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Bilingual Verbs in Nigerian Pidgin—English Code Mixing
Abstract
p> This paper discusses bilingual verbs, which are intermediate forms that cannot be fully identified with neither Nigerian pidgin nor English, in Nigerian pidgin- English code mixed utterances. The process involved in the derivation of bilingual or hybrid verbs is analogous to hybrid forms in biology. The conceptual framework of this study is Myers-Scotton (1993, 2002). Matrix language frame and the types of hybrid verbs discussed in this study include, the insertion of bare verbs from English to Nigerian pidgin; the adjoinment of auxiliary /helping verbs, as well as the negative particle, in Nigerian pidgin to inserted main verbs from English which is the embedded language. Lastly, is the presence of hybrid verbs in Nigerian pidgin’s serial verb constructions. The essay concludes that bilingual/hybrid verbs constitute an integral part of the grammatical approach to code switching. </p
The dissertation presents the analysis of Nigeria Pidgin English at various levels of the language structure. It deals with the phonological representation, the patterns of expressing grammatical categories and the rules of word formation leading to creating new units. The language is in the process of ongoing development and structural properties are manifested differently in texts representing the language from different zones of Nigeria and created in different times. However, the work was not oriented at establishing the systemic properties of the language but rather aimed to distinguish features influenced by the African languages which function as its linguistic substrate. The questions of grammaticalization resulting in the change of lexical units to grammatical units was subject of a particular interest. The analysis indicates that Nigerian Pidgin English should not be perceived only as a result of simplification of the source language which is given a status of ‘broken English’. It is a contact language which shares numerous structural similarities with the languages of the area which make its substratum. The comparison of Nigerian Pidgin English structures with similar patterns of the main languages of the area indicates that all these languages contribute to each other in the process of their individual development. The similarities between languages, (at the level of phonology, lexicon and structural properties of various kinds) are not due to their common descent, but to intensive language contact. Therefore, Nigerian Pidgin English is a part of language contact zone which represents one linguistic area in multilingual region of West Africa.
L'article analyse la facon dont l'elite au pouvoir dans certains pays d'Afrique maintient ses privileges et sa domination sociale par les choix linguistiques qu'elle accomplit. L'elite est constituee par ceux qui parlent la langue officielle (Anglais, Francais, Portugais) et qui ont atteint un certain niveau d'etudes. La maniere dont l'elite passe de la langue indigene a la langue officielle dans les conversations (ex : Swahili/Anglais) est une marque symbolique de l'identite du groupe et acquiert ainsi une signification sociale.
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In this paper a linguistic hybridization/symbiosis distinction of mixed constructions emerging in language contact situations is argued for. In analogy to the biological processes, hybrid constructions are offsprings of crossing between features of different languages; their salient feature is that they are new, intermediate forms, not identifiable in any one of the languages involved. As distinct from hybrid constructions, symbiotic forms are those produced by the co-occurrence of elements belonging to every one of the languages involved, with each retaining its identity. The suggested distinction has been motivated from contemporary Arabic, a typical diglottic situation. Instances of hybridization (2.3–2.5) and symbiotic formation (with emphasis on the attachment of the colloquial indicative prefix b- to literary Arabic verbal forms 3.2) are discussed.
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