A Semantic Study of the Ubiquity of Metaphors in Nigerian English

The study surveys the use of metaphors in Nigerian English. Metaphor reflects our ability to think of one thing in terms of something else. Evidently, more of our everyday language is metaphorical in nature than we are consciously aware of. The researchers use the purposive sampling technique in data collection. Data for this research are drawn from Jowitt (1991) and Igboanusi (2002) where a list of NE usages were provided. The metaphors are then identified and a semantic analysis is conducted. The metaphors were underlined in each of the examples for clarity and easy analysis and the descriptive linguistic theory is used as framework. The study found out that metaphors are problematic in discourse when they are not properly encoded. Metaphor hides as much as it reveals and instead of being a descriptive tool, it creates a host of associations and assumptions.