Pragmatics of Nigerian English in Digital Discourse

Language use on the Internet is an active human behaviour that mirrors not only the language habits of its users but also their cultural traits. English like other languages that are used on the Internet is constrained by the technology of the new media; thus, some new styles of language use in communication are noticeable as users attempt to impose the techniques of the modern information technology on the old system of language. Nigerian English as one of the New Englishes for example, has established itself in the cyberspace with the unmistakable ‘Nigerianness’ that is unique to the social and cultural identity of its users. This book is a scholarly attempt at harnessing research results in the investigation of intercultural pragmatics of Nigerian English in the context of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC). The contributions in the book represent some aspects of the current state of the art research in linguistics/discourse pragmatics seen in the broad sense as a functional (i.e. social and cultural) perspective on digital discourse. The studies exemplify the manifestation of Nigerian English on Twitter and Facebook, as well as in texting, blogs, e-learning and online chats. Pragmatics theories and approaches applied in the analyses include politeness, speech/pragmatic acts, relevance and Gricean- pragmatics. This book will serve as a good resource and reference materials for graduate and undergraduate students of applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, intercultural pragmatics, new media and communication studies and Internet research in Africa. ISBN 9783862885336. LINCOM Studies in Pragmatics 26. 104pp. 2014.