The Morphological Study of Colour Terms in Nigerian English

Abstract

The paper investigates the nature of morphological processes of colour terms among the users of English in Nigeria and their syntactic usages using a multi-dimensional approach in data gathering. The data was drawn from one hundred subjects across ten ethnic groups, including Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba as well as fifteen textual materials written in English by Nigerian scholars. The paper adopts a cognitive linguistic multidimensional framework. The paper reveals that the colour systems and usages among Nigerians contrast with the system within the native speakers of the language. For instance "fresh leave green", "pale blue", "blood red", "yolk yellow", "black black", "dark so and so", "charcoal", "flesh", , "dirty green", "dudu" and so on are formed through several morphological processes such as coining, clipping, blending, borrowing, compounding, reduplication and affixation as well as usage in various syntactic operations as in nominals and adjectives: "The shirt is dark so and so." and "The yellows ran out of the scorching sun." which serves as adjective and nominal plural respectively. Hence the paper concludes that morphology and syntax of most colours in Nigerian context have been influenced by many indigenous languages in the country. Hence, the hierarchy of the basic colours violates the Berlin and Kay"s evolutionary sequence and Kay and Maffi"s Trajectory model of Colour terms within the circle of the native speakers of English.