SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDY OF THE USE OF HONORIFICS AMONG HAUSA-ENGLISH BILINGUALS IN ZAMFARA STATE

Abstract

This study was informed by the desire to carry out a sociolinguistic
investigation into the use of honorifics among Hausa-English
bilinguals in Zamfara State. To be able to achieve this broad aim, the
study set out to: investigate the use of honorifics as forms of address
in Hausa land and to examine the sociolinguistic implications of the
use of honorifics among Hausa-English bilinguals. The research gap
was identified which this study filled up. While the study was
anchored on Brown and Levinson’s theory of politeness. Data for the
research was collated from four (4) sampled local government areas in
Zamfara State using the participant observation method of data
collection. Forty (40) honorifics that formed the corpus for the study
were presented, analysed and interpreted using Brown and Levinson’s
theory. The findings show that the use of honorifics has far-reaching
social implications for Hausa-English bilinguals as they are used to
show respect, maintain social harmony and cohesion, and enhance
politeness in communication.