Facts have been established by researchers and they justify that the English used in Nigeria is a variation of the British English (BE) and not a deviation from the norms of BE. This is an attempt to investigate the extent to which Nigerian columnists use the lexico-semantic features of Nigerian English for their reportings. This work has adopted the lexico-semantic variation of Nigerian English as identified by Babatunde (2001) as our working parameters alongside our data which are randomly selected dailies in the months of April, May, August, November and December 2010. It is evident that the socio-cultural background of the Nigerian people is captured by Nigerian English. Nigerian speakers find it preferable to use the Nigerian English, with all its local flavours because most of them are incompetent in the use of English language and also because of the socio-cultural context of the Nigerian society.

Title Page

Certification

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Table of Contents

Abstract

CHAPTER ONE

1.0   Introduction

1.1   The purpose of the study

1.2   Justification

1.3   Scope and delimitation of the study

1.4   Methodology

1.5   Conclusion

CHAPTER TWO

2.0   Introduction

2.1   What is Nigerian English?

2.2   Standard English

2.3   Lexis

2.3.1Characteristics of words

2.4   Semantics

2.4.1Word Meaning (Lexical Semantics)

2.5   Theories of meaning

2.5.1Types of Meaning

2.6   Lexico-semantic variation in Nigerian English

2.6.1Causes of Lexico-semantic variation

2.6.2Types of lexico-semantic variation

2.7   Conclusion

CHAPTER THREE

3.0    Introduction

3.1    Presentation and analysis of data

3.1.1 Transfer

3.1.2 Analogy

3.1.3 Acronym

3.1.4 Semantic extension of generalization

3.1.5 Coinage

3.2    Discussion

3.3    Conclusion

CHAPTER FOUR

4.0   Introduction

4.1   Summary

4.2   Findings

4.3   Conclusion

       REFERENCES