Morphological Features of Nigerian Pidgin in the Football Commentary

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze and describe the various morphological features that embody commentary in Nigerian Pidgin (NP). The data for this study were drawn from 2018 FIFA World Cup that was hosted in Russia. Pidgin commentary was run and aired on a channel on Digital Satellite Television (DSTV). The pidgin commentaries of the two Semi-Finals between France and Belgium as well as Croatia and England and the Final between Croatia and France were tape-recorded for analysis. The theoretical orientation relies largely on the Item and Process theory (IP) of descriptive morphological analysis popularized. Findings show that reduplication, Adesoji Babalola Lecturer, Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria Email: adesojibabalola@oauife.edu.ng Received 13 September, 2020; Revised 16 February, 2021; Accepted 19 March, 2021 Copyright © 2021 Language Research Institute, Sejong University Journal of Universal Language is an Open Access Journal. All articles are distributed online under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 28 Morphological Features of Nigerian Pidgin in the Football Commentary compounding and affixation are widely used while blending, clipping and conversion are averagely used in the Pidgin commentary data. It is further revealed that acronymy and abbreviations are uncommon morphological features of NP commentary. The study concludes that the characterization of NP commentary with productive morphological features indicates that the language has the stamina to express all facets of our daily life. It is therefore crucial for the government to support the language with official recognition so that it will continue to contribute significantly to national cohesion in Nigeria.