‘I owe you just 100k’: Attitudinal perception of selected Nigerian English expressions

Abstract

This study investigates the attitudinal perceptions of selected Nigerian English expressions, including ‘I am sorry now’, ‘If I had offended you’, ‘I owe her just 100k’, ‘And so?’ and ‘And then?’. It surveys how Nigerians perceive and interpret these expressions. Adopting a pragmatic approach, the study analyses both the explicature (surface meaning) and implicature (implied meaning) of these expressions, which are crucial to understanding how intention is conveyed in communication. Data were collected over four months across four states in south-west Nigeria (Lagos, Oyo, Osun, and Ondo) using Google Forms, with 800 participants rating these expressions as positive, neutral, or negative. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to analyse the data, with frequency counts, percentages, and simple percentage analyses used to assess the relationship between demographic factors and the participants’ ratings. The findings indicate a predominantly negative perception of the selected expressions. For instance, ‘I am sorry now’ was viewed negatively by 73.57% of respondents, while ‘And so?’ and ‘And then?’ were rated negatively by 79.53% and 77.3%, respectively. Similarly, ‘I owe her just 100k’ was seen negatively by 81.13%, and ‘If I had offended you’ was perceived negatively by 51.77%. These percentages were calculated by summing the negative, positive, and neutral responses for each expression, dividing by the total number of respondents, and multiplying by 100 to obtain the percentage. This reveals that these expressions often imply dismissiveness, negativity and insincerity, reflecting the social dynamics of Nigerian English communication, where tone and context are prioritised over linguistic precision. The study infers that Nigerian English expressions carry unique cultural connotations, and their interpretation often depends on the context in which they are used.