‘Chips Funga’
A sociolinguistic analysis of lexical choices in sexual discourses among Kenyan university students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.24049Keywords:
lexical choices, sexual discourse, euphemisms, university students, KenyaAbstract
Like other young people, and indeed everyone all over the world, Kenyan university students find reasons to talk about sex and sexual intercourse. In doing this, they naturally find themselves constrained by the societal dictates, which preclude direct reference within the sexual domain, thereby restricting themselves to the creative, euphemistic, and periphrastic terms. This article reports the findings of a study conducted to determine how Kenyan university students, in their efforts to engage in sexual discourse, circumvent such societal and cultural dictates, which prohibit direct sexual reference. Using a Sexual Synonyms Scale (SSS) as the main research instrument, this study surveys how lexical choices in sexual discourse shift in different contexts. The study adopts the tenets of Cognitive Sociolinguistics to attempt to understand why Kenyan university students make the lexical choices regarding sexual discourse they do. The study reports that lexical choices in sexual discourse is constrained by various sociological, demographic, and linguistic factors. It is further argued that an understanding of how young people view sexual intercourse is reflected in the lexical choices that they make as they talk about their daily sexual exploits, aspirations, and fantasies.
References
Abdul-Aziz, M. and Osinde, K. (1997) Sheng and Engsh: Development of mixed codes among urban youths in Kenya. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 125: 45–63. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl.1997.125.43.
Ademola-Adeoye, F. (2004) Language, gender and identity: A social, cultural and psychological Survey. In S. Awonusi and E. A. Babalola (eds) The Domestication of English in Nigeria. A festschrift in honour of Abiodun Adetugbo. Pg numbers? Lagos: University of Lagos.
Agide, F. D. and Shakibazadeh, E. (2018) Discourses on sexuality and sexual health perspectives among Wachemo university students, Ethiopia: A qualitative study. Ethiop J. Health Sci.
Ajayi, A. A., Marangu, L. T., Miller, J. and Paxman, J. M. (1991) Adolescent sexuality and fertility in Kenya: A survey of knowledge, perceptions, and practices. Stud Fam Plann 205–216. PMID: 1949103. Doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/1966477.
Alimi, M. M. and Arua, A. E. (2006) Slang and aspects of students’ academic culture at the University of Botswana. In A. E. Arua, M. M. Bagwasi, T. Sebina and B. Seboni (eds) The study and use of English in Africa 100–113. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Androutsopoulos, J. and Georgakopolou, A. (2004) Discourse constructions of youth identities. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Beck, C. T. (2003) Initiation into qualitative data analysis. Journal of Nursing Education 42(5) 231–234. Doi: https://doi.org/10.3928/0148-4834-20030501-11.
Brookes, H. J. (2014) Urban youth languages in South Africa: A case study of Tsotsitaal in a South African township. Anthropological Linguistics 56(3–4): 356–388. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1353/anl.2014.0018.
Bucholtz, M. and Scapoulli, E. (2009) Youth language at the intersection: From migration to globalization. Pragmatics 19(1): 1–16. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/prag.19.1.
Cameron, D. and Kulick, D. (2006) The language and sexuality reader. London: Routledge.
Casas Gómez, M. (2012) The expressive creativity of euphemism and dysphemism. Lexis. Journal in English Lexicology 7: 43–64. Doi: https://doi.org/10.4000/lexis.349.
Cheshire, J. (1982) Linguistic variation and social function. In S. Romaine (ed.) Sociolinguistic variation in speech communities 153–166. London: Edward Arnold.
Chi, X., Yu, L. and Winter, S. (2012) Prevalence and correlates of sexual behaviors among university students: A study in Hefei, China. BMC Public Health 12(972): 1–10. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-972.
Cloke, P. J. (1977) An index of rurality for England and Wales. Regional Studies 11(1): 31–46. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/09595237700185041.
Coates, J. (2004) Women, men and language. London: Pearson.
Collins, R. L., Martino, S. C., Elliott, M. N. and Miu, A. (2011) Relationships between adolescent sexual outcomes and exposure to sex in media: Robustness to propensity-based analysis. Dev Psychol 47(2): 585–591. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022563.
Crossman, A. (2020) Sociolinguistics. Retrieved from: thoughtco.com/sociolinguistics-3026278.
Dare, S. (2005) Sexual discourses in Niyi Osundare’s poetry: A sociolinguistic reading. African Study Monographs 26(2): 89–97.
de Klerk, V. A. (1997) Slang: A male domain? Sex Roles 22 (9/20): 589–606. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00288237.
Deumert, A. (2013) Xhosa in town (revisited) – space, place and language. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 222: 51–75. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2013-0032.
Eble, C. (2005) What is sociolinguistics? Sociolinguistics basics. Retrieved from: https://www.pbs.org/speak/speech/sociolinguistics/sociolinguistics/.
Eckert, P. (1989) The whole woman: Sex and gender differences in variation. Language Variation and Change 1(3): 245–267. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S095439450000017X.
Eckert, P. (2000) Language variation as social practice: The linguistic construction of identity in Belten High. Malden: Wiley.
Eckert, P. (2008) Three waves of variation study: The emergence of meaning in the study of sociolinguistic variation. Annual Review of Anthropology 41(1): 87–100. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-092611-145828.
Eckert, P. (2017) Age as a sociolinguistic variable. In F. Coulmas (ed.) The handbook of sociolinguistics 151–167. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Edmonds, P. and Hirst, G. (2002) Near-synonymy and lexical choice. Computational Linguistics 28(2): 105–144. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/089120102760173625.
Erastus, F. K., Orwenjo, D. O. and Nguru, M. G. (forthcoming) Escaping the margins of society: New media and youth language practices across the rural-urban divide in Kenya. Multilingual Margins.
Firth, J. (1962) A synopsis of Linguistic Theory, 1930–1935. Studies in Linguistic Analysis. London: Philosophical Society.
Foucault, M., Sheridan, A. and Foucault, M. (1972) The archaeology of knowledge. New York: Pantheon Books.
Furfey, P. H. (1944) Men’s and women’s languages. American Catholic Sociological Review 51: 218–223. Doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/3706603.
Geer, J. H. and Manguno-Mire, G. M. (1996) Gender differences in cognitive processes in sexuality. Annual Review of Sex Research 7: 90–124.
Geeraerts, D. (2018) Ten lectures on sociolinguistics. Leiden: Brill.
Gordon, M. (1993) Sexual slang and gender. Women and Language 16(2): 16.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1973) Explorations in the functions of language. London: Edward Arnold.
Halliday, M. A. K. (2004) An introduction to functional grammar. London: Edward Arnold.
Halliday, M. A. K. and Hassan, R. (1989) Language, context and text: Aspects of language in a social semiotic perspective. London: Oxford University Press.
Hollington, A., Nassenstein, N. and Storch, A. (2021) Linguistic trash. Postcolonial Text 16(2).
Hurst, E. (2009) Tsotsitaal, global culture and local style: Identity and recontextualization in the twenty-first century South African townships. Soc. Dyn. 35: 244–257. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/02533950903076196.
Hurst, E. (2017) Rural/urban dichotomies and youth language. In A. Ebongue and E. Hurst (eds) Sociolinguistics in African contexts: Perspectives and Challenges 209–224. Cham: Springer.
Hurst-Harosh, E. and Erastus, F. K. (2018) African youth languages: New media, performing arts and sociolinguistic development. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Johnson, E. (1993) The relationship between lexical variation and lexical change. Language Variation and Change 5(3): 285–303. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394500001514.
Kerswill, P. (1996) Children, adolescents, and language change. Language Variation and Change 8(2): 177–202. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394500001137.
Khun, M. H. and McPartland, T. S. (1954) An empirical investigation of self-attitudes. American Sociological Review 19: 68–76. Doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/2088175.
Kiessling, R. and Mous, M. (2004) Urban youth languages in Africa. Anthropological Linguistics 46(3): 303–341.
Kotsinas, U.-B. (1997) Immigrant children’s Swedish – a new variety? Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 9: 129–140. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.1988.9994324.
Labov, W. (1963) The social motivation of a sound change. Word 19(3): 273–309.
Labov, W. (1972) Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English Vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Labov, W. (1992) Regular sound change in English dialect geography. In M. Rissanen, O. Ihalainen, T. Nevalainen and I. Taavitsainen (eds) History of Englishes: New methods and interpretations in historical linguistics 42–71. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Lakoff, R. (2004) Language and woman’s place: Text and commentaries. London: Oxford University Press.
Larsson, I. (2001) Child sexuality and sexual behaviour: An expert report on sexual abuse of children. Sweden: National Board of Health and Welfare.
Mahdad, H. (2012) Language change and lexical variation in youth language. MA thesis. University of Tlemcen. Retrieved from: http://dspace.univ-tlemcen.dz/bitstream/112/2471/1/MAHDAD-Hynd.pdf.
Makoni, S., Brutt-Griffler, J. and Mashiri, P. (2007) The use of indigenous and urban vernaculars in Zimbabwe. Language in Society 36(1): 25–49. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404507070029.
Malinowski, B. (1923) The problem of meaning in primitive languages. In C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards (eds) The meaning of meaning 296–336. London: K. Paul, Trend and Trubner.
McLaughlin, F. (2009) Introduction to the languages of urban Africa. In F. McLaughlin (ed.) The languages of urban Africa 1–18. London and New York: Continuum.
Mensah, E. O. (2021) To be a man is not a day’s job: The discursive construction of hegemonic masculinity by rural youth in Nigeria. Gender Issues 38(1): 1–23. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12147-020-09271-2.
Mensah, E., Aboh, R. and Nsebot, U. (2022) When sugar is no longer sweet: The discourse of regret in sugar relationships among female youth in Nigeria. Sexuality and Culture 26: 1380–1402. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-022-09948-8.
Mensah, E. and Nkamigbo, L. (2016) All I want is your waist: Sexual metaphors as youth slanguage in Nigeria. Sociolinguistic Studies 10(1–2): 177–198. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v10i1-2.27809.
Mesthrie, R. and Hurst, E. (2013) Slang registers, code-switching and restructured urban varieties in South Africa: An analytical overview of tsotsitaals with special reference to the Cape Town variety. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 28(1): 103–130. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.28.1.04mes.
Nassenstein, N. (2015) The emergence of langula in Kinshasa (DR Congo). In N. Nassenstein and A. Hollington (eds) Youth language practices in Africa and beyond 81–98. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Nassenstein, N. (2016) The new urban youth language Yabacrâne in Goma (DR Congo). Sociolinguistic Studies 10(1–2): 235–259. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v10i1-2.27925.
Nassenstein, N. and Hollington, A. (2015) Youth language practices in Africa and beyond. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Newell, S. (2009) Enregistering modernity, bluffing criminality: How Nouchi speech reinvented (and fractured) the nation. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 19(2): 157–184. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1395.2009.01029.x.
Ogechi, N. (2008) Sheng as a youth identity marker: Reality or misconception? In K. Njogu (ed.) Culture, performance and identity: Paths of communication in Kenya 75–92. Nairobi, Kenya: Twaweza Communications.
Okonkwo, A. D. (2018) Consumerism, transactional sex and some Nigerian undergraduate students: More complex interrelationships than alleged. Sexuality and Culture 22(4): 1112–1136. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-018-9514-6.
Oni, O. O. (2010) An analysis of undergraduates’ sexual discourse. In O. Ndimele and B. O. Elugbe (eds) Language policy, planning and management in Nigeria: A festschrift for Ben O. Elugbe 557–566. Port Harcourt: M. & J. Grand Orbit Communications.
Orwenjo, D. O. and Anudo, C. A. (2016) A cognitive linguistic approach to Dholuo sexual euphemisms and dysphemisms. Cognitive Linguistic Studies 3(2): 79–93. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1075/cogls.3.2.07och.
Pang, C. J. (2009) Scalar acceptability in the use of linguistic taboos: A case study of speakers of English in Hong Kong. BA thesis. Dept. of English Language and Literature, Hong Kong Baptist University. Retrieved from: http://net3.hkbu.ed/_lianhee/student%20works/pang%202009.pdf.
Park, G., Yaden, D. B., Schwartz H. A., Kern M. L., Eichstaedt, J. C., Kosinski, M., Stillwell, D., Ungar, L. H. and Seligman, L. E. P. (2016) Women are warmer but no less assertive than men: Gender and language on Facebook. PLoS ONE 11(5). Doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0155885.
Pempek, T., Yermolayeva, Y. A. and Calvert, S. L. (2009) College students’ social networking experiences on Facebook. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 30(3): 227–238. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2008.12.010.
Philo, C., Parr, H. and Burns, N. (2003) Rural madness: A geographical reading and critique of the rural mental health literature. Journal of Rural Studies 19(3): 259–281. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0743-0167(03)00005-6.
Poulin, M. (2007) Giving and getting: Rethinking sex, money and autonomy among youth in rural Malawi. Soc. Sci. Med. 65(11): 2383–2393.
Reyes, A. (2005) Appropriation of African American slang by Asian American youth. Journal of Sociolinguistics 9(4): 509–532. Doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.136041.2005.00304.x.
Risch, B. (1987) Women’s derogatory terms for men: That’s right, dirty words. Language in Society 16: 353–358. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500012434.
Sapir, E. (1927) Language as a form of human behavior. The English Journal 16(6): 421–433. Doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/803262.
Schlobinski, P., Kohl, G. and Ludewigt, I. (1993) Jugendsprache: Fiktion und Wirklichkeit. Opladen.
Selikov, T. (2004) We have our own special language. Language, sexuality and HIV/AIDS: A case study of youth in Anurban township in South Africa. African Health Sciences 4(2): 102–108.
Simkins, L. and Rinck, C. (1982) Male and female sexual vocabulary in different interpersonal contexts. Journal of Sex Research 18: 160–172. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/00224498209551146.
Slabbert, S. (1994) A re-evaluation of the sociology of Tsotsitaal. South African Journal of Linguistics 12(1): 32–41. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10118063.1994.9724344.
Slabbert, S. and Myers-Scotton, C. (1996) The structure of Tsotsitaal and Iscamtho: Code-switching and in-group identity in South African townships. Linguistics 34: 317–372. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.1997.35.2.317.
Spitulnik, D. (1999) The language of the city: Town Bemba as urban hybridity. The Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 8(1): 30–59. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/jlin.1998.8.1.30.
Stockwell, G. (2010) Using mobile phones for vocabulary activities: Examining the effect of the platform. Language Learning & Technology 14(2): 95–110.
Trudgill, P. (1974) The social differentiation of English in Norwich. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ukeje, C. (2006) Youth movements and youth violence in Nigeria’s oil Delta Region. In C. Daiute, Z. Beykont, C. Higson-Smith and L. Nucci (eds) International perspectives on youth conflict and development 289–304. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wahyuninsih, S. (2018) Men and women differences in using language: A case study of students at STAIN Kudus. EduLite: Journal of English Education, Literature and Culture 3(1): 79–90. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.30659/e.3.1.79-90.
Walsh, R. H. and Leonard, W. M. (1974) Usage of terms for sexual intercourse by men and women. Archives of Sexual Behavior 3(4): 373–376. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01636443.
Walter, H. (2003) Russisch-Deutsches Wörterbuch des Drogenslangs. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Weeks, J. R. (2008) Population: An introduction to concepts and issues. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Thomson Learning.
West, C. and Zimmerman, D. (1987) Doing gender. Gender and Society 1: 125–151. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243287001002002.
Wolfram, W. and Schilling-Estes, N. (2005) American English: Dialects and variation. Malden, Mass: Wiley-Blackwell.
Yuan, Z. (2013) Understanding identity discourse. Journal of Multicultural Discourses 8(1): 79–85. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/17447143.2012.749881.
