CONVERSATION ANALYSIS OF MARKET EXCHANGES IN YORUBA LAND
CONVERSATION ANALYSIS OF MARKET EXCHANGES IN YORUBA LAND
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Date
2012-08
Authors
OLUFUNKE, IBRAHIM,
JULIET
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Abstract
ABSTRACT
Bargaining procedure is an important aspect of market transaction whereby
prices of goods are determined. From these interactions, some kinds of patterns
emerged but which have not been accorded enough studious attention. However,
there have been some related works on language attitude in market transaction
in a typical Yoruba town and the structure of Yoruba local drug advertisement
with focus on ‘attention orientation’. To date, no work seems to have focused
specifically on the structure of market exchanges in Yoruba land. This work
therefore is an analysis of the structure of market exchanges in Yoruba land. It
studied transactions on some selected goods such as: textile materials, foodstuff,
soup ingredients and domestic animals. Interactants on these goods include male
buyers/female sellers and female sellers/female buyers. Among them are familiar
and unfamiliar participants. Markets used are located in the six state capitals of
the core Yoruba speaking states of Akure, Ado, Oshogbo, Ibadan, Idumota and
Abeokuta. The study adopts an eclectic model approach to language study to
capture both the social and structural aspects of conversations among people
from all walks of life in Nigeria. The data analysis shows that the cooperation
enjoyed by participants helps in structuring discourse in market situations and
enables participants to adhere strictly to the rule of turn taking. This adherence
prevents frequent interruptions and overlaps. Participants also listen to current
speakers to understand and interpret utterances correctly. This attention works
for the high percentage of ‘preferred’ responses over ‘dispreferred’ responses in
the data. It is finally noted that despite abrupt termination of some transactions,
exchanges in markets are structured and organized as most have beginnings,
middles and endings. The paper ends by showing the linguistic and social
relevance of its findings and how these can be used, if adopted, to promote social
understanding among Nigerians.
Description
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL, AHMADU BELLO
UNIVERSITY ZARIA, IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT FOR THE AWARD OF DOCTOR
OF PHILOSOPHY (PhD) IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE DEPARTMENT OF
ENGLISH AND LITERARY STUDIES, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY,
ZARIA
Keywords
CONVERSATION,, ANALYSIS,, MARKET,, EXCHANGES,, YORUBA,, LAND