Argot Among Students of Anambra State Polytechnic, Mgbakwu: A Sociolinguistic Study

The overall objective of this study was to examine the argot used among students of Anambra State Polytechnic, Mgbakwu. Various control variables such as identification and documentation of argot expressions used by the students, and identifying argot expressions whose surface meanings correlate with their underlying representation and those that do not were investigated. A sample of 200 students (undergraduates) from a population of 709 students in the study area was used. The researchers obtained the sample through a multi-stage sampling technique which made use of the purposive sampling and simple random sampling. The research design maximized by the researchers for this study was a survey design. The data for this research were gathered through a well-structured questionnaire administered by the researchers to the respondents. Research questions were answered by using conceptual content analysis. Findings of this study identified diverse argot expressions and categorized them into six functional domains; economic, academic, relationships and social, eating/consumption, civil/law, and greeting/social argots. Each expression was analyzed for frequency of use, surface and underlying meaning, function and context of use. The results show that argot is deeply embedded in student communication and is used both literally and metaphorically to express a wide range of social, emotional, academic, and cultural experiences. The study also revealed that economic argot is heavily metaphorical and aspirational; academic argot is commonly used to emotionally encode academic performance and dramatize academic failure; most of the expressions in eating argot are metaphors for performance or desire; civil/law argot often reflects resistance to authority or distrust of institutions, though its usage is more limited; and that greeting argot is the most literal and consistently used form of expression. The study recommended that there is need to track changes in argot over time to understand evolving language trends and how they reflect social changes or digital culture. And that argot should be recognized as a form of identity construction since it helps students express individuality, group belonging, or resistance to institutional norms. Finally, there is need to examine how race, gender, and class influence slang usage, especially given the roots of much gangster argot in African and Nigerian Pidgin English.CWP