A Discourse Analysis of Igbo Proverbs of Encouragement

Abstract

Proverbs are part and parcel of oral literature, orature, for short. There is no speech community that has not its proverbs as its heritage. In each community, we find uniqueness of proverbs in its subcultures, in what we may call regional and dialectal areas. In the Igbo language we notice a more complex diversity of proverbs in the regional and dialectal areas of the Igbo people. Proverbs of all land and clime hinge on cosmic laws. Put differently, proverbs of a people embody universal truths that unveil absolute truths. Thus, proverbs are pedagogic as they enrich and embellish discourse. In this essay, attention focuses on discourse analysis of Igbo proverbs of encouragement. In other words, it beams searchlight on the impact of proverbs of encouragement to individuals engaged in pursuit of purposeful endeavours that are beneficial to the individuals and society. Even though discourse studies may have been conducted on Igbo proverbs of encouragement; however, this essay is unaware of any study that has investigated Igbo proverbs of encouragement in the manner and style it is done in this inquiry. The study has used the Inferential Model linguistic theory; while we base the study through explication of existing literature.