THE IMPORTANCE OF LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE IN PREACHING IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Abstract

Traditional grammar bequeathed to modern linguistics a world of terms/notions which can be aptly used in the analysis of Africa languages today. Although these terms have helped considerably in most linguistic works in this area, their adequacy in coping effectively with the exigencies of the domain requires to be revisited. This is because; a lot still has to be done to properly distinguish traditional grammar from language science to which linguistic rightly belongs. This paper is a modest attempt to address some of the issues contained in the traditional approach to the description of African languages today. It sees the traditional grammatical presentation as an endeavour which is fraught with speculation, having not taken into consideration the audience and/or context as basis for descriptive linguistic analysis. It is therefore a structuralist attempt at a review of some notions/terms used in the description of African (indeed) Nigerian languages, with a focus on the Igbo language.