Title:   ILLOCUTIONARY ACTS IN SLANG EXPRESSIONS USED BY UNDERGRADUATES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA

Slang expression is one of the linguistic elements that have attracted the attention of language scholars in recent time. Slang is the language (words, phrases, and usages) of an informal register that members of particular in-group favour (over a standard language) in order to establish group identity, exclude outsiders, or both. There are contextual characteristics that define the deployment of slang expressions by students of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN). Explication of these features has not been the subject of any linguistic investigation. This study, therefore, discusses the illocutionary acts in slang expressions used by undergraduates of UNN. Data for the study were tap-recorded naturally occurring conversations done by the students in their halls of residence which contained the slang expressions. This aided the analysis of the slang expressions within their contexts of use in interactions. The data were classified and analysed using John Searle’s classifications of illocutionary acts. The data gathered revealed that illocutionary acts such as assertives and directives often characterise the students’ use of slang expressions in their daily conversations. The students rarely deploy slang expressions as commissivess and expressives. Slang expressions were not deployed as declaratives by them. Thus, the students use slangs expressions as assertives preponderantly in their conversations.

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Publication Date: 2020-12-04