LEXICO-SEMANTIC EXPLORATION OF SELECTED WHATSAPP CHATS ON CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES BY HND II STUDENTS OF YABA COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY

Abstract

This paper examines the use of lexical features and their semantic
import in WhatsApp communication. The HND II WhatsApp
messages are chosen to represent the entire population of the study.
The data used for the study are collected from the WhatsApp
platform used by HND II students of Yaba College of Technology for
discussions on classroom activities. The WhatsApp messages are
analysed under the theoretical framework of lexico-semantics. The
usage theory of meaning is adopted to explain the meaning of the
identified lexical features in the selected chats, as it focuses on
meaning based on the situational or contextual use of words or
structures. It was discovered from the analysis of data that distinct
lexical features (such as contracted form of words, h-full words
changed to h-less words, etc.) are used in WhatsApp communication,
and their meaning can only be construed based on the context of use.
The lexical features used on the WhatsApp platform result from the
fact that WhatsApp is a social media forum where all sorts of informal
discussions take place among the platform users. As a result, the
language features used by platform users are also informal. For this
reason, it could be concluded based on the findings that the situation
under which language is used determines the language features.