AUDIENCE PERCEPTION OF PIDGIN ENGLISH USAGE IN BROADCAST MEDIA

Background of the study: The term Pidgin English or Nigeria Pidgin otherwise known as Brokin English is a term used to denote an English based pidgin; a marginal language used among Nigerians to facilitate communication needs in certain interaction contexts. Like any other pidgin language in other cultural climes where the language is not native to its users. According to Marshal (1950) cited in Abiola (2010) says, language is a means of communication via which myriad of message are transmitted day by day. Nigerian pidgin is contact language that emerged from the fusion of indigenous languages and foreign language (English). Supporting this view, Elugbe and Omamor (1991), cited in Temitope (2012) in their attempt to define pidgin, see it as “some kind of a marginal language that arises to fulfill specific communication needs in well-defined circumstances.”The above definition shows that pidgin is not an official language, but      a marginal language used for communication especially by people who do not speak each other’s language. Writing further, Elugbe and Omamor, quoting Hall (1966), stated two conditions for a language to be qualified as pidgin. In their submission, for a language to be pidgin, “Its grammatical structure and its vocabulary must be sharply reduced; secondly, the resultant language must be native to none of those who use it” (Elugbe and Omamor, 1991). In consonance with the above position, Temitope (2012) quoting Rickford (1998) said: A pidgin usually combines elements of the native language of its users and is typically simpler than those native languages in so far as it has fewer words, less morphology, and a more restricted range of phonological and syntactic options. Rickford’s excerpt to some extent is contextually applicable to Nigerian pidgin in the sense that its phonological, morphological and grammatical structures are basically restricted compared to any other standard language. In addition to this, its social communicative functions are usually limited to the verbal and informal settings. Though scholars like Rickford (1998) are of the view that “a pidgin is sharply restricted in social role, used for limited communication between speakers of two or more languages who have repeated or extended contacts with each other, for instance through trade, enslavement or migration,” such position on pidgin is not generally applicable to all pidgins. The sociolinguistic reality in Nigeria today reveals that Nigerian pidgin is not used only in informal settings, but also in other formal settings (Akande, 2008). Other places where pidgin is now common is on the media especially in television and radio programme presentation, comedy presentation, advertisement and jingle production among other forms of programmes. To this end, the research examines audience perception of Pidgin English usage in broadcast media: Radio Kogi, Lokoja.

1.2.    Statement of the Problem

The use of Pidgin English otherwise known as Broken English is creating a decline in the use of pure, correct English language to the extent that students and teachers that supposed to be speaking good English language are now speaking pidgin because they believe they can speak the language anywhere because broadcast media use the same on programmes. The English speakers use it unconsciously in some former occasions that demanded use of pure English language. On the other hand, many audiences who speak Pidgin English very often find it difficult to understand broadcasting message that are disseminated in pure English language and as such, try to ignore such information. They find it difficult to give a satisfactory and accurate meaning of the communicated messages on pure English language. In view of this, the research aims at finding out audience perception of Pidgin English usage in broadcast media: Radio Kogi Fm, Lokoja.