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Articles · Vol. 29 No. 3 (2004): Africa Development

The Status of Yorùbâ Dialects in Communicative Competence and Language Proficiency

DOI: 10.4314/ad.v29i3.22202

Vol. 29 · 2004 No. 3 Africa Development AD

Abstract

This paper attempts to explore the status of Yorùbâ dialects in communicative competence and language proficiency. Dialectal identities are quite strong among the Yorùbâ people; they form an integral part of sociolinguistic behaviour in any of the Yorùbâ communities. So, during speech acts or communication, the centralised version of the language will invariably depict the native speaker's version as deviating from the so-called standardised 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. It is however discovered in this paper that such proficiency could not be enhanced among the Yorùbâ people unless skilled dialectal knowledge is allowed to thrive. The Yorùbâ people appear to have rather strong views on the appropriateness of their dialects in different situations. The work is conceptualised within the framework of Chomsky's 'states' of mind where the adult native speaker's knowledge is fully developed static competence. Our corpora are largely taken from various dialectal renditions and written texts. Oral and structured interviews were also conducted among Yorùbâ language students and among Yoruba native speakers. This was decided in order to reduce introspection in diverse forms.

 

The Status of Yorùbâ Dialects in Communicative Competence and Language Proficiency: DOI: 10.4314/ad.v29i3.22202

Cet article tente d'analyser la situation des dialectes Yorùbâ en matière de communication et de pratique linguistique. Les différences dialectales sont assez prononcées chez les Yorùbâ. Celles-ci sont une partie intégrante du comportement sociolinguistique au sein de ces communautés. Ainsi, dans le cadre des actes de parole ou de communication, l'on prendra toujours comme référence la version centralisée de la langue, en considérant que la version linguistiqu est non conforme aux soi-disant règles standardisées de la langue c ces identités et expressions dialectales reflètent l'esprit des popu en ce qui concerne la détermination des sujets appropriés à un ac Cela constitue l'essence même de la compétence communicative. To nous apprend qu'une telle compétence ne peut être mise en valeu à moins que l'on favorise la connaissance dialectale spécialisée. L avoir des opinions tranchées quant à l'adaptation de leur dial situations. Ceci est conceptualisé dans le cadre de 'states' of min de Chomsky, dans lequel la connaissance du locuteur natif adu compétence statique qui a été soumise à une certaine évolutio proviennent, en grande partie, de diverses interprétations dialectiqu de textes écrits. Des entretiens oraux et structurés ont également ét groupes d'étudiants de langue Yorùbâ et de locuteurs natifs Yor avait pour but de réduire toute forme d'introspection.

Keywords

dialectal identities Yoruba Dialects Yoruba people language proficiency communicative competence

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References

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