F. A. AJALA

This research presents a morphological analysis of noun pluralization in Nigerian Pidgin (NP), a vital and dynamic lingua franca whose core grammar remains significantly under-documented and often misunderstood.Drawing on descriptive linguistic principles, this study rigorously analyzed corpus and elicited data from University of Benin students, affirming NP’s status as a stable, highly efficient linguistic system. The analysis reveals that NP employs an economical analytical system for plurality, a distinct approach when contrasted with English inflectional morphology. Plurality is typically marked externally by prenominal quantifiers or numerals (e.g., ten egg or plenty shoe), demonstrating a rule-governed avoidance of redundant marking. Crucially, the post-nominal marker "dem" (e.g., pikin dem) has undergone complete grammaticalization and lexicalization, acting as a dedicated plural indicator, especially in definite contexts. This key structural feature reflects a deep and successful influence from local Nigerian substrate languages. Ultimately, this study concludes that the NP pluralization system is internally consistent, rule-governed, and structurally elegant. By establishing the sophisticated stability of this core nominal feature, this research significantly contributes to creole studies and offers compelling evidence that NP is a language optimally designed for clarity and effective communication.

This research focuses on the socio-semantic analysis on belief of preordained names in Yoruba. It explores the values, interpretation and how these names are considered to influence its bearers in the society. This help understand the deeper meanings of these names, which not only serve as a label but embody cultural and historical context. The study adopted sociolinguistics theory adopted and embraced by many scholars such as William Labov and Dell Hymes for the description and analysis of the data. This study used both the primary and secondary method of data collection. The primary method of data collection was used my oral interview and telephone calls from Yoruba informants of 35-60 years age range. The secondary method of data collection was used through watching of different YouTube videos by elderly Yoruba speakers. This study arranged the preordained names into five classes for better understanding and analysed the names showing the beliefs, values of Yoruba people. The study addressed 3 main objectives, the first was grouping the preordained names into 5 categories: Lastly future researchon preordained names could be the exploration of the impact of globalization and cultural exchange on naming practices. This could involves Studying how names are influenced by cross-cultural interactions, migration, and the adoption of names from different languages and cultures.