CHAPTER ONE
1.0     INTRODUCTION
            Communication in the society happens chiefly by means of language. However, the users of language, as social beings, communicate and use language within the context as society; society controls their access to the linguistic and communicative means. Language, being the most important means of communication, interaction and social integration among individuals in the society, needs to be preserved, sustained,  and properly developed. Language, by definition, is said to be the human vocal noise or the arbitrary graphic representation of the noise, used systematically and conventionally by members of a speech community for the purpose of communication. (Osisanwo 2003:1)
As evident in the Nigerian context, when using language to communicate, some expressions are not considered rich except such expressions are buttressed with proverbs. These proverbs are rich with words of wisdom and they are passed across from generation to generation. Proverbs can be said to be succinct and pithy sayings in general use, expressing commonly held ideas and beliefs. (Encyclopeadia Britannica, 2010).
Pragmatics can be seen as a branch of study concerned with the ability of language users to pair sentence with context in which they would be appropriate. (Levinson, 1983:24). The pragmatics of English can be said to be one of the linguistic features of Nigerian English. This study will discuss at length pragmatics along side with proverbs in our subsequent discussion.
1.1     THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN NIGERIA
The evolution of English language in Nigeria has been traced by Alabi (1994:187) to pre-trans-Atlantic slave trade era, specifically in 1553 when some British were said to have paid a very brief visit to the Nigerian coasts especially the ports of Benin and old Calabar. The first obstacle confronted by the visitors was communication barrier between the native and the English men. There was then a pressing need to dislodge this obstruction, hence, the need to teach the basic English for communication, business transaction, and missionary activities and for other functions.
At the initial stage, the medium of communication between the English men and the native was an English-based pidgin. Since the traders, missionaries and colonial administrators were not willing to learn the indigenous language(s), English had to be imposed and taught in order to train clerks, interpreters, stewards and messengers to help white men in administrative and domestic activities.
It is therefore evident that the cornerstone of the British introduction of the teaching of English language was not based on evolution of a “standard” English but on the emergence of fairly communicative English. Therefore, right from the outset, there has been a basis for dialectal varieties in Nigeria spoken English.
Consequently, the use of English in Nigeria survived the departure of the colonial administrators as the official language. Now, several years after independence, English still survives and assumes a more important status in Nigeria. It is a medium of social and inter-ethnic communication. It is used as a medium of instruction in schools: primary, secondary and tertiary. There is no gainsaying that ultimately, a variant of English tagged Nigerian English has become an inevitable variety from one culture to another bringing about various English varieties/dialects. Thus, the English language has attained a dominant status in Nigeria such that it is arguable that the survival of the country largely depends on it as the language of unity, nationism and intra- and inter-ethnic communication.
1.2     PROVERBS AND THE PRAGMATICS OF ENGLISH IN NIGERIA
Nuggets of popular wisdom abound in many African languages to accentuate and highlight discourses in given context. These expressions of wisdom are usually referred to as proverbs (Adedimeji 2003:54). Proverbs are used in different ways in the Nigerian context. This shows that Africans, especially Nigerians, cannot communicate effectively on many occasions without punctuating their expressions with proverbs. This is because proverbs are part of every spoken language and are handed down from generation to generation, The reality of which has become an attribute of Nigerian English.
English as a second language in Nigeria has undergone many changes to suit the Nigerian English speakers. Certain flavour and ‘Nigerianisms’ have been added to it to ensure its (English) survival in the Nigerian context. The Nigerian Standard English is said to enjoy social acceptability and international intelligibility. Some scholars are of different views concerning this. Alabi (2007:81), for instance is of the view that, the English which is used in the Nigerian environment is something other than a replica of native speakers’ varieties. Kujore cited by Alabi (2007:81) buttresses this point that English as a living language is bound to undergo many changes in such a foreign environment as Nigeria’s whose cultural and linguistic backgrounds are different from those of English in its native environment.
Many characteristic features of Nigerian dialectal forms of the English language exist at the phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic. Interestingly, these ethnic traits do not simply disappear just because a speaker is educated. This is because variation in English reveals more of cultural differences. The language as it is now has been ‘domesticated’ in Nigeria to reflect the general social context within which it functions.