With the birth of Nigerian Pragmatic Association, pragmatics (study of language use) is no longer an inner-room business of a reclusive underdog in Nigeria; rather, it is a Nigeria-networked discipline with standards consistent with the current-minute standards in the global spread.
Making this assertion was the national president of Nigerian Pragmatics Association (NPrA), Professor Akin Odebummi, at the opening of the second national workshop cum conference on pragmatic research organised by the association in conjunction with the Department of English Bowen University, Iwo, Osun State, Nigeria from April 28 – May 1, 2019
He added that one of the main goals of the association is to build members’ capacity and groom young people in the core skill of pragmatics.
“The whole essence of the academia is the generation and dispensation of knowledge, the very pilot not only of our pedagogy, but also our professional being; the very bedrock of our relevance and distinctive identity which inspires originality and societal growth,” he said.
While speaking on the theme of the workshop cum conference entitled, ‘Context, Discourse and Knowledge Construction,’ Professor Odebunmi said it would provide the site and tone for the engagement of an interdisciplinary subject which underlined the job of all academics.
“We have conceived the workshop cum conference as an avenue to provide training and leadership for our students and junior/younger colleagues, a forum to share scholastic currency and a site for professionals’ and seniors’ tug with international pullers,” Odebunmi said.
He noted that the NPrA is equally and centrally involved in the conception of the African Pragmatics Association, being currently led by Professor Nana Aba Appiah Anfo of Legon University, Ghana.
Entertainment promoter emerges Oba-elect in Ogun
Earlier in his address, the vice chancellor of Bowen University, Iwo, Osun State, Professor Joshua Ogunwole, who was represented by Professor John Ayoade, thanked NPrA for choosing the university as a host, stating that “strategic language use, being the cardinal subject at this gathering occupies a pride in the ongoing efforts, particularly here at Bowen University of rebranding, repositioning and waging a war against drug abuse.”
He challenged the association to explore ways in which the roles of language would be made more felt and channeled towards successful executions of all aspects of the efforts.
The keynote speaker, Professor Adewale Adegbite of the Obafemi Awolowo University, said Pragmatic methods are needed if there must be a fuller, deeper and generally more reasonable account of human language behaviour, adding “outside pragmatics, there can be no understanding of utterances.”
The vice chancellor of Yusuf Maitama Sule University, Kano, Professor Mustapha Ahmad Isa, who gave the plenary lecture on the topic ‘Pragmatics: the Expanding Frontiers,’ charged NPrA to be an association that supports scholarly research in both theoretical and applied pragmatics in general, but with specific focus on the various sub-fields that have emerged over time, including the linguistic, cognitive, historical, social, inter-cultural and inter-language paradigms of pragmatics.
The event had in attendance over 200 participants, across Nigeria, Cameroun and Ghana, including undergraduates across university campuses in Nigeria, who were taught on the basic issues in pragmatics at the break-out sessions at the workshop cum conference and were also made to write a test for competitive sponsorship programmes, which according to the NPrA national president would enable them apply for support in future events and win grants.
There were 51 student participants who came from three universities in Nigeria at the conference, including Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu, University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Bowen University, Iwo, out of which five of them emerged with best performances.
The winners of the test from the first to the fifth positions were Precious Akanbi, Bowen University; Justinah Ekechukw, UNN, Nsukka; Ajedoyin Dorcas Olojede, Bown University; Verena Odebunmi of Bowen University, and Chinenye Okolo of Bowen University, Iwo.
At the conference, the association awarded late Professor Efurrosibina Adegbija a Posthumous Distinguished Pragmatician award for his outstanding contribution to the study of pragmatics.
and then