The Intonation of Noun Phrase Subjects and Clause- Modifying Adverbials in Nigerian English

Abstract

In view of the emerging peculiarity of Nigerian English as one of the nonnative
Englishes, especially at the level of phonology, this study investigates the English intonation tunes employed by Nigerian speakers of English for Noun Phrase Subjects and Clause-Modifying Adverbials. Forty television reporters in Nigeria were used as subjects. The intonation analysis of their reports recorded on air, using simple percentage calculation, reveals that, in both instances, there is a preponderance of rise tune as against fall-rise preferred in British English. They obtained 89.3%, and 87.9% rise tune respectively. The study concluded that the overwhelming preference for rise tune in Nigerian English in these syntactic structures is not unconnected with the fact that many Nigerian speakers of English have difficulty in producing complex intonation tunes due to unavailability of this tune type in their linguistic repertoire. It is hoped that this study shall widen the scope of research on the characterisation and description of Nigerian English.

Keywords: Intonation tunes, Nigerian English, Noun Phrase Subjects,
Clause-Modifying Adverbials and Rise tune.