Abstract

This paper studies the challenges involved in the nonlit-eral use of English in nonnative settings as exemplified and parodied in two Nigerian mass-media comedies, Icheoku and Masquerade. It draws attention, first to the nonstandardness observed in the use of English idiomatic expressions, tropes, maxims, and African proverbs, and second, to the problems involved in comprehending and interpreting the contextual imports of these metaphorical uses by incompetent (but pre-tentious) users of English in Nigeria and probably other soci-eties in which English is a second language. It underlines the fact that literary use of language in nonnative settings in everyday communication, either among nonnative speakers of English or between native users and nonnative users of English, is often fraught with misunderstanding, difficulty in communication, and dislocation of the structure of figura-tive expressions, either out of ignorance of the structure and meaning of the expressions, or out of sheer linguistic audacity.

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