PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF SLANGS

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to describe the slangs as used by student in the University of Benin. A total of fifty (50) students from 100 to 400 level were involved in the data collection process. Each student were in several discussions and the slangs in their utterances were gathered for the study. Of the samples collected, only slangs that appeared more than once with uniformity of meaning were considered for analysis using the descriptive analysis technique. The observed slangs were categorized into eight sections. they are slangs used for academic purpose, slangs used for describing people in general, slangs used for describing people based on their physique, slangs used for describing people based on their character/attitude, slangs used for describing places, slangs used for describing things, slangs used for describing specific actions, slangs used for sex/sexuality. The findings of this research showed that a particular slang can be used differently depending on the context of its usage.