Pub Date : 2020-09-21DOI: 10.1163/18757421-05102010
U. Oboko, Jennifer Umezinwa
Igbo proverbs (Ilu Igbo) are linguistic expressions which projects principles with the intent to address diverse social, political, economic and culturally contextual issues that bother on values, morals and the identity of the Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria. Proverbs are handed down to different generations by speech acts of storytelling, conversing, rebuking or admonishing. The researchers carried out a pragmatic analysis of Igbo proverbs as a social practice, to establish their meaning and how its social significance are internalized and continually recreated. Language is central to the process of producing meaning. Using the Theory of Pragmeme by Jacob Mey (2001), the paper evaluates the pragmatic acts, the extent to which some of these proverbs are reformed and doctored, yet, maintain qualities of the Igbo culture while accommodating the identity of the 21st century ideology of the Igbo people. Primary and secondary methods of data collection are adopted. Being a qualitative study, the research randomly selected 12 Igbo proverbs that cut across the five Igbo speaking states of eastern Nigeria. The findings are that Igbo proverbs are essentially custodians of the Igbo cultural identity and orientalism, most proverbs have been moderated to fit the emerging trends in the identity of the Igbo ancestry.
{"title":"A Pragmemic Analysis of Igbo Postproverbials","authors":"U. Oboko, Jennifer Umezinwa","doi":"10.1163/18757421-05102010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18757421-05102010","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Igbo proverbs (Ilu Igbo) are linguistic expressions which projects principles with the intent to address diverse social, political, economic and culturally contextual issues that bother on values, morals and the identity of the Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria. Proverbs are handed down to different generations by speech acts of storytelling, conversing, rebuking or admonishing. The researchers carried out a pragmatic analysis of Igbo proverbs as a social practice, to establish their meaning and how its social significance are internalized and continually recreated. Language is central to the process of producing meaning. Using the Theory of Pragmeme by Jacob Mey (2001), the paper evaluates the pragmatic acts, the extent to which some of these proverbs are reformed and doctored, yet, maintain qualities of the Igbo culture while accommodating the identity of the 21st century ideology of the Igbo people. Primary and secondary methods of data collection are adopted. Being a qualitative study, the research randomly selected 12 Igbo proverbs that cut across the five Igbo speaking states of eastern Nigeria. The findings are that Igbo proverbs are essentially custodians of the Igbo cultural identity and orientalism, most proverbs have been moderated to fit the emerging trends in the identity of the Igbo ancestry.","PeriodicalId":35183,"journal":{"name":"Matatu","volume":"57 1","pages":"360-378"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81468273","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-09-21DOI: 10.1163/18757421-05102002
C. Akinsete
The last few decades of the twentieth century witnessed influx of Western theories into African scholarship. This is gradually being deconstructed with preponderant discourse of decolonization, as a contemporary theme in postcolonial Africa. The practice of postproverbiality, which resonates during the same historical phase, indicates transgressive subversion of alternate creations that run parallel with postmodern temperance. This study, therefore, examines the postmodern pulse as a significant component of the aesthetics and values of postproverbiality pulse in contemporary African literary cum cultural space. The aim is to foreground the theoretical significance of postmodernism as the compelling forte of postproverbiality and in furtherance, to articulate the postmodern presence in contemporary African literary space. Part of the research objectives is to critically analyse the socio-cultural content and context of postproverbials and explore the postmodern pulse of selected postproverbial forms as the prostheses of conventional African proverbs.
{"title":"The Postmodern Pulse of Postproverbials in African Cultural Space","authors":"C. Akinsete","doi":"10.1163/18757421-05102002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18757421-05102002","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The last few decades of the twentieth century witnessed influx of Western theories into African scholarship. This is gradually being deconstructed with preponderant discourse of decolonization, as a contemporary theme in postcolonial Africa. The practice of postproverbiality, which resonates during the same historical phase, indicates transgressive subversion of alternate creations that run parallel with postmodern temperance. This study, therefore, examines the postmodern pulse as a significant component of the aesthetics and values of postproverbiality pulse in contemporary African literary cum cultural space. The aim is to foreground the theoretical significance of postmodernism as the compelling forte of postproverbiality and in furtherance, to articulate the postmodern presence in contemporary African literary space. Part of the research objectives is to critically analyse the socio-cultural content and context of postproverbials and explore the postmodern pulse of selected postproverbial forms as the prostheses of conventional African proverbs.","PeriodicalId":35183,"journal":{"name":"Matatu","volume":"29 1","pages":"241-253"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87084235","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-09-21DOI: 10.1163/18757421-05102009
Chukwudi Christian Egbara
This paper evaluates postproverbial (re)constructions of selected Igbo proverbs and the ‘altering alternatives’ regenerated from the original Igbo proverbs. Eighteen randomly selected Igbo proverbs, the proverbial expressions and their postproverbial (re)constructions were subjected to critical analysis. The study revealed that there are noticeable changings in rendering of the selected proverbs. These changings occur largely either due to lack of an in-depth knowledge in the usage of the traditional proverbs, disconnection with the custodians/sources of the Igbo proverbs, urbanisation influence on the Igbo speakers or both. Hence the manufacturing of the ‘altering alternatives’, known as postproverbials. The paper, therefore, urges Igbo language speakers and the would-be users, to draw closer by retracing their step in the choice and usage of Igbo proverbs against the near-overbearing influence of proverbials on the autochthonous, symbolic, semantic, and philosophical essence of Igbo traditional proverbs.
{"title":"Of Proverbs and Postproverbial (Re)Constructions","authors":"Chukwudi Christian Egbara","doi":"10.1163/18757421-05102009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18757421-05102009","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This paper evaluates postproverbial (re)constructions of selected Igbo proverbs and the ‘altering alternatives’ regenerated from the original Igbo proverbs. Eighteen randomly selected Igbo proverbs, the proverbial expressions and their postproverbial (re)constructions were subjected to critical analysis. The study revealed that there are noticeable changings in rendering of the selected proverbs. These changings occur largely either due to lack of an in-depth knowledge in the usage of the traditional proverbs, disconnection with the custodians/sources of the Igbo proverbs, urbanisation influence on the Igbo speakers or both. Hence the manufacturing of the ‘altering alternatives’, known as postproverbials. The paper, therefore, urges Igbo language speakers and the would-be users, to draw closer by retracing their step in the choice and usage of Igbo proverbs against the near-overbearing influence of proverbials on the autochthonous, symbolic, semantic, and philosophical essence of Igbo traditional proverbs.","PeriodicalId":35183,"journal":{"name":"Matatu","volume":"85 1","pages":"346-359"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77304880","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-09-21DOI: 10.1163/18757421-05102004
A. Kipacha
The political campaign speeches can be used not only as platform to promote election manifestos of the candidates but also as communication channels imbued with creative manipulation of words, phrases, sayings and proverbial expressions to lure voters. Of interest in this study, is how some erudite public figures in Tanzania tend to interspace their political campaign speeches with proverbial elements. As campaign speeches aim to weaken political rivals, the use of subverted form of standard adage became inevitable on the process of waging verbal war to disarm opponents’ argumentative style, didactic wisdom and explanatory prowess. This paper goes beyond the exploration of standard proverbial expressions in political campaign speeches, to specifically target the deliberate modification, parody, subversion on existing proverbs and proverbial expressions in Swahili by the two major political parties of CCM and UKAWA as contested in the 2015 Tanzania general election campaigns.
{"title":"Not So Well Campaign Speech in Swahili","authors":"A. Kipacha","doi":"10.1163/18757421-05102004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18757421-05102004","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The political campaign speeches can be used not only as platform to promote election manifestos of the candidates but also as communication channels imbued with creative manipulation of words, phrases, sayings and proverbial expressions to lure voters. Of interest in this study, is how some erudite public figures in Tanzania tend to interspace their political campaign speeches with proverbial elements. As campaign speeches aim to weaken political rivals, the use of subverted form of standard adage became inevitable on the process of waging verbal war to disarm opponents’ argumentative style, didactic wisdom and explanatory prowess. This paper goes beyond the exploration of standard proverbial expressions in political campaign speeches, to specifically target the deliberate modification, parody, subversion on existing proverbs and proverbial expressions in Swahili by the two major political parties of CCM and UKAWA as contested in the 2015 Tanzania general election campaigns.","PeriodicalId":35183,"journal":{"name":"Matatu","volume":"116 1","pages":"272-281"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79818229","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-09-21DOI: 10.1163/18757421-05102003
Nureni Oyewole Fadare
Postproverbials are postmodern proverbs that deconstruct the structural and semantic aspects of the traditional proverbs. They are proverbs coined either from the existing proverbs as anti-proverbs or from those that are created newly as new proverbs. The focus of this paper is to examine the tenets of the postproverbials and postmodernism found in the new media proverbs of Ify Asia Chiemeziem’s. About twenty-three proverbs are carefully selected from Chiemeziem’s Facebook wall grouped, and critically analysed according to their contents. References are made to some Yoruba, Nupe and Hausa postproverbials subject to further research. It is observed that most of the proverbs are decorated with sexual imageries, which deconstruct the hitherto held sacrilegious nature of human sex organs featuring in African proverbs. The proverbs are created for their humouristic purposes and as a tool for creating traffics on Chiemeziem’s Facebook wall. The selected new proverbs have proved that postproverbials give room for innovation and creativity, which engenders the formation of new proverbs. Postproverbials are not ethnic-based, rather, a postmodern phenomenon culturing across cultures and traditions. The paper, thus, concludes that the emerging facts about postproverbials are indications that the theory is viable and will endure the test of time.
{"title":"Postproverbial and Postmodern Aesthetics in Ify Asia Chiemeziem’s New Media Proverbs","authors":"Nureni Oyewole Fadare","doi":"10.1163/18757421-05102003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18757421-05102003","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Postproverbials are postmodern proverbs that deconstruct the structural and semantic aspects of the traditional proverbs. They are proverbs coined either from the existing proverbs as anti-proverbs or from those that are created newly as new proverbs. The focus of this paper is to examine the tenets of the postproverbials and postmodernism found in the new media proverbs of Ify Asia Chiemeziem’s. About twenty-three proverbs are carefully selected from Chiemeziem’s Facebook wall grouped, and critically analysed according to their contents. References are made to some Yoruba, Nupe and Hausa postproverbials subject to further research. It is observed that most of the proverbs are decorated with sexual imageries, which deconstruct the hitherto held sacrilegious nature of human sex organs featuring in African proverbs. The proverbs are created for their humouristic purposes and as a tool for creating traffics on Chiemeziem’s Facebook wall. The selected new proverbs have proved that postproverbials give room for innovation and creativity, which engenders the formation of new proverbs. Postproverbials are not ethnic-based, rather, a postmodern phenomenon culturing across cultures and traditions. The paper, thus, concludes that the emerging facts about postproverbials are indications that the theory is viable and will endure the test of time.","PeriodicalId":35183,"journal":{"name":"Matatu","volume":"32 1","pages":"254-271"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87911906","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-09-21DOI: 10.1163/18757421-05102006
Adams Olufemi Akewula
Al-Ghuluwu fi al-amsal al-arabiy (Postproverbial) is a new trend in modern Arabic studies. It is a way to gain the perceptions of learners of the language into Afro-Arabic and Yoruba cultures in contemporary times. Through the learning of the subject matter, University of Ibadan students of Arabic Language and Literature explore how much common philosophy is shared between postproverbial expressions in Arabic and Yoruba languages. Afro-Arabic postproverbial demonstrates the trends of modernity within the culture. It absorbs and transforms wisdom accumulated over the few years with the experience of students in their various localities. This paper investigates the exposure to postproverbiality in Arabic among the students of Arabic language and literature who are predominantly Yoruba in the University of Ibadan and how the practice of postproverbials transforms their perceptions and values of Yoruba and Afro-Arab cultural concepts. Thus, two questions are raised: to what extent does the use of postproverbials in the Arabic literature course in the University of Ibadan shed light on Yoruba cultural aspects not regularly covered in Arabic Proverbs? How does the use of postproverbials in the Arabic literature course promote a new understanding among the students and make them discover and reassess their values and preferences in the modern time? The theoretical framework of the paper is adopted from A. Raji-Oyelade’s “Postproverbials in Yoruba Culture: A Playful Blasphemy”. The result of this study indicates that students employed their basic knowledge of Arabic language, coupled with their Yoruba cultural background, to re-create a number of postproverbial texts within the context of Arabic culture. It also exhibits their level of consciousness in the modern times.
{"title":"Al-Ghuluwu fi al-amsal al-arabiy","authors":"Adams Olufemi Akewula","doi":"10.1163/18757421-05102006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18757421-05102006","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Al-Ghuluwu fi al-amsal al-arabiy (Postproverbial) is a new trend in modern Arabic studies. It is a way to gain the perceptions of learners of the language into Afro-Arabic and Yoruba cultures in contemporary times. Through the learning of the subject matter, University of Ibadan students of Arabic Language and Literature explore how much common philosophy is shared between postproverbial expressions in Arabic and Yoruba languages. Afro-Arabic postproverbial demonstrates the trends of modernity within the culture. It absorbs and transforms wisdom accumulated over the few years with the experience of students in their various localities. This paper investigates the exposure to postproverbiality in Arabic among the students of Arabic language and literature who are predominantly Yoruba in the University of Ibadan and how the practice of postproverbials transforms their perceptions and values of Yoruba and Afro-Arab cultural concepts. Thus, two questions are raised: to what extent does the use of postproverbials in the Arabic literature course in the University of Ibadan shed light on Yoruba cultural aspects not regularly covered in Arabic Proverbs? How does the use of postproverbials in the Arabic literature course promote a new understanding among the students and make them discover and reassess their values and preferences in the modern time? The theoretical framework of the paper is adopted from A. Raji-Oyelade’s “Postproverbials in Yoruba Culture: A Playful Blasphemy”. The result of this study indicates that students employed their basic knowledge of Arabic language, coupled with their Yoruba cultural background, to re-create a number of postproverbial texts within the context of Arabic culture. It also exhibits their level of consciousness in the modern times.","PeriodicalId":35183,"journal":{"name":"Matatu","volume":"6 1","pages":"299-310"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85611060","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-09-21DOI: 10.1163/18757421-05102015
Nkechi Ezenwamadu, Chinyere Ojiakor
Since the birth of Nigerian literature, writers have produced impressive collection of literature in English. African oral traditions like proverbs have been in use in creative works. Over time, there have been some alterations in proverbs as their usage and meanings slightly assume different dimensions on their seriousness, effects and explicitness of the message therein, forming either an extension to the traditional proverbs or coinages of certain expressions. It is contended that the meaning of proverbs can be interpreted within the semantic, ideational, stimulus-response, realist and contextual theories, as proverbs play significant roles in literary works. This paper anchors on J.L. Austin’s Speech Act Theory and examines the proverb uses and postproverbial reflections with the view to foregrounding their implications in two plays of common thematic preoccupations—Zulu Sofola’s Old Wines are Tasty and Emeka Nwabueze’s A Parliament of Vultures. Ultimately, it will highlight the proverbial stance and significance of the texts, thereby ascertaining the proverbial mutations in contexts.
{"title":"Proverbs and Postproverbial Stance in Selected Plays of Emeka Nwabueze and Zulu Sofola","authors":"Nkechi Ezenwamadu, Chinyere Ojiakor","doi":"10.1163/18757421-05102015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18757421-05102015","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Since the birth of Nigerian literature, writers have produced impressive collection of literature in English. African oral traditions like proverbs have been in use in creative works. Over time, there have been some alterations in proverbs as their usage and meanings slightly assume different dimensions on their seriousness, effects and explicitness of the message therein, forming either an extension to the traditional proverbs or coinages of certain expressions. It is contended that the meaning of proverbs can be interpreted within the semantic, ideational, stimulus-response, realist and contextual theories, as proverbs play significant roles in literary works. This paper anchors on J.L. Austin’s Speech Act Theory and examines the proverb uses and postproverbial reflections with the view to foregrounding their implications in two plays of common thematic preoccupations—Zulu Sofola’s Old Wines are Tasty and Emeka Nwabueze’s A Parliament of Vultures. Ultimately, it will highlight the proverbial stance and significance of the texts, thereby ascertaining the proverbial mutations in contexts.","PeriodicalId":35183,"journal":{"name":"Matatu","volume":"121 1","pages":"432-447"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80397407","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-09-21DOI: 10.1163/18757421-05102014
’Femi ’Dunmade
Studies on Jack Mapanje’s poetry are largely postcolonial and on the poet’s use of Malawian lore but hardly on his use of proverbs. Yet Mapanje deploys proverbs sufficiently in his poetry for the deployment to merit study. Therefore, this study examines the deployment of the umbilical-cordage-of-peculiar-hounds proverb in selected poems from Mapanje’s Skipping Without Ropes. It adopts phenomenology. The choice of the theory is to allow the critic to move with aplomb between the four selected poems in a resolute hunt for the essence of the proverb in the poetry. The study reveals that Mapanje ruptures the original meaning of the proverb which is about choice and thirst to see the wonder and beauty of creation as cause to travel to a distant land but deploys it to treat flight from barbarous tyranny. The poetry describes state abuse of dissenters, peine forte er dure, imprisonment and death, and threats to life as cause enough to flee one’s country. The rhetorical transformation of the proverb in semantic terms makes the idiom behind the poetry postproverbial. The study also advances Mapanje’s penchant for “rhetoric of animality”, ritual aesthetics and pit-death symbolism and recommends that Mapanje’s deployment of proverb in other poetry merits further study.
{"title":"A Phenomenology of Selected Postproverbial Poetry of Jack Mapanje","authors":"’Femi ’Dunmade","doi":"10.1163/18757421-05102014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18757421-05102014","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Studies on Jack Mapanje’s poetry are largely postcolonial and on the poet’s use of Malawian lore but hardly on his use of proverbs. Yet Mapanje deploys proverbs sufficiently in his poetry for the deployment to merit study. Therefore, this study examines the deployment of the umbilical-cordage-of-peculiar-hounds proverb in selected poems from Mapanje’s Skipping Without Ropes. It adopts phenomenology. The choice of the theory is to allow the critic to move with aplomb between the four selected poems in a resolute hunt for the essence of the proverb in the poetry. The study reveals that Mapanje ruptures the original meaning of the proverb which is about choice and thirst to see the wonder and beauty of creation as cause to travel to a distant land but deploys it to treat flight from barbarous tyranny. The poetry describes state abuse of dissenters, peine forte er dure, imprisonment and death, and threats to life as cause enough to flee one’s country. The rhetorical transformation of the proverb in semantic terms makes the idiom behind the poetry postproverbial. The study also advances Mapanje’s penchant for “rhetoric of animality”, ritual aesthetics and pit-death symbolism and recommends that Mapanje’s deployment of proverb in other poetry merits further study.","PeriodicalId":35183,"journal":{"name":"Matatu","volume":"32 1","pages":"417-431"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90361548","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-09-21DOI: 10.1163/18757421-05102005
Zvinashe Mamvura, S. Nyota
This article explores the syntax-semantics nexus of Shona postproverbials in the contemporary Zimbabwean society. In terms of syntax, Shona postproverbials are aligned to the following types of sentences found in the Shona language; substantival, verbal, and a combination of both. Like traditional proverbs, there is no postproverbial that takes the form of the ideophonic sentence. The communicative power of postproverbials is an inherent, inbuilt, and internal property stemming from their syntactic and lexical properties. The postproverbial forms, studied in this article, exhibit innovation and ingenuity of the users. The communicative force of the postproverbials arises from the correspondence and cross-correspondence of the structures and grammatical items that constitute them. Congruence and contrast of the lexical items found in the postproverbials also contribute to meanings. The study established that, just like the traditional proverbs, postproverbials are pithy and terse philosophical statements that resonate with a people’s collective experience. In most cases, the postproverbials provide a conduit for people to comment on issues regarded as politically ‘taboo’ and sensitive in a society where the state does not tolerate open criticism.
{"title":"The Form and Communicative Impact of Shona Postproverbials","authors":"Zvinashe Mamvura, S. Nyota","doi":"10.1163/18757421-05102005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18757421-05102005","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article explores the syntax-semantics nexus of Shona postproverbials in the contemporary Zimbabwean society. In terms of syntax, Shona postproverbials are aligned to the following types of sentences found in the Shona language; substantival, verbal, and a combination of both. Like traditional proverbs, there is no postproverbial that takes the form of the ideophonic sentence. The communicative power of postproverbials is an inherent, inbuilt, and internal property stemming from their syntactic and lexical properties. The postproverbial forms, studied in this article, exhibit innovation and ingenuity of the users. The communicative force of the postproverbials arises from the correspondence and cross-correspondence of the structures and grammatical items that constitute them. Congruence and contrast of the lexical items found in the postproverbials also contribute to meanings. The study established that, just like the traditional proverbs, postproverbials are pithy and terse philosophical statements that resonate with a people’s collective experience. In most cases, the postproverbials provide a conduit for people to comment on issues regarded as politically ‘taboo’ and sensitive in a society where the state does not tolerate open criticism.","PeriodicalId":35183,"journal":{"name":"Matatu","volume":"17 1","pages":"282-298"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86041557","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-09-21DOI: 10.1163/18757421-05102012
Ifeoma Abana, Obiora Eke
This treatise assesses the pragmatic implicature derived during the use of postproverbials in Igbo language and culture. Igbo proverbs have been so much studied that it would certainly be monotonous for a paroemiographer to resume making belated significance of Igbo speculations on the meaning and essence of a proverb. It is a glaring fact that that there is virtually no substantial controversy about the importance of proverbs in culture and the significance of proverbs in Igbo traditional society as a repository and verbal effulgence of wisdom is indeed proverbial. This study relies on Austin’s pragmatic theory of speech acts, conversational implicature and presupposition. The data is drawn from oral interview conducted by the researchers on ten Igbo elders with the aim of unraveling the linguistic idiosyncrasies associated with the connotation of postproverbials as it relates to different contextual usages. The paper will look at the development of this threat to the fixability of Igbo proverbs, the normative rapture and by extension establish the presence of “new” proverbs with new syntactic forms, new meanings and perhaps, new values. The analytic emphasis is based on the type of transformation, the shift in the construction of users. This paper concludes that postproverbiality is situated in the dynamic space of informal speech of a younger and adventurous generation.
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