To the Problem of Nigerian English Idioms Peculiarities

Abstract

The relevance of this article is determined by the debatable nature of definitions of idioms concept in the sphere of language variability. The English language of Nigeria is a linguistic unit, combining the properties and features of the English language at the phonetic, grammatical, morphological levels and processing the elements of own cultural identification. Due to the multi-ethnic nature of Nigeria, the lexical layer of the language contains many linguistic definitions from the indigenous languages of Nigeria, which determines the difficulty of identifying the meaning of idioms without analyzing the lexical composition of the original linguistic units. The aim of the article is to formulate the definition of the idiom in the framework of contact linguistics; to identify the characteristic features of Nigerian English idioms; to study the specifics of the Nigerian idioms of the English language on the material of linguistic dictionaries. Language is not a stable formation, but it is the subject to a constant dynamic process of changes at the morphological, syntactic, phonological levels. Depending on the local affiliation, certain languages also have a certain number of dialects, which provokes linguists’ interest at the present stage of scientific development. It is possible to trace language features of English variations on the example of Malaysian English in which lexical structure of language comes from Malay, Chinese and Borneo languages. An important aspect of the analysis of linguistic features of a language is the study of phraseological units. This part of vocabulary presents the main originality of the language specificity and reflects the true linguistic and cultural features associated with belonging to a certain interethnic identity. Idioms in English that develop in different sociolinguistic contexts can be defined as belonging to a particular variety of English variant. A variety of modifications of English idioms can represent an idiom not only at the structural and lexical levels, but also include a semantic shift that can only be identified by a careful analysis of the language used in its social context.