PHONOLOGICAL INTERFERENCE IN TELEVISION NEWSCAST IN NIGERIA

CHAPTER TWO

2.0 Introduction

In this chapter, related works in the literature as this research work is concerned will be reviewed. This will serve as bases for the whole study i.e. some aspects to be reviewed here will be used in analysing our data in chapter three.

Due to the fact that sociolinguistics is a wide field, mother tongue interference and some other related sociolinguistic aspects (including language acquisition, bilingualism and some others) have been selected for the review.

2.1 Bilingualism/Multilingualism

Bilingualism and multilingualism are features of sociolinguistics.

According to Coates (1993, p. 4)

Sociolinguistics has been defined as the study of language in its social context. The study of language in its social context means crucially the study of linguistic variation.

Coates (1993) also identified two types of variations which are: stylistics variation and social variation.

Mackey (1968: 554) in Romaine (1989) opines:

The study of bilingualism could therefore be said to fall within the field of sociolinguistics in so far as the later is a discipline which is concerned with the ways in which language is used in the society.

Grosjean (1982) estimated that about half the world’s population is bilingual and that bilingualism is present in practically every country of the world. It is very rare to see a country with just a language, even a language has varieties.

McGregor (2009, p. 168) opines:

Many speech communities around the world are constituted of individuals who speak two or more shared languages. I use the term bilingualism to refer to such situations allowing that more than two languages may be involved: sometimes the term multilingualism is used instead as the cover term.

From all the scholars that been quoted above, it is deducible that bilingualism is a situation whereby more than a language is present in a society and multilingualism in its case is referred to as a situation whereby more than two languages are used side by side in a geographical environment.

2.2 The Status of English in Nigeria

Nigeria is a multilingual state with (521) five hundred and twenty one indigenous languages. (Nine of these indigenous languages are dead while we have two languages (French and English) which have no native speakers. However, we have (510) five hundred and ten living languages apart from the dead and the ones whose orthography have not been designed as well as French and English) (Ethnologue; world languages; 2009). With English language co-existing with these languages in a number of situations, in other words, English language (a former colonial language) is being used to transact in the Nigeria society alongside the indigenous languages.

In the words of Alabi (2007),

It is now an established fact that English, which initially came to the Nigerian environment as a foreign language was later shaped and transformed by subsequent developments into a second language with an official status.

English language serves different functions in Nigeria among which are:

(a) It is the language of the media

(b) It is a subject/course in schools

(c) It is a tool for education

(d) It is the language of the politics

(e) English language is the lingua franca.

This shows that without the knowledge of this language, it is impossible to attain an appreciable social height in the country. English language also ascribes prestige to its speakers.

Many who speak this language (English) in Nigeria speak only to communicate. There are people who have been left with the duty of speaking the standard version of the language. Some will say since English is not their mother tongue, they can speak the language anyhow as long as they are understood.

The broadcasters, the language teachers and some others are those that people in Nigerian society look up to for standard version of English language but unfortunately; some of these people still goof and this affect communication in a negative way.

Alabi (2007, p.80) again says:

It must be remarked that the variety of English that performs these tremendous functions in Nigeria is not the same as the native speaker’s varieties spoken in Britain or America.

No matter how people tried to speak English language in Nigeria, it cannot be the same as the native speakers will speak it because “The variety of English used in Nigeria has been indigenized to suit Nigerian environment (Alabi 2007).

In all, English language in Nigeria is a status symbol which built an heir of respectability to its speakers.

2.3 Language Acquisition

Under normal circumstances, any child within the first five years will acquire the language in his/her environment. This language is known as the first language or the mother tongue.

McGregor (2009, p. 203) writes that:

Normal children in all societies acquire, within the space of a few years fluent control of a language, sometimes two or more...

Exceptions are few: children with severe physical handicaps such as extreme mental retardation, Down’s syndrome, may not acquire a language. Fully; very rarely a child is not exposed to sufficient speech.

McGregor (2009, p. 204) also says that the process of acquisition of all languages is believed to proceed through similar developmental stages”.

Language acquisition can also be the process by which children learn to speak the language of the community they are born.

McGregor has six of the stages of language acquisition which are said to have been investigated to run across all the languages.

These stages are as follow:-

1. Pre-language stage cooing, beginning at about two or three months; and babbling beginning at around six months. .
2. One-word stage, beginning at about a year or so; at around 12-18months children produce their first recognizable words.
3. Two-word stage, beginning at about 18-20months at this stage, he claimed that a child has an active vocabulary increase to around two to three hundred.
4. Telegraphic speech, beginning at two to three years of age: “In this stage, functions words and morphemes, such as preposition (in language like) English and inflectional morphemes, begin to appear”
5. Basic mastery, at around four or five years.
6. Elaboration and expansion especially of lexicon also to some extent grammar-continuing throughout life. Language acquisition continues thought life.

Age is very significant in language acquisition and it has been emphasized that children before puberty acquire language easily compared to adults.

This is because some scientists believed with the help of researches that the ability of the brain to transfer certain information across the two hemispheres is what makes possible the effortless acquisition of language in early childhood. (Winkler, 2007, p.45).

“There is even a critical age for acquiring sign language natively” (Winkler, 2007, p.45).

He also identified some stages in acquiring a language just as McGregor (2009, p.204) did. Winkler says stages like babbling stage, communication through single sign (word) and combination of two signs or words. There are so many features that are connected to a child’s language. English speaking children leave out function words like an, a, and the. This is also called omission of articles.

These are words that add functions rather than content to an utterance. “Even their very first sentences follow a pattern” They usually consist of a combination of a verb, noun or an adjective. Something like. “Want milk” (Winkler, 2007, p.48).

Lastly, on the note of acquiring languages, each language has its structure and children learn this structure in the process of acquiring a language. No child will learn the structure of a language that he/she does not have any contact with. They also learn the sounds of their language as well as the constraints on how those sounds can combine.

Lack of proper acquisition of a language in a child will cause lack of competence when the child grows up to use the language in the society at large.

2.3.1 Second Language Acquisition

Just as the name suggests, second language is a language that is learnt either formally or informally after the first language (L1) or after the mother tongue. Second language is also known as the target language.

McGregor (2009, p.217) refers to it as “adult language learning”. He says children grow up speaking more than one language in many parts of the world.

Second language acquisition research focuses on the developing knowledge and use of a language by children and adults who already know at least one other language (Norbert, 2002, p.115).

Lastly on this, Perrett (2000) has this to say about second language:

Second language learners may be children, adolescents or adults. They may have access to their target language all of the time, some of the time, or for a very short period. They may take lessons. Study alone, or pick up with varying degrees of awareness. Some learners will become fluent and accurate language users others will achieve lower levels of fluency and accuracy, or perhaps be proficient user in only a limited range of situations.

2.4 Mother Tongue Interference

Interference is the introduction of new forms or rules in one language under influence from another where they already exist.

When there is overlapping of two codes then we say interference had occured (Romaine, 1989).

Interference is possible if the languages involved are related in some areas. For instance, if the two languages have the same word order or even if not the same but very close to each other and if the two languages involved are also related grammatically, interference will be possible (Romaine, 1989).

According to Grosjean (1982), Interference is “the involuntary influence of one language on the other”. Interference is not a voluntary action as borrowing and code-switching can be.

Grosjean (1982) also says that interference is not an element to be emphasized on the young bilinguals. He says this is because they are still undergoing the process of language acquisition unlike the adult who have acquired his/her first language.

Ruke-Dravina (1967) has argued that “Interference is always present in bilingualism and is more marked the closer the languages are in their phonological and morphological features”.

Romaine (1989) says “Interference can be as a resu lt of incomplete acquisition… Interference can occur when a bilingual starts to use the two languages he has acquired separately”.

She also says that interference can take place only at a boundary of the languages common to each other.

In conclusion, since mother tongue interference is not voluntary as other features of bilingualism or multilingualism are, it is then not grammatical and a deviation not a variation of any language in which it occurs. Interference is a deviation from the norms.

2.4.1 Phonological Interference

There are many types of interference according to different scholars.

Alabi (2007) Identified three types of interference which are: phonological, lexical and grammatical.

This is seen in his following statement. “Interference occurs virtually at all the primary levels of language description most especially phonology, lexis and grammar”.

According to Akmajian (2001, p.12) etal, “for every word we know, we learnt a pronunciation. Part of knowing the word tree is knowing certain sounds more precisely, a certain sequence of sound”.

Alabi (2007) who follows Weinreich’s (1968) Identification of four phonological interference, identifies six major ways which are: Under-differentiation, Over-differentiation, Re-interpretation of sounds, Phonemic substitution, Hypercorrection, Epenthesis and simplification.

This phonological interference is the major problem confronting our media houses in Nigeria English Newscast.

This is because the expectations from the people who listen to them often, both in Nigeria and outside the country is high and it is expected of them to have foreign accent.

Weinreich (1953, pp. 14-28) as quoted in Romaine (1989) gave a detailed analysis of “What happens when the phonological systems of the bilingual individual are in contact”.

“This has four different consequences: Under-differentiation, Over-differentiation, Re-interpretation and Substitution.

1. Under-differentiation: Here the second users of English tend to use many sounds/phonemes for only one. This also reflects in our broadcaster’s speech as we listen to news from them day after day.
2. Over- differentiation: This is the use of a sound/phoneme in many ways which are not necessary. For instance, the interpolation of the glottal sound in the introductive statement of one of our broadcasters. “/haɪ ham/ for /aɪ am/ I am.
3. Re-interpretation: This is seen when a bilingual re-organised the phoneme of the target language based on the features of his/her first language. For instance the word “Mosque” /mɔsk/ is often pronounced /mɔks/ by some Yoruba speakers of English.
4. Substitution: This is when a bilingual replaces a sound /phoneme in the target language with one in his /her MT. This is because of the absence of the sound in the MT. Example is when a typical Yoruba man pronounces the word “very” /vεrI/ as feri /fεrI/ This is because the voiced labio-dental fricative /v/ is absent in the Yoruba sound so he substitutes /f/ for /v/ because of the closeness of the two sounds.

Alabi (2007) has two more consequences when phonological systems of the bilingual individual are in contact.

Hypercorrection: when a bilingual over-pronounces a sound in order to meet a standard in the target language.

Example: A person who pronounces debt /dεbt/ in place of /dεt/ and even some /dεθ/, Thank /θεŋk/ in place of /θӕŋk/.

Epenthesis: “is a superfluous insertion of vowel segments as a way of alleviating the complexity of consonant clusters which characterize English”

2.5 The Position of the Media in our Society

When you read any Nigerian News-paper or magazine, listen to any Nigeria radio and watch the television, you begin to wonder if the majority of Nigerian journalists think of what they say, why they say it and whom they say it. (Akinfeleye, 1990, p.26).

Information is one of the major tools that enlighten and develop a person, a group or a nation at large. One of the main sources of this information is the media.

It can be print or spoken. It is unfortunate that our media houses in Nigeria are not giving us the correct thing needed from them and even when they do at times, they do not do it in the right and conventional ways.

According to Medubi (2OO7) “Traditionally, the press has been known to perform four major functions. These are informing, educating, service providing and entertaining”.

In the process of performing their functions or roles, the press should be able to educate and entertain the society in a very positive way.

2.6 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

2.6.1 Social Responsibility Theory

The social responsibility media theory owes its origin to Hutchins Commission on Freedom of the Press, set up in the United States of America in 1947 to re-examine the concept of press freedom as enunciated in the Libertarian or Free Theory (Fleming, 2002). The emergence of this theory was an attempt to provide restraint to the excessive press freedom advocated by the libertarian theory. The idea here is to ensure the press does not abuse the freedom at their disposal (Umeh, 2006). The social responsibility theory posits that the power and near monopoly position of the media impose on them an obligation to be socially responsible in discharging their duties. The theory explains that the media owe the society a duty to responsibly discharge their functions/obligations. Mackay (1964), while highlighting the main principles of the social responsibility theory, asserts among others, that “the media should accept and fulfill certain obligations to the society.” These obligations among others involve providing the public with adequate, objective and balanced reports on relevant developments in the society. In line with this study, Channels Television owe the public a duty of providing adequate, accurate and balanced reports on the herdsmen attacks and bandit crises Northwest . These reports must be devoid of ethnic, religious and political sentiments. This is the demand of the Hutchins commission of 1947 which states that, “every responsible press devotes itself to the service of public interest which could be done through the provision of accurate, truthful and complete accounts of the day’s events to the public as a matter of binding obligation”. By providing adequate, accurate and balanced reportage on herdsmen and bandit crises,Channels Television would be contributing to the successful curbing of such attacks as security bodies ,government and policy makers works with those information, which is a cardinal social responsibility to be satisfied. In this regard, Katz (1978), aver that through accurate and impartial news reporting, media contributes greatly to reducing conflicts and help in time of crises.

2.6.2 Development Media Theory

Development theory seems to have emerged in the second half of the 20th century and recognized the peculiar problems faced by the developing countries, especially in Africa and Asia, particularly the problems of illiteracy, tribal and religious loyalties. Mboho and Nwabueze posit that the Development media theory owes its origin to the findings of the UNESCO Commission of 1979 set up to research on communication problems and find the way out. The main thrust of the theory is the position that the press constitutes powerful instruments, which can be used to achieve positive development in any society and views the media as agents of development which should not only report developmental issues or projects, but should activate the interests of the public towards such developmental projects.

2.6.3 Uses and Gratification Theory

Uses and gratification theory explains media effects from the receiver/media consumption perspective. (Afolarin,1998). explains that “the theory perceives the recipient as actively influencing the effect process, since he selectively chooses, attends to, perceives and retains the media messages on the basis of his/her needs, beliefs.” what this therefore means is that the receiver or listener exposes himself or herself discriminating to media content, he or she perceives has some utility value for him or her.The core issues therefore as outlined by (Katz et al, 1974). are:

(i) The audience member is largely responsible for media to meet needs.

(ii) The audience of mass communication is active and goal-oriented and

(iii) Media compete with other sources of need gratification and the individual chooses ways to satisfy needs.

This theory thus becomes relevant in this research because with it listeners will be able to say what programme (if any) on Cross River Radio, Ikom has been most relevant or useful to rural development and possibly make contributions or inputs to improve such programmes.

Conclusion

There is no more doubt according to the literatures that have been reviewed in this chapter that many things happen when languages come in contact, part of these is mother tongue interference which has negative effects on the language it occurs. The consequences of phonological interference have been analysed and these will be used to analyse our data in the next chapter.