TOPICS

Background of the study
Nigeria’s rich multilingual heritage is vividly reflected in its digital communication, where code‑mixing—alternating between languages—is common. On WhatsApp, private conversations allow spontaneous mixing of indigenous languages and English, while Facebook’s more public environment encourages a strategic blend of formal and informal registers (Ibrahim, 2023). These platforms create distinct contexts that shape code‑mixi...

Background of the study
Instagram meme culture has become a vibrant engine of linguistic innovation in Nigeria. Memes on Instagram combine humor, cultural references, and visual creativity to produce new words, expressions, and syntactic forms (Ibrahim, 2023). Nigerian users leverage memes to comment on social, political, and cultural issues, often embedding novel lexical items that quickly enter popular usage. The interplay between image and text encourages a playful...

Background of the study
Digital communication reshapes how meaning is constructed and shared. In Nigeria, Facebook and Twitter offer contrasting environments that influence semantic networks. Facebook, with its lengthy posts and detailed discussions, supports the development of complex, layered semantic associations. In contrast, Twitter’s brevity fosters the condensation of ideas into concise, potent messages that often rely on hashtags and abbreviations (Ibrahi...

Background of the study
Viral social media trends have become catalysts for morphosyntactic innovation, particularly on Twitter where hashtag movements are prevalent. In Nigeria, users adopt trending hashtags to express complex ideas succinctly, prompting modifications in sentence structure, word order, and grammatical conventions (Ibrahim, 2023). Hashtag movements serve not only as tools for information categorization but also as creative spaces where traditional morp...

Background of the study
Digital audio content has become a transformative medium for language, especially on platforms that emphasize sound. In Nigeria, TikTok and Instagram represent two distinct audio‐centred environments where users exhibit innovative phonetic practices. On TikTok, lip‑sync challenges and creative voice filters encourage users to exaggerate pronunciation, modify intonation, and employ rhythmic speech patterns that diverge from traditional norms (Ibr...

Background of the study
Digital neologisms are rapidly emerging as central features of online language, particularly on Twitter. In Nigeria, hashtag movements serve as dynamic vehicles for lexical innovation, as users repurpose and modify words to reflect evolving social and political realities (Ibrahim, 2023). These newly coined terms spread quickly across networks, challenging traditional vocabulary and grammatical conventions. This study investigates digital neologi...

Background of the study
Digital content creation on platforms like TikTok and Instagram has ushered in novel phonological practices. In Nigeria, TikTok lip‑sync videos and Instagram audio posts reveal significant deviations in pronunciation, intonation, and rhythm compared to conventional speech (Ibrahim, 2023). TikTok’s performance‐oriented format often encourages exaggerated articulatory features, while Instagram, with its blend of visual and audio content, pro...

Background of the study
Code‑switching—the practice of alternating between languages within a conversation—is a central feature of Nigerian digital communication. WhatsApp group chats, in particular, serve as intimate spaces where users fluidly mix indigenous languages and English to express identity, humor, and social solidarity (Ibrahim, 2023). These interactions reveal the complex interplay between multilingual competence and digital media affordances. T...

Background of the study
Hashtag neologisms have become a defining feature of Nigerian digital discourse, particularly on Twitter. Users creatively combine words, abbreviations, and symbols to coin new expressions that reflect current social and cultural trends (Ibrahim, 2023). These lexical innovations—often embedded within trending hashtags—demonstrate how digital platforms facilitate morphological variation and language evolution. This study appraises the...

Background of the study
Pragmatic strategies are essential in managing conversational tone, context, and interpersonal relationships in digital communication. In Nigeria, Twitter and Instagram serve as prominent platforms where users employ distinct pragmatic markers to convey meaning efficiently. Twitter’s succinct format fosters the use of hashtags, abbreviations, and emoticons to express attitude and urgency, while Instagram integrates visual elements with tex...

Background of the study
Digital communication platforms foster unique syntactic adaptations that reflect both technological constraints and cultural influences. In Nigeria, WhatsApp and Facebook exemplify distinct communication modes: WhatsApp’s instant messaging style promotes conversational brevity and informal syntax, while Facebook supports extended posts and comments that often adhere to more structured grammatical patterns (Ibrahim, 2023). This study compar...

Background of the study
Visual storytelling on social media has transformed the interplay between images and language. In Nigeria, Instagram captions accompanying photos and videos frequently exhibit innovative morphological practices as users adapt their language to complement visual narratives (Okafor, 2024). These captions often include newly coined words, creative abbreviations, and hybrid forms that reflect the fusion of traditional language with modern digital ae...

Background of the study
Social media platforms have become catalysts for linguistic innovation in Nigeria, reshaping how language is used and developed. On Facebook, extended posts and comments often reveal creative manipulations of language—ranging from novel idiomatic expressions to syntactic experimentation—while Instagram posts, characterized by concise captions and visual storytelling, foster rapid lexical and morphological innovation (Ibrahim, 2023)....

Background of the study
Hashtag-based neologisms have emerged as a distinctive element of digital communication on Twitter. In Nigeria, users employ hashtags not only to categorize content but also to create new words and expressions that capture emerging cultural and social phenomena (Ibrahim, 2023). These lexical innovations often spread rapidly, reflecting the dynamic nature of online discourse. This study investigates the processes underlying the creation of hashta...

Background of the study
Twitter threads offer a dynamic platform where linguistic creativity meets strict brevity. In Nigeria, users engage in extended discussions through threads that frequently exhibit innovative morphosyntactic constructions (Ibrahim, 2023). The character limitations of Twitter prompt users to condense information into succinct, yet structurally complex, messages that often deviate from conventional grammar. These threads showcase creative adaptatio...

Background of the study
Nigeria’s multilingual landscape is vividly reflected in its digital communication practices. On platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp, users seamlessly alternate between indigenous languages and English—a practice known as code‑switching (Ibrahim, 2023). WhatsApp, characterized by its informal, real‑time messaging, fosters spontaneous code‑switching that mirrors everyday conversational dynamics. Conversely, Facebook—being mo...

Background of the study
Digital media platforms have redefined spoken language by creating spaces for experimentation in phonetic expression. In Nigeria, TikTok lip‑sync videos provide an exemplary site for such innovation. Users purposefully exaggerate pronunciation, modify intonation patterns, and alter rhythm to enhance the performative quality of their content (Ibrahim, 2023). These practices result in noticeable phonological variation that both reflects local dial...

Background of the study
Pragmatic markers are essential tools for conveying speaker attitudes, emotions, and interpersonal nuances in communication. In Nigerian digital discourse, WhatsApp and Twitter provide distinct contexts for the use of these markers. WhatsApp, with its private and conversational nature, often features informal pragmatic devices such as emojis, interjections, and abbreviations, while Twitter’s public and concise format encourages the use of...

Background of the study
Digital influencers have reshaped language practices across social media, particularly affecting syntactic patterns in their content. In Nigeria, influencers on Instagram and YouTube craft discourses that blend traditional grammar with innovative syntax to engage diverse audiences (Ibrahim, 2023). Instagram content, characterized by concise captions and visual narratives, often features non-standard syntactic structures, while YouTube videos, wi...

Background of the study
Semantic shifts occur when the meanings of words or phrases evolve, often influenced by cultural and political dynamics. In Nigeria, Twitter political hashtags serve as focal points for such shifts, encapsulating complex socio-political sentiments in compact linguistic forms (Ibrahim, 2023). As political events unfold, users repurpose hashtags to express new perspectives, thereby driving changes in the semantic networks of online discourse. This...

Background of the study
Hashtag-based language change has become a powerful force in digital communication, particularly on Twitter. In Nigeria, hashtag movements are not only used to mobilize social and political action but also to drive lexical and syntactic innovation (Ibrahim, 2023). Users repurpose hashtags to create new expressions that encapsulate collective identities and emerging cultural phenomena. This study appraises the impact of hashtag movements on langu...

Background of the study
Instagram meme culture has emerged as a vibrant arena for linguistic innovation in Nigeria, where humor and creativity drive the evolution of language. Memes combine images and text in playful ways, leading to the creation of neologisms, novel expressions, and unconventional syntactic structures (Ibrahim, 2023). Nigerian users leverage memes to comment on social, cultural, and political issues, thereby embedding new linguistic forms into everyda...

Background of the study
Digital communication platforms have reshaped traditional syntax by introducing new forms of textual expression. In Nigeria, Facebook comments and Twitter threads serve as prominent examples where users adapt language to meet the constraints of each medium. Facebook comments, often lengthy and interactive, tend to support complex sentence structures and creative punctuation, whereas Twitter threads, constrained by character limits, foster concis...

Background of the study
TikTok has emerged as a dominant social media platform in Nigeria, particularly noted for its lip‑sync videos that showcase creative phonetic expressions. Users manipulate pronunciation, intonation, and rhythm to create engaging content, often employing exaggerated articulatory styles that deviate from standard speech patterns (Ibrahim, 2023). The viral nature of hashtags further amplifies these phonetic innovations as trends spread rapidly acro...

Background of the study
Digital communication has ushered in transformative changes in language structure, especially in morphosyntax. In Nigeria, Twitter and Facebook serve as influential platforms where users engage in linguistic experimentation, resulting in noticeable shifts in word order, agreement, and syntactic constructions. On Twitter, the character limit encourages succinct, often innovative sentence constructions, while Facebook supports longer-form discussi...