THE SEMANTICS OF ALMS BEGGING EXPRESSIONS BY NIGERIAN YOUTHS

Abstract

This paper sought to investigate the semantics of alms begging in Nigerian English. Previous studies have paid attention to the connectedness between Islam and begging as well as the various pragmatic acts enunciated by beggars in Southwest Nigeria when requesting alms. In continuation with the extant studies, there is also need to examine the various strategies adopted by some Nigerian youths when begging for alms in order to accentuate how words, phrases or coinages take up new meaning and/or are established as terms specifically related to alms begging. The study adopted insights from Chomsky's 1986 internalised semantics theory. Data for the research were gathered through on the spot recording of scenes of begging during ceremonies, and other traffic lanes of life such as political gathering, police check points, emblem/ticket check points, markets, motor parks, bars, etcetera. Findings show that some Nigerian beggars adopt distinct strategies such as the use of euphemistic expressions and trademarked lexical items when begging for alms. It is also discovered that these expressions are employed in a novel manner in order to avoid societal stigma that comes with begging. The paper proposes that since these expressions are meaningful to Nigerians, they should be recognised as a significant aspect of Nigerian English.