e-sRC

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
When we look closely at any language, we will discover time and time again that there is considerable internal variation and that speakers make constant use of the many different possibilities offered to them.[Wardhaugh 2006:5].The concept of language variation implies the existence of two or more ways of saying the same thing. It takes into account such factors as the social background of both the speaker and the addressee, the context and manner of the interaction. [Radford, Atkinson, Britain, Clahsen, Spencer 2009:14]. Language variation explores social reasons for the variation, change and attitudes to different varieties of the same language, and also in the way language is used to express or construct particular social identities in particular social context.
Hymes (1967:8) has this to say about language variation:“No normal person and no normal community is limited in repertoire to a single variety or code to an unchanging monotony which would preclude the possibility of indicating respect, insolence, mock seriousness, role distance and so on. And this could be achieved by switching from one variety to another.”In 1961, William Labov conducted a study on Martha‟s Vineyard, an island off the coast of Massachusetts. There, he found out that there is both inter-speaker variation, that is variation between individual speakers and intra- speaker variation that is variation within individual speaker. Labov‟svariationist theory has been constructed upon
2
the notion that understanding variation in language and its participation in language change entail the simultaneous study of language and society, as well as the values attached to competing language forms. As Labov (1972:3) in Meyerhoff (2006) writes:“Social pressures are continually operating upon language, not from some remote point in the past, but as imminent social force acting in the living present.”[Meyerhoff 2006:5]This goes to show that language variation does not set out only to produce, but also reproduces and transforms social meanings and ideologies. It entails the option of choosing one common way of saying something from among all available possibilities. Speakers do not simply use and reproduce sociolinguistic patterns and conventions of meaning, they ultimately also have the potential to transform those patterns and meanings to the extent that a particular way of saying something may spread throughout a given speech community across time. Eckert (2008:472) states that changes unfold in the course of day- to- day exchange and that exchange involves constant local reinterpretation and repositioning.Ultimately, it is in this action that we can get at the meaning-making that gives life to variation. She went further to state that the life of variation resides in the everyday life experience of people, and how their ideologies and conventions of meaning are enacted in the day-to-day activities of language users.
Hudson(1996:4) in (Wardhaugh 2006) is of the opinion that no one speaks the same way all the time and that people constantly exploit the nuances of the language they speak for a wide variety of purposes. Sociolinguistic research in multilingual communities encompasses bilingual or diglossic communities, where languages are used for distinct
3
functions, code-switching including the reasons and grammatical constraints on switching.
1.1.1 History and Staff Organization of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria
Ahmadu Bello University Zaria was founded on October 4th 1962 as the University of Northern Nigeria by the then Northern Region Government and was taken over as a Federal Institution in 1975.The Premier of Northern Nigeria and first Chancellor, Sir Ahmadu Bello, have this vision for the university: “The cardinal principle upon which our university is founded is to impart knowledge and learning to men and women of all races, religion and political belief.”He stresses further that only through freedom of enquiry and research can a university be drawn into the full ferment of thought from which new knowledge comes. And for it to achieve this, staff and students must be drawn from all parts of the world, the mixture of international minds working together in an atmosphere of academic freedom can produce a university true to its ideal and meaning. This shows that the staff of Ahmadu Bello University are drawn from various parts of the country and have come together to interact.
The staff organization of Ahmadu Bello University include the academic staff who operate under the umbrella of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU),the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), the Non-Academic and Associate Staff Union of Universities (NASUU), the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT),and staff who are on part time basis.

1.2StatementofResearch Problem
As a multilingual and multiethnic country, Nigeria has many languages, some of which have no standard orthography that can be used to perform national linguistic functions. Therefore, English has an edge over all the indigenous languages in Nigeria. However, sociolinguist attention emphasizes that in so many parts of the world, not only is there very many languages within given national boundaries but also there exist several varieties of these languages, in which Nigeria is not an exception.
In a language in contact situation such as, Nigeria, it is to be expected that there will be an interaction between the vernaculars and English. Language variation is so important and crucial to life. Like air; people do not often recognize its nearness, its
5
presence and its importance. Many educated people not only in the university, but Nigerian society tend to be watchful when they speak. They are conscious of the class, age, gender and also the social situation they find themselves. Some even go to the extent of denying that they do not speak an alternative language (for example pidgin English), even though many researchers for example Gani –Ikilama (1992) and Gana (2010) have shown the contribution of Nigeria Pidgin in the country. Many educated Nigerians still don‟t want to associate themselves with it.
Also research on language variation has been concerned only with some aspects of language variation such as the use of pidgin among a selected society, the use of dialect by a group of speech communities and the like. Gana (2010) study on the use of pidgin among senior cadres of university lecturers using Ahmadu Bello University Zaria as a case study was limited to only the attitude of the senior academic staff of the university. The attitude of the junior academic and non-academic staff was not clearly revealed, it‟s that to say that their language is void of variation. In addition, the study conducted was only on the use of pidgin neglecting the use of other local dialect such as Hausa, Yoruba etc. This shows gross paucity of data on the other cadres of the university. This gap in data representation therefore affordthe need for us to analyze the use of language variation particularly in the speech conversation of both academic and non-academic staff of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in order to determine the extent, limit and also the factors that are responsible for these variations.

1.3 Research Questions
In order to carry out the analysis of speech variation among academic and non-academic staff of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, the study will be guided by the following questions:

1. How serious is language variation among the staff of the university?
2. What are the factors accounting for language variation among the staff of the university?
3. What are the situations that compel the staff of the university to change the way they speak?
4. What aspect of language is affected with variation?
   1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study
   The basic aim of this study is to investigate the use of variation, particularly in the conversation of both formal and informal academic and non -academic staff of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The history of research in language variation has undergone various periods that have shown how complex the phenomenon is. Based on this aim, the study intends to achieve the following objectives: to
5. Identify the seriousness of language variation among the staff of the university
6. Investigate the factors that account for language variation among the university
7. Identify the situations that compel staff of the university to change the way they speak; and
   7
8. Determine the aspect of language that is more pronounced with variation, i.e. formal or informal.