Grammatical Nativization in Online Nigerian English Newspaper "Punch"

Abstract

The study into the adaptation of English variants in diverse discourse types helps identify their new phonetic, grammatical, and lexical features in modern linguistic and sociocultural realia that are predetermined by the globalization and nativization trends. However, at the current stage of contact linguistics development, there is a gap in the study of the English language varieties in media discourse. The study aims to identify the grammatical changes in English based on the online Nigerian English newspaper Punch. The printed articles and video materials of the latter constitute the space of Nigerian English media discourse. We have found that the variant of English used in Nigerian English media discourse is subject to nativization, which refers to the adaptation of English to Nigerian linguistic, social, and cultural realia. Our findings prove that the grammatical nativization of English in Nigerian English media discourse manifests itself in morphological and syntactic transformations. Morphological nativization of notional and formal parts of speech is manifested in the simplification of verb tenses, the formation of degrees of comparison, and the omission of articles and particles. The morphological changes are influenced by interference from local languages. Syntactic naturalization manifests itself in structural changes and certain punctuation features. It has been established that structural changes occur when the word order in a sentence is inverted, with the inversion of time and place circumstances being the most productive. A characteristic feature of the Punch articles is nativized punctuation, which is associated with the omission of such written markers as commas and closing quotation marks and is influenced by the indigenous languages, where the punctuation rules differ from those of British English.