SEMANTICS STUDIES OF HONOURARY NAMES IN YORUBALAND

ABSTRACT

This study titled “Semantic Study of Honorary Names in Yoruba Land” is analyzed using the literal semantic theory of meaning. The review of some related previous work, Adeoye. C. L. (1972). Oruko Yoruba, Oxford University press, Akinnaso (1982). The sociolinguistics basis of Yoruba personal names, Adeniyi (2008). The sociolinguistics of Edo personal names constructions,  Ekut. U.(2002). Religion and cultural identity, Salami. A. (2008). Traditional rulers and the challenges of democratization in Nigeria, Olaniyan (2004). Chieftainship titles in Yoruba land and their implication for growth and tolerance among Christians and Muslims. Aim and objective of the study is to show the meaning and the ideas behind this name. The data was collected primarily from some speakers of the Yoruba language and little knowledge of the researcher and secondarily some data were gotten from the internet. The findings shows that names generally are not just given haphazardly but they are girven after putting many things into consideration, same goes for honorary names in Yoruba land, a lot of things are taking into consideration, the conclusion of the work is that honorary names have their meaning and functions and this meaning and functions can be a little different from one community to another.