Function and Significance of Greeting in the Igbo Tradition: A Sociolinguistic Study of Nnewi Community in Anambra State
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Date
2014
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Chridamel Publishing House
Abstract
Human beings are social beings; and in everyday of their social activities, several factors are considered in order for them to interact with one another in an acceptable manner for the purpose of fulfilling social obligations and establishing interpersonal relationship. One of these factors that spice up social relationship of man to man is greeting. Greeting only performs its linguistic and social functions in the life of Nnewi people when it is conducted in an acceptable manner. The objective of this paper is to examine the function and sociolinguistic significance of greetings in Igbo tradition of Nnewi Community in Anambra State, Nigeria. The connection between people and the way they use language in their social interaction cannot be separated and this together, influence the way greetings are organized in discourse. The study is descriptive and the data in use included the greetings used in daily interpersonal social interaction by the members of Nnewi North community of which the writer is one. The methodology used includes observation and interview. This paper employs Lawal’s “Aspects of a Pragmatic Theory” (1997) for the analysis of the linguistic, situational, psychological, social, cultural, cosmological implications, and the pragmatic functions of greetings of Nnewi Igbo to explain the communicative and sociolinguistic functions of greetings in the life of Nnewi Igbo people. The findings of this paper showcase the grammatical competence employed by both the young and old Nnewi native Igbo language speakers in the use of Igbo greetings and the traditional moral values already laid down by the ancestors of Nnewi community that guide members of the community towards the right channel of behavior in achieving positive interpersonal relationship towards one another in Nnewi community and Igbo land as a whole. It concludes that acceptable greeting attitudes should be inculcated into Nnewi youths and the future generations to maintain and enhance their cultural heritage.
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Sociolinguistics,, Greetings,, Igbo,, Nnewi