SOURCE:

Faculty: Arts
Department: English Language & Literature

CONTRIBUTORS:

Nneoma ,C.N;
Chukwu, E;;
;

ABSTRACT:

Stand-up comedies, an oral performance formally enacted by solo-performance before a live audience, are known to use Nigerian Pidgin to create comedy and entertain their audience. Their patterns and choices of Nigerian Pidgin can sometimes have hidden meanings that show Nigerian ways of life and their tone of utterance can sometimes be inappropriate. This study therefore examines the pragmatic strategies deployed by selected stand-up comedians with a view to determining the role of Nigerian Pidgin as a veritable source in comedy production and consumption. Hence, the purpose of this study is to analyze the pragmatic features of Nigerian Pidgin in the selected comedies, the patterns and the choices of Nigerian Pidgin as is used to create comedy to entertain the audience. It is expected to reveal how Nigerian Pidgin exemplifies the various Speech Acts discernible in the comedies. The relevance of this study is to reflect the true meaning behind words uttered by these comedians. This study is delimited to investigating the use of Nigerian Pidgin in selected comedies, the various Speech Acts depicted and implicature with specific reference to four selected stand-up comedians in Nigeria – Bovi, Basketmouth, I Go Dye and Ali Baba. To achieve this, the researcher studied the selected comedies downloaded from YouTube, and other Internet sources. John Searle’s Speech Act and Paul Grice’s Conversation Implicature theories were used to analyse the use of Nigerian Pidgin by comedians and their hidden meaning. Qualitative research method of analysis was used in analyzing the data collected. In the course of the study, it was discovered that the use of Nigerian Pidgin by comedians are often loaded with hidden meanings created for exposing the Nigerian ways of life, attitude and living. The researcher recommends that the use of Nigerian Pidgin should be encouraged in comedy shows and media productions since it is understood by both literate and illiterate Nigerians.
Keywords: Nigerian Pidgin, Comedy, Speech Acts and Conversational Implicature