American Research Journal of English and Literature

 Nigerian English discourse is not recent. In different fields of language study (phonology, morphology, semantics, pragmatics, etc.), scholars establish critical positions on the status of Nigerian English amidst world Englishes. Hinging basically on Lawal’s Communicative Model Theory, this study makes a discursive, interdisciplinary discussion of what Nigerian English parades as her pragmatic, lexical and semantic data. Scholars express the need for extensive research on how discourse operates in the usage of English in non-native regions. Defending Nigerian English, this study concludes that in Nigeria, discourse is not merely a mechanical process as it also involves creativity on the part of Nigerian speakers of English. Howbeit, Nigerians “nativize” English by using it beyond its formal properties to produce what the study labels the “pragma-lexico-semantic corpora” of Nigerian English.