Conventionalization and variation in computer-mediated communication New perspectives on Nigerian Pidgin spelling

Deuber, Dagmar; Shakir, Muhammad; Oyebola, Folajimi Kehinde

Forschungsartikel (Zeitschrift) | Peer reviewed

Zusammenfassung

This paper investigates spelling practices in Nigerian Pidgin (NigP) computer-mediated communication (CMC) as well as Nigerians’ perceptions of these. The first part is a corpus-based analysis. It shows that conventionalization of spelling variants is taking place in the absence of formal standardization. Furthermore, we observe the application of general CMC respelling strategies, e.g. vowel reduction. The second part is a survey study where participants were asked to judge the correctness of spelling variants. When the corpus results indicated the existence of a conventionalized spelling, the participants tended to either endorse this or, when shown an alternative, suggest it as the correct form; items that are more variable in the corpus yielded more mixed results. We apply and elaborate on the notion of “standardization from below” (Elspaß 2021) and we argue that the existence of conventionalized NigP spellings makes possible deviations from these in CMC-typical fashion just as in Standard English.

Details zur Publikation

FachzeitschriftEnglish World-Wide
Jahrgang / Bandnr. / Volume46
Ausgabe / Heftnr. / Issue1
Seitenbereich1-27
Artikelnummer1
StatusVeröffentlicht
Veröffentlichungsjahr2025 (14.03.2025)
Sprache, in der die Publikation verfasst istEnglisch
DOI10.1075/eww.24018.deu
StichwörterNigerian Pidgin; spelling variation; standardization; computer-mediated communication; corpus; survey

Autor*innen der Universität Münster

Deuber, Dagmar
Professur für Variationslinguistik (Prof. Deuber)
Shakir, Muhammad
Professur für Variationslinguistik (Prof. Deuber)