A LEXICO-SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF SLANGY EXPRESSIONS IN SELECTED NIGERIAN HIP HOP SONGS
Author: Layo Olaluwoye
Published: March 2018
ABSTRACT
Nigerian Hip hop music is a steady source of slangy expressions. Existing studies on slang have examined students’ slang and slang used by drivers among others. However, these studies seem to have consistently neglected slangy expressions in the Nigerian Hip hop music. The present study, therefore, is a lexico-semantic analysis of slangy expressions in selected Nigerian Hip hop songs. Eight tracks of seven popular Nigerian Hip-Hop artistes: Ayo Balogun (aka Wizkid), OlamideAdedeji (aka Baddoo), OluwatobiWandeOjosipe (aka Wande Coal), OritsefemiMajemiteEkele (aka Oritsefemi), Douglas Jack Agu (aka Runtown), Seyi Shay, and Cynthia Morgan were purposively selected for analysis. The selected songs were played and listened to several times; slangy expressions in the songs were transcribed and analysed. Lexico- semantic tools such as coinages, affixation, and semantic extension are deployed deliberately by the selected artistes in their songs. The study reveals that slangy expressions are strategies for conveying artistes’ intentions and messages in the selected songs. These have serious implications for the use of English in Nigeria.
Keywords: artiste, hip-pop, lexico-semantic, music, slangy expression
FOR FULL TEXT: Download Full PDF of Current Issue
References
Adegbija, E.(1989). Lexico-semantic Variation in Nigerian English. World Englishes (8)2.
.165-177.
Ajayi, D.O. (2012). The Language of Abuse in the Nigerian Hip hop Music. M.A. Project.
Dept. of English, University of Ibadan.
Babalola, E.T. and Taiwo, R. (2009). Code-switching in Contemporary Nigerian Hip-hop.
Itupale Online Journal of African Studies 1:1-26.
Babatunde,S.T. (2001). “The English Language as a Second Language(ESL) Phenomenon
in Nigeria”. In Babatunde,S.T(Ed.)Contemporary English Usage: An Introductory
Survey Ilorin: Haytee Books.pp.144-203.
Drake, G.F. (1980). The Social Role of Slang. In H. Giles and W.P. Robinson (Eds.),
Language: Social Psychological Perspectives: Selected Papers from the First
International Conference on Social Psychology and Language, Oxford: Pergamon Press, (pp. 63-70).
Eble, C. (1998). Youth Slang Studies in the USA. In J.K. Androutsopoulos and A.
Scholz(Eds.),Jugendsprache−Langue Des Jeunes−Youth Language.Soziolinguistische UndinguistischePerspektiven, Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang, p. 35-48.
Flexner, S.B. (1975). Preface. In H. Wentworth and S.B. Flexner (Eds.), Dictionary of
American Slang. New York: Crowell, (pp. vi-xv).
Adamo, G. E. (2013). An analysis of students’ slang terms for academic activities in a
Nigerian university: A semiotic approach, Southern African Linguistics and Applied
Language Studies, 31:1, 89-96.
Greenough. J.B. and G.L. Kittredge. (1962). Words and Their Ways in English
Speech.Boston: Beacon Press.
Gregson, K.S. (2006). Youth Culture. Encyclopedia of Children, Adolescents, and the Media.
Retrieved April 20, 2016, from http:// www.sagereference.com/childmedia/Article_n472.html.
Napoleon, K.E. (2012). Slang and Colloquialism in Cameroon English Verbal Discourse.
International Journal of Linguistics, Vol. 4, No. 1, 130 -145.
Nkamigbo, L. C. and Eme, C. A. (2011).Igbo Slang in Otu-Onitsha: Towards Enriching the
Igbo Language. An International Multidisciplinary Journal, p. 83-94.
Odebunmi A. (2006). The English Word and Meaning. Ogbomoso: Critical Sphere.
Quirk R. and Greenbaum S. (2000). A University Grammar of English. London: Longman.
Szabó, D. (1998). Methodological Problems of the Sociolinguistic Study of Youth Slang:
Paris Teenagers’ Argot Communities. In J.K. Androutsopoulos& A. Scholz
(Eds.),Jugendsprache−Langue Des Jeunes−Youth Language. Soziolinguistische
UndLinguistischePerspektiven, Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang, (pp. 49-58).
Yule, G. (2003). The Study of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.