Semantic and Pragmatic Interpretation of Igbo Proverbs in Contrasting Opposition

Abstract

Proverbs in contrasting opposition are antithetical proverbs in which one proverb says something from one perspective and another proverb of equal value counters it. This paper examined 15 out of a total of 50 Igbo proverbs collected for the study, by providing their semantic and pragmatic interpretations. The aim is to highlight the fact that there are always two sides to the same coin when it comes to Igbo proverbs. The data were drawn from Igbo language consultants and complemented by interviews, library sources, participant’s observations and native speaker intuition. The data were presented in lucid tabular format of two broad columns, A and B. The Relevance Theory (Sperber & Wilson, 2002), used within cognitive linguistics and pragmatics, was adopted in the analysis and discussions. It states that a speaker’s every utterance conveys enough relevant information for it to be worth the addressee’s efforts to process the meaning of an utterance. The results show that proverbs in contrasting relationships are not as popular as the regular ones. Igbo proverbs are culture-specific and since each culture has its unique features, they do not have direct English equivalents. This study provides readers with useful information about Igbo people’s worldviews as embedded in their proverbs. It contributes to efforts being made to develop and preserve the Igbo language through research and documentation of its different aspects. The paper recommends that children be taught their language and culture through the use of proverbs.