Thesis and Dissertations

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SOCIOLINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF EBIRA PROVERBS
(DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS FACULTY OF ARTS NASARAWA STATE UNIVERSITY KEFFI, 2019-12-21) Zuberu, Noel Nda
Globally, proverbs are symbolic expressions of people. In Nigeria, proverbs are influenced, to a large extent, by the linguistic and socio-geographical experiences and orientations of the diverse people that make up the country. The imagery in proverbs, their forms and context of use as well as aesthetics reflect the peculiar natural environment of the users, whether from the Northern or Southern regions of Nigeria where hundreds of languages are spoken or elsewhere in the world. Deploying Sperber and Wilson’s ‘Relevant” model of speech analysis, fifty-six (56) Ebira proverbs were purposefully selected and subjected to content analysis in this study. The researcher selected the proverbs through critical observation, note taking and recording. At the end of the research work, it was revealed that proverbs are not only the palm oil with which words are eaten according to Achebe but are the very words on which wisdom is built. This is because the researcher discovered that proverbs has a lot of roles to play in terms of peace building and several other things which has been examined in this research work.