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Authors: Ojetunde Cecilia Folasade
Keywords: honorific, features, third person, pronoun, South West, Nigerian English
Abstract: This study investigated the usage of Yoruba honorific related plural - awon/won (they) in its subjective, objective, possessive and reflection forms in the written and spoken English of selected tertiary institutions students in the South West Nigeria with a view to determining the extent to which the cultural features of their local language (Yoruba) has influenced their use of English. The theoretical framework adopted for the study is linguistic honorifics which convey formality, social distance, politeness, humility, deference or respect through a change in person or number or an entirely different lexical item (Brown, Penelope and Levison (1987), Sifainou (1999).The background to the study was predicted on the presence, in Yoruba language, of the pronoun awon/won which is both a third person plural pronoun like the traditional English they/them and also a third person plural honorific pronoun. On this premise the participants for the study were drawn from the Yoruba speaking states of Lagos, Oyo, Osun, Ogun and Ekiti in South West Nigeria. 20 undergraduate students were selected from the University of Ibadan using purposive random sampling technique. 4 participants were selected from each state. The elicitation instruments used were self structured interview on a topical issue - "Roles of parents in the contemporary society" and an essay writing assignment on the same topic to examine the participants' usage of they and its various forms in their day to day communications in English. The data were textually analysed. The study established that the forms are used for honorific purposes in Yoruba language. Such pronouns are used to refer to people on the social ladder in terms of usage - master/slave, husband/wife, teacher/student, junior/senior, in the society. The usage is carried over to formal English usage, thereby making Nigerian English distinct from the Standard English leaving the interlocutors confused in terms of the number of people being referred to in a discourse. The study concluded that cultural influence should be controlled in the use of English so as to enhance international intelligibility and acceptability.