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| Title: | The Status of Yorùbá Dialects in Communicative Competence and Language Proficiency |
| Author: | Fábùnmi, Felix A. |
| Year: | 2004 |
| Periodical: | Africa Development: A Quarterly Journal of CODESRIA (ISSN 0850-3907) |
| Volume: | 29 |
| Issue: | 3 |
| Pages: | 103-113 |
| Language: | English |
| Notes: | biblio. refs. |
| Geographic terms: | Nigeria West Africa |
| Subjects: | communication dialects sociolinguistics Yoruba language Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) language Language and languages Communicative competence |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/24482760 |
| Abstract: | This article attempts to explore the status of Yorùbá dialects in communicative competence and language proficiency. Dialectal identities are quite strong among the Yorùbá people of Nigeria; they form an integral part of sociolinguistic behaviour in any of the Yorùbá communities. So, during speech acts or communication, the centralized version of the language will invariably depict the native speaker's version as deviating from the so-called standardized rules of speaking. But such dialectal identities and expressions actually mirror the people's mind, most covertly when deciding the topics that are appropriate to a particular speech event. This is the essence of communicative competence. However, the article shows that such proficiency could not be enhanced among the Yorùbá people unless skilled dialectal knowledge is allowed to thrive. The Yorùbá people appear to have rather strong views on the appropriateness of their dialects in different situations. The study is conceptualized within the framework of Chomsky's 'states' of mind where the adult native speaker's knowledge is fully developed static competence. The corpora are largely taken from various dialectal renditions and written texts. Oral and structured interviews were also conducted among Yorùbá language students and among Yoruba native speakers. This was decided in order to reduce introspection in diverse forms. Bibliogr., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract] |
