A Lexico-Semantic Analysis of Latrinalia

Abstract

Latrinalia is a type of graffiti that is scribbled not only on the walls but 'on any conceivable surfaces in the toilets, bathrooms and lavatories. Several channels abound through which the students in tertiary institutions can convey their grievances and express their feelings and emotions towards the flaws and vices committed by the managers of their institutions and their fellow students. However, one uninhibited means through which they do this is latrinalia. This paper reports a lexico-semantic analysis of the latrinalia written by the students of the Federal Polytechnic, Offa using five parameters of lexico-semantic variations in Nigerian English as adapted from Adegbija (J 989) and Bamiro (1994). A corpus of latrinalia consisting of twenty (20) meaningful conversations is randomly selected with the assistance of some reliable students. The latrinalia collected reveal paramount themes as sexual, religious, ocial and political. It is also discovered that more prominently, the students use latrinalia to expose the excesses of the management; and less frequently to express their minds on some social matters. The results, therefore, indicate that latrinalia serve as ma s media through which the students communicate their views on different is use to the management and their fellow students without any fear of intimidations.