Lexical Variation in Lunyore Nouns

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue VI, June 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186

Lexical Variation in Lunyore Nouns

Mercy Akeng’o^1*, Dr. Henry Nandelenga (PhD)^2
 1Department of Literature, Linguistics and Foreign Languages, Kenyatta University, P.O BOX 43844-00100, NAIROBI, KENYA
²Kenyatta University, Department of Literature, Linguistics and Foreign Languages, P.O BOX 43844-00100, NAIROBI, KENYA
*Corresponding author

Abstract:-The noun is a vital element in the grammar of any language. In this paper, lexical variation of nouns in Lunyore is explored. Variation is an intrinsic part of any language. No two people in a speech community can speak identical grammars and no one speaker has a complete invariant grammar. A sample size of 20 respondents was selected through judgmental sampling. After being interviewed and recorded, it was discovered that age caused a bigger degree of variation than the other social variables which include gender and social status. 25 words were targeted and they all had two or more variants. Linguistic data collected enabled us to conclude that lexical variation in Lunyore nouns comes as a result of borrowing, word loss, semantic change, word invention and semantic shift.

Keywords: Lunyore, noun, lexical, variation, social variables

I. INTRODUCTION

Languages vary at all levels; phonological, morphological, lexical, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic from place to place, one social group to another and from one situation to another (Kaid, 2012). This paper was based on nouns only. Nouns were targeted because they are words that are common in daily speech and respondents easily recall them. Lexis refers to words used to put across meaning in a language. The vocabulary of a language is called lexis. Vocabulary variation is common and can easily be identified (Kaid, 2012.) This is also called lexical variation. Lexical variation is a state where words may refer to various concepts and various concepts may be referred to using one lexical item. It can also be called word choice depending on geographical and social factors like age, gender and social status (Kaid, 2012). A speaker of a given language may choose to use different words and expressions to name a thing in different situations. Different speakers of the same language may also use different words to name the same thing. No two speakers of the same language may speak it exactly the same (Jones & Esch, 2002:123). No particular speaker of a language uses it in exactly the same manner on all occasions, the speaker may chose different variants of a particular variable (Penny, 2003).

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