Lexical, Structural and Rhetorical Features of Nigerian English Print Media

Abstract

Language is invariably a great instrument in the media world. It is the vehicle of disseminating and presenting issues, trends, happenings and events in the society to the general public. Though language is universally used in media, the style of use differs from one genre to the other. Therefore, this paper attempts to examine the peculiar linguistic and stylistic elements in Nigerian English print media. Methodologically, the study collects data from national Nigerian English newspapers and linguistically analyses them to identify peculiar features. Specifically, it identifies lexical, structural and rhetorical features that are peculiar in Nigerian newspapers. It discovers that the English of the Nigerian print media possesses certain linguistic features and as a result, it is stylistically different from the official English usage often used in Nigerian educational institutions. The paper avers that the peculiar use of English language in the Nigeria media reveals a variety of English with a distinct Nigerian flavour.