SYNTACTIC AND LEXICO-SEMANTIC ANALYSES OF SELECTED SMS TEXT MESSAGES AMONG THE UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN STUDENTS

ABSTRACT: Words form the basis for a Linguistic analysis at any level of language study. The aim of this essay was to identify the various Lexical and Syntactic elements that make up personal text messages among the students of the University of Ilorin. Lexical features, Lexical relations, Word-formation processes and Word Sequences were employed to unravel the Lexical and Syntactic elements contained in selected text messages. Among the findings in the work were that nouns are the most prominent lexical features in the personal text messages of the students of the University of Ilorin, while adverbs are the least used lexical features in the composition of these messages. It was also discovered that most of the words that were used in composing the messages were created through the word-formation process of derivation and that simple sentences in the most used sentence sequences in these messages. The conclusion in the essay was that effective communication through personal text messages among the University of Ilorin students can be ensued, if the receivers of the messages take into cognizance the various Lexical and Syntactic elements identified in their interpretation.