Language Use in a Speech Community: A Case Study of the Non-Academic Staff Union Members (NASU), University of Calabar

Abstract

The University of Calabar presents a good evidence of the complexity in the definition of a speech community. A number of such definitions postulated by some sociolinguists include, Lyons (1970:326), (Hocket 1958:8), Bloodfield (1933:42), Gumperz (1968), Labov (1972a:120), Le Page and Tabouret-Keller (1985) as well as Bolinger (1975:333). One central point in the controversy over definitions is the issue of language use. This paper identifies some sociolinguistic characteristics peculiar to the language use by the Non-Academic staff of the University to validate the appropriateness of one of these definitions. It further reveals the limitations and inadequacies in some of the definitions.