Abstract
Nicknames are an integral part of human experience in many cultures in the world over, and some scholars believe that they have a cultural significance to the relevant society. This study is a report of a survey of a purposively sampled group of fifty Great Zimbabwe University students’ views, gathered through a questionnaire, on nick-name usage among the Shona-speaking people of Zimbabwe. The group of respondents comprised students, in their first semester at university, drawn from across the Zimbabwean social and dialectical divide. In this study, only nick-names used by the Shona people were predominant because the researcher’s first language is Shona and it was, therefore, felt that interpretation would be easier. Some people may think that nicknames are a trivial phenomenon of human existence but this survey revealed that they are significant to both bearers and users and are an indispensable aspect of human existence. Some may be used for convenience of usage while others may reflect the bearer’s behaviour, physical appearance, social status in life or simply an important incident in a person’s life. Yet others have personality traits of their carriers embedded in them. It could also be argued that some of these names are used arbitrarily while others are an important reflection of and offer important insights into the relevant people’s norms, values and history and the cultural intrusion of the West, particularly with short forms of actual names which bearers were given at birth. Key words: Nicknames, semiotics, onomasticon, dialectical, significance, Shona-speaking.
Highlights
Nicknames, like the first names that human beings acquire at birth, are an inherent characteristic of human existence. Kuranchie (2012) asserts that it is an incontrovertible fact that nicknaming has been a common practice in various arenas of human endeavour in many societies since ages
The nicknames reported by fifty Shona-speaking informants from Great Zimbabwe University, drawn from across the country‟s dialectical and social divide, were included in this analysis
This study makes an interpretive analysis of nicknames given in an attempt to find their semiotic significance
Summary
Like the first names that human beings acquire at birth, are an inherent characteristic of human existence. Kuranchie (2012) asserts that it is an incontrovertible fact that nicknaming has been a common practice in various arenas of human endeavour in many societies since ages. Like the first names that human beings acquire at birth, are an inherent characteristic of human existence. Kuranchie (2012) asserts that it is an incontrovertible fact that nicknaming has been a common practice in various arenas of human endeavour in many societies since ages. The scholar further argues that researchers have long studied the practice in various arenas of human experience, and have observed that people use varieties of them, depending on their norms and values. A significant number of other studies have been carried out on naming in various communities
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