Increasing The Vocabulary Of English With The Names Of Some Personalities In Nigeria

The vocabulary of English is cosmopolitan. It contains words from other European, African, Asian, Arab and African languages. This was brought about by such simple linguistic processes as borrowing, compounding, coinages, blending, grafting or clipping of words. The above has actually helped the language on its quick ascendary as a world language. Apart . from the linguistic processes involved in the acceptance of words into English, there is no other political consideration as is found in the Academic Francais through which new words must pass through before being accepted into French. It is on this premise that this paper proposes the inclusion of names of some personalities in Nigeria into the English lexicon. The names the writer wishes to propose are the names of people who v/ithin the last two decades or more have caused some sensations in the historical development of Nigeria to such an extent that the International community was aware of. The paper also proposes the lexico-semantic properties of the proposed names and how they should be used.