The covert language in Kenyan hip hop lyrics
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Beatrice Ochoki,
Beatrice Ochoki is assistant lecturer at St. Augustine University of Tanzania with a specialisation in pragmatics which can be traced back to her M.A. research �Pragmatic constraints in Kenyan Hip hop Lyrics� in which she used lexical pragmatics as her theoretical framework. Besides teaching, she is engaged in academic research and supervises undergraduate research students. She is currently working on her Ph.D., which also uses the framework of Relevance Theory.
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Helga Schroeder,
Helga Schroeder received her Ph.D. from the University of Nairobi, Kenya, where she is currently senior lecturer in the Department of Linguistics and Languages. She is also a member of SIL International, an organisation for which she is doing extensive consulting and conducts workshops in the area of morpho-syntax and discourse of African languages. Her research interest revolves around the morpho-syntax-discourse features of African languages and their interface with pragmatics. She has published internationally in linguistic journals and volumes and is right now working on ergativity in Africa and the syntax of clause chaining and its pragmatics in Nilotic languages.
Abstract
This article discusses the covert language of Kenyan hip hop lyrics. It will show that it has two interacting factors for its covertness, one is the uniqueness of Sheng and the other is the lexical adjustment processes that involve the construction of ad hoc concepts based on the interrelation between the encoded concepts, contextual information and the pragmatic processes of narrowing and broadening. This article will also show that Kenyan hip hop lyrics are prone to misinterpretation as a result of the lexical manipulation processes and the figurative language used. It will also prove that the misunderstanding of Kenyan hip hop lyrics is triggered intentionally by the speakers� abilities and preferences to exploit covert language, which is intended to lock out outsiders and create a new identity for the Kenyan urban youth. Hidden in the figurative language is a demeaning understanding of women as sex objects.
About the authors
Beatrice Ochoki is assistant lecturer at St. Augustine University of Tanzania with a specialisation in pragmatics which can be traced back to her M.A. research �Pragmatic constraints in Kenyan Hip hop Lyrics� in which she used lexical pragmatics as her theoretical framework. Besides teaching, she is engaged in academic research and supervises undergraduate research students. She is currently working on her Ph.D., which also uses the framework of Relevance Theory.
Helga Schroeder received her Ph.D. from the University of Nairobi, Kenya, where she is currently senior lecturer in the Department of Linguistics and Languages. She is also a member of SIL International, an organisation for which she is doing extensive consulting and conducts workshops in the area of morpho-syntax and discourse of African languages. Her research interest revolves around the morpho-syntax-discourse features of African languages and their interface with pragmatics. She has published internationally in linguistic journals and volumes and is right now working on ergativity in Africa and the syntax of clause chaining and its pragmatics in Nilotic languages.
©[2012] by De Gruyter Mouton Berlin
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Masthead
- Editorial
- Route dialogue partitions: Interactions between semantics and pragmatics
- Learning to analyse and write extended speech acts in the foreign language classroom
- A preliminary study of the thinking processes and speech act comprehension patterns of Contonese learners of English
- The covert language in Kenyan hip hop lyrics
- Early nineteenth-century advertisements in the South African Commercial Advertiser – Global scheme and advertiser presentation
- Derivational processes in the discourse of international relations. The case of press articles on international politics
- Review of Gender, Sexuality and Meaning: Linguistic Practice and Politics by Sally McConnel-Ginet
- Review of News Discourse by Monika Bednarek and Helen Caple
