An Original Theory of Communication in Nigerian Market Economies: Semiotic and Social Dimensions of Market Communication

Nigerian market economies, from the large-scale urban markets of Lagos, Onitsha, and Kano to rural periodic markets, are characterised by distinctive communication practices that combine verbal negotiation, non-verbal semiosis, social relationship communication, and symbolic value construction in ways that deserve original theoretical treatment as a distinctive communication field. This study developed an original theory of communication in Nigerian market economies, integrating semiotic, social, and economic communication dimensions. A multisite ethnographic and semiotic methodology was employed over 24 months across four major Nigerian market contexts: Onitsha Main Market (South East), Sabon Gari Market Kano (North West), Bodija Market Ibadan (South West), and Wuse Market Abuja (North Central). Extensive ethnographic observation, 80 in-depth interviews with market traders and buyers, and semiotic analysis of market communication artefacts (signage, pricing symbols, commodity display arrangements, spatial communication) generated the empirical foundation for theory construction. The original Nigerian Market Communication Theory proposes four communicative dimensions: transactional communication (verbal and price negotiation dynamics), relational communication (social relationship maintenance that enables market trust), semiotic communication (non-verbal meaning-making through commodity presentation and symbolic exchange), and moral communication (the ethical communication norms and reputation maintenance systems that enable market functioning without formal contracts). Original constructs include the Trust-Signalling Market Communication System, theorising how repeated social communication across market visits builds a semiotic trust infrastructure that reduces transaction costs, and the Community Memory Market Archive, theorising how markets function as collective communication repositories of economic and social history. The theory constitutes a novel contribution to communication and market sociology.

Keywords: market communication, Nigerian markets, economic communication, semiotic theory, original theory