TY - JOUR

T1 - Identity Framing as Resilience in Selected Nicknames of Nigerian Street Children

AU - Olajimbiti, Ezekiel Opeyemi

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 by the author.

PY - 2024/8

Y1 - 2024/8

N2 - Street children who are forced onto the streets due to oppressive experiences use a variety of strategies, including nicknaming, to cope with street adversities. Previous studies have not adequately considered street children’s nicknames as resilience enablers. This study fills this gap by unpacking identity frames in street children’s nicknames as resilience enablers in southwestern Nigeria. Using the unstructured interview method, 65 nicknames of street children in the six southwestern states of Nigeria were sampled and subjected to discourse analysis with insights from social identity theory and the concept of frames. Findings reveal that the sampled names manifest Yorùbá and English with five syntactic patterns. Yorùbá nicknames are characterised by animal metaphors, food/body-parts/virtue-related terms, while the English forms indicate force, weather, and political-related terms, with meanings oriented to street culture. The nicknames configure the identity frames associated with ingroup norms and attributes of self-enhancement. Given the complexity of street life, the children adopt nicknames for discursive functions such as evasive mechanisms, reinforcement of an ingroup affiliation, group management, and bestowal of preferences. This study concludes that full-time street children in southwestern Nigeria use nicknames as adaptations to street culture, routine communication, and psychological strength boosters to withstand the adversities of street culture.

AB - Street children who are forced onto the streets due to oppressive experiences use a variety of strategies, including nicknaming, to cope with street adversities. Previous studies have not adequately considered street children’s nicknames as resilience enablers. This study fills this gap by unpacking identity frames in street children’s nicknames as resilience enablers in southwestern Nigeria. Using the unstructured interview method, 65 nicknames of street children in the six southwestern states of Nigeria were sampled and subjected to discourse analysis with insights from social identity theory and the concept of frames. Findings reveal that the sampled names manifest Yorùbá and English with five syntactic patterns. Yorùbá nicknames are characterised by animal metaphors, food/body-parts/virtue-related terms, while the English forms indicate force, weather, and political-related terms, with meanings oriented to street culture. The nicknames configure the identity frames associated with ingroup norms and attributes of self-enhancement. Given the complexity of street life, the children adopt nicknames for discursive functions such as evasive mechanisms, reinforcement of an ingroup affiliation, group management, and bestowal of preferences. This study concludes that full-time street children in southwestern Nigeria use nicknames as adaptations to street culture, routine communication, and psychological strength boosters to withstand the adversities of street culture.

KW - discourse functions

KW - identity

KW - socio-onomastics

KW - street children

KW - street culture

KW - Language Studies

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85202630663&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/languages9080277

DO - 10.3390/languages9080277

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85202630663

VL - 9

JO - Languages

JF - Languages

SN - 2226-471X

IS - 8

M1 - 277

ER -