The morphology of student pidgin (SP), a case study of Valley View University in Oyibi, Ghana.

Abstract

Language indeed is the main tool for communication. What actually identify a language are its morphological, phonological, and grammatical structures. However, research into Student Pidgin (SP) has often been on its sociolinguistic aspect with just a few research works on those aspects that actually identify a language. The study investigates the morphology of SP, which has been neglected, with the view to establishing the fact that SP is also a unique language or a code which employs some morphological processes in creating new words. It further looks at how tense, aspect, and mood are expressed in SP. The qualitative research design was selected for the study, using Valley View University as a case study. A sample size of 20 participants was used for the study comprising both male and female ranging between 17 years and 30 years. A purposive Sampling technique was adopted in selecting the sample. Recordings of SP, semi-structured interview, and non-participatory observation were the main instruments used to gather data for the study. Key findings, among others, are: that SP makes use of eight (8) main morphological processes in creating new words; that SP has no past tense inflections or past tense markers; that indicative, imperative, and subjunctive mood are expressed in SP. Regarding subjunctive mood, the study revealed that SP always uses the present subjunctive even in wish conditions and hypothetical statements. My recommendation was that studies on SP should not be focused on only the sociolinguistic part of it, but attention should also be equally directed toward the other grammatical facets like syntax, semantics, and phonology with the view of standardizing it.