Corruption is a semantically multi-faceted expression construed as appropriation and dishonest means of the acts of embezzlement, fraud, falsification, perversion, bribery and nepotism designed to gain some benefits for self. Corruption has pervaded social and political circles in Nigeria and, has acquired certain new idiomatic expressions found in literary and routine communication of the Yorùbá. The paper adopted Mukarovsky’s theory of Standard Language mainly to explain the nature of the new idioms, to explicate the communicative and stylistic relevance of these idioms and to situate the social issues expressed through these idioms in Yorùbá discourse in selected literary works in Yorùbá. Linguistic metaphorisation strategy derived from nominalization, composition and phonaesthetic coinages was employed for data selection. Yorùbá idioms and idiomatic expressions were selected from routine communication from four literary texts written by Olúyẹ́misí Adébọ̀wálé, Abégúndé Adédoyin, Lérè Adéyemí and Dayọ̀ Àkànmú with sufficient examples of usages of new idioms. The data revealed new idiomatic usages such as egúnjẹ (bribe), gbájú ẹ̀ (defraud him), ojẹ̀lú (corrupt politician), yàúyàúù (Internet fraud), jẹun sápò (eat into the pocket), gẹ́ranmáwọ (cut meat with the skin), etùtù (appeasement), et cetra. Data Analysis therefore illustrates the issue of corruption expressed and contextualized in bribery, Internet fraud, politiking, looting and contract splitting. The aforementioned reflects the pervasive influence of corruption underpinning fraudulent ideology in the conversations of the characters in the texts examined. The uniqueness of these new idioms is how they are used to highlight new normal in the language use to show fraudulent practices and disorientation of the society.
Dayọ̀ Àkànmú and Francis Yẹdé (2022) Corruption-Induced Idioms and Idiomatic Expressions in Yorùbá Literary and Routine Communication: A Stylistic Approach, International Journal of English Language and Linguistics Research, Vol.10, No 4, pp.86-99
Keywords: Corruption, Literary, Stylistics, idioms Yoruba, routine
