‘How May I Help You’, Language Use of Receptionists in Selected Business Organizations in Lagos State Nigeria
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Abstract
The study examined How May I Help You’, Language Use of Receptionist in Selected Business Organizations in Lagos State Nigeria. The study focused on the analysis of selected “texts” from receptionist discourse, covering some selected aspects of receptionist language. In the receptionist discourse, emphasis is placed on the features, meaning or functions, and the importance of that “context of use” plays in the total explication of the meaning of language use by receptionist. The discourse roles and paralinguistic features in receptionist language is therefore of paramount importance in this study. The employed the use of descriptive survey design. The study adopted M.A.K. Halliday’s functional approach to language that investigates the context of language use-the sort of interactive or linguistic exchanges hat one can observe in receptionist language. In addition, the study applied the contextual configuration of the Halliday, to analyses the sort of social interactions within the context of receptionist discourse. The sample is drawn from both male and female receptionist in two selected organizations in Lagos State, Nigeria. Also the sample was randomly selected from the two organizations which are located in different districts in Lagos state. This was to allow for a comprehensive analysis. The method of face-to-face or personal oral interview with the aid of a tape recorder will be employed. I shall also make use of not taking and personal observation. Recorded data and the notes made from observation, will be collected on the spot, personally by the researcher. The analyses data by highlighting the textual features of the selected texts of receptionist discourse. The study concluded that both the structural and the cohesive elements combine to make the selected texts highly textural. The combination of all this helps to highlight the language, meaning and utterances in the environment of receptionist discourse. The study recommended among others that in order to improve the receptionist’s role in organizations, the organization’s management should adopt a system where the receptionist is schooled on polite use of English.
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