A STUDY OF FORMAL AND INFORMAL USES OF ENGLISH IN NIGERIA

An important aspect of the use of any language is for the users to know when to apply the rules of formal and informal usages.It is crucial that the user's choices of sounds, words, phrases, sentences and texts are meaningful.As a form of differentiation, the formal texts admit of the rules of standardisation while informal ones do not comply with the rules of standardisation.Both formal and informal uses must, nevertheless, comply with the rules of contextual configurations of their meanings.This paper is a study of sounds, words, phrases, sentences and texts/discourse that are both formal and informal in English in order to determine whether the users can draw the line between them.Naturally-occurring texts both in spoken and written forms collected from several sources form the data and the concepts of Ideational and Interpersonal Metafunctions grounded in the Hallidayan Systemic Functional Theory are used for the analysis.Their meanings are provided through the paradigmatic and syntagmatic networks of meaning potential.The findings show that formal and informal usages are not distinctively delineated by many Nigerian users of English in their spoken and written expressions.The study recommends that users of English should always consider appropriate choices and not blur the lines between formal and informal usages both in spoken and written discourses.This study will extend the perspective on formal and informal uses of English in Nigeria.