Proverbs as Circumstantial Speech Acts

Abstract

Oral Literature constitutes one of the major linguistic activities of an unwritten culture. An unwritten culture operates in a society which mode of communication, information transfer and storage from one generation to another is basically oral. But since the publication of Ruth Finnegan’s epochal text, Oral Literature in Africa in 1970, most if not all forms of communication in vernacular have been classified as oral literature. Although a critical analysis of the form of proverbs shows that proverbs share similar characteristics with the genres of Oral Literature, their contents exemplify the pattern of oral communication in folk societies. Proverbs are circumstantial speech acts frequently used in conversations, public speeches and oratory to embellish, conceal and adorn such speeches. The paper therefore posits that for effective understanding of language use in traditional societies, proverbs should be incorporated into the study of Discourse Analysis, Pragmatics and Semantics of African folk languages.

(Oral Literature, linguistic activities, vernacular, proverbs, speech acts, folk languages, discourse analysis, pragmatics)