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European Journal of English Language Teaching ISSN: 2501-7136 ISSN-L: 2501-7136 Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu doi: 10.5281/zenodo.1044531 Volume 3 │ Issue 1 │ 2017 COMMUNICATIVE ERRORS AS INCIDENTAL HUMOUR IN SELECTED STATEMENTS OF PUBLIC SPEAKERS Owolewa O. Oluseguni Department of Arts Education Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria Abstract: This paper explored some communicative errors in the statements of former Nigeria First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan (2010-2015). The paper examined specific communicative errors that resulted in incidental humour. The study was based on a corpus of six statements on web-sites presenting humorous bits of information. Each expression was identified and contextualized using the framework of error analysis and incongruity theory of humour. The main results of the study were that the selected expression deviated from the proficient speaker’s usage of lexemes, tenses and concord of subject and verb. These deviation provoked dissonance or discrepancies which triggered accidental humour that helped to douse the initial tension associated with kidnap of the secondary school girls in Chibok, Nigeria. It concluded that humour is the trojan horse of communicative errors. Keywords: communicative errors, incidental humour, Dame Patience Jonathan, incongruity theory, error analysis 1. Introduction Dame Patience Faka Jonathan, the wife of the former Nigeria President, Goodluck Jonathan (2010-2015), was born in Port-Harcourt, River State, Southern Nigeria on 25th October, 1957. She had her primary education from 1971 to 1976 and secondary education from 1976 to 1980. She went to Rivers State College of Arts and Science for Nigeria Certificate in Education (N C E) Mathematics & Biology in 1989. She worked as Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. © 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group 109 Owolewa .O. Olusegun COMMUNICATIVE ERRORS AS INCIDENTAL HUMOUR IN SELECTED STATEMENTS OF PUBLIC SPEAKERS primary school teacher in Okrika, her native country home for some years before she established a Micro-finance Bank. She had contacts with the grassroots women which she used maximally to advance her husband to limelight. Dame patience Jonathan was always in the news for some obvious reasons .One of which was her grammatical expressions which were always considered to be filled with blunders. This attracted criticism from the media and the public as many did not expect such errors from such a highly placed person. However, this paper sees errors as positive in language learning unlike the repulsive attitude of the public, errors are considered as inherent parts of Second language (SL) learning situation. They are unavoidable especially as SL learners grow from linguistic adolescence to linguistic adulthood. It makes sense to say from the outset that errors as used here refer to purely linguistic deviations from the standard of the proficient speaker – hearer, which is the result of imperfect knowledge of the code, a transitional form of the language similar to the speakers’ mother tongue and imperfect learning process. Two main sources of errors are interference from the native language – also referred to as Interlingua factors and developmental factors (Touchie, 1986). Errors of interference occur owing totally to the fact that the mother Tongue (MT) or first Language (LI) influences the target language (L2). The influence is most often noticed at the level of phonology. Intralingua errors such as overgeneralization, simplification among others are the outcome of the difficulty which comes the way of learners of a new system of language. Errors constitute interest of studies for scholars across the globe (Corder 1967: Corder 1971; Touche 1986; Botha 1987; and Zydatiss 1996). In Nigeria, the engagement with errors is legendary. This is understandable since researchers have consistently shown that leaners of English as a Second Language (ESL) have not attained the degree of proficiency that will enable them use the language with minimal errors (Odigbo and Alagbe 2016). According to Adegbite (2008), records of poor performance and usage are given at all levels of education and strata of communication in the society. Even the writing and utterances of the so-called educated elites are not without errors. Some of which violate elementary rules of grammar. It is against this background that researchers have preoccupied themselves with the different sources, patterns and causes of errors (Odigbo and Alagbe 2016). For viewing / downloading the full article, please access the following link: https://oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejel/article/view/1177 European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 3 │ Issue 1 │ 2017 110