverbs explore values and meanings that are peculiar to Nigeria’s urban centres where the language is entrenched. Ten of those proverbs are translated, classified based on their thematic concerns and analysed. The components of the indigenous knowledge system unraveled by the analysis are expatiated under four main paradigms which include social values, ideological values, moral values and philosophical values. The conclusion showcases the ways and manners in which the Pidgin proverbs under review replicate the experiences and world-view of its users as well as their sociological, ethical and psychological dispositions to specific practices and their assessments of observed phenomenon.
Keywords: Nigerian pidgin proverbs, values, critical discourse analysis, meaning, communication, behaviour
