Pragmatic Acts and Functions of Proverbs in Igbo Novels on Conflict
Abstract
This paper examines how proverbs drafted from body parts and animals are
deployed in literary discourse in a war/conflict context to perform specific acts
and functions. Drawing insights from Mey ' s (2001) Pragmatic Acts, the paper
argues that proverbs used in conflict context are ideological and perform
specific pragmatic acts and functions. Using purposively sampled proverbs from
Tony Ubesie ' stwo novels which focus on the Nigerian-Biafran war of 1967 €“
1970: namely, JuoObinna and Isi Akwu Dara N ' ala, the findings show that the
proverbs perform five pragmatic functions of advising, warning, inciting,
criticizing and harmonizing for peace. While the animal-based proverbs
perform directive acts of warning, criticizing and inciting violence, the body
parts-related proverbs perform representational acts of advising and
harmonizing for peace. All acts perform two-fold functions of escalating and
deescalating the tensed conflict situation. The study concludes that proverbs
used in conflicts need to be carefully deployed to aid peaceful resolutions of
conflict
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