Patterns of Pronunciation of Plural and Past Tense Morphemes in English News among Yoruba Television Newscasters in Southwest Nigeria
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2022-12
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Lead City University
Abstract
The spoken English in Nigeria exhibits features that are explicitly distinctive, and thus, a cynosure for linguistic investigation. In this respect, this study was carried out with a view to investigating the patterns of pronunciation of plural and past tense morphemes in English News among television newscasters in Southwest, Nigeria. Chomsky and Halle’s generative phonology served as the framework. Five television stations were purposively selected from Southwest, Nigeria. Recorded news items were collected for the study. Data were subjected to phonological analysis using formal rules in morphophonemic, using descriptive and qualitative approaches. The overall performance of newscasters showed that the plural English allomorphs /əz/, /s/, and /z/ are wrongly alternated and the same were observed of the past tense English allomorphs /t/, /d/ and / ḷd/. It is observed that most of the wrongly pronounced English morphemes do not exist in Yoruba phonology and the newscasters being of Yoruba nativity have to consciously or unconsciously substitute the sounds that do not exist in Yoruba phonology with the ones that exist. For examples, / s/ for / z /, and / ed/ for / ḷd /. Also, based on improper mastery of English phonological rules, the English allomorphs for past tense, /t /, / d / and / ḷd/ are interchangeably used for one another, therefore bifurcate into Yoruba phonological system interference and improper mastery of English phonological rules. Pedagogically, the shows that newscasters are not proficient enough to function as suitable models for learners and the general users of the English as second language. Therefore, it is recommended that the Yoruba television newscasters should take note of the English sounds that do not exist in Yoruba phonology and master their correct pronunciation.
Keywords: English Phonological rules, Patterns of pronunciation, English morphemes, and Interference
Word Count 292
Description
Keywords
Citation
Kate Turabian