Semantic signification and pragmatic implicature in personal names in Ijo language

This study examines the phenomenon of Ijo Personal naming system from the semantic and pragmatic perspective. Although quite much has been done on onomastics, not much scholarship on Semantics and Pragmatics of Ijo Personal Names has been done. And this is the gap this work intends to fill. The study employs Austin's Speech Act Theory as a tool in the analysis and interpretation of Ijo personal names as it relates to its locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary forces. It also employs the felicity conditions with attention to the sincerity, preparatory, executive and fulfillment conditions which justify the names and naming procedure among the Ijo. Data for this study are obtained through interview, few works written on names and personal observation. Findings from the study show that names have different locutionary forces couched in structures such as NPs, VPs, sentencial, imperatives, elliptical, interrogative. The study reveals onomastic in Ijo language and culture reveal embedded meanings and pragmatic implicatures beyond being mere signification and identification labels. This essay is significant as it foregrounds the cultural, sociolinguistic and pragmatic magnitude of names. Keywords: Onomastic names, semantic signification, pragmatic implicature, speech acts, Ijo