The Journalism Educators Foundation, in collaboration with the Department of Linguistics and Communication Studies, University of Port-Harcourt, concluded its 2021 conference on Friday.
The conference, which had its theme as “Communication, Language and Coping with Covid-19 in the 21st Century”, kicked off on Tuesday, with an opening ceremony at the Ebitimi Banigo Auditorium, Abuja campus of the institution.
Attendees at the event were Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Professor Onwunari Georgewill; Professor John Yeseibo, Dean, Faculty of Humanities; Professor Walter Ihejirika, interim Dean, Faculty of Communication and Media Studies; and Prof. Peter Esuh, Head of the Department of Communication Arts, University of Uyo;
Also in attendance were Professor Aniefiok Jackson Udoudo, Head of the Department of Linguistics and Communication Studies, lecturers, students, and participants from around the country.
Former staff of the department were honoured, including Prof. Shirley Yul-Ifode and other lecturers, in commemoration of their retirement from the university.
Presenting a paper on the “Modality and Modal Forms in Awara Igbo”, a doctoral student, Mmanwanyi Nwadike highlighted the core basis of language is to foster communication between persons, by allowing individual expressions such as involvement of linguistic interactions.
She explained that modality is a notional category that expresses the relation of utterance to reality as said by the speaker while disclosing the importance of tone in dialectal expressions.
The highlight of the event was paper presentations by other students from various institutions across the nation and a cocktail party with the Vice-Chancellor.
