A SOCIOLINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF PROVERBS IN ADIMORA- EZEIGBO’ S TRAFFICKED

ABSTRACT

Language is learned, shared, and it is an arbitrary system of vocal symbols through which human beings in the same speech community or     sub-culture interact and hence communicate in terms of their common experience and expectations. Sociolinguistics is the study of any or all aspects of the society, including cultural norms, values, and beliefs. This research set out to carry out a sociolinguistic analysis of the proverbs in Adimora- Ezeigbo’s Trafficked. The sociolinguistic analysis of the selected proverb was carried out by using the Dell Hymes’ Ethnographic acronym model. The research found out that the settings, participants, ends, act sequence, key, instrumentality, norms, and genres allow for a comprehensive understanding of the data. It was also found out that in analyzing the proverbs, transfer of lexemes of other languages cannot be avoided due to non-availability of their translations in the English language. From these findings, the study submitted that sociolinguistics is a veritable tool in the analyzing and understanding of oral traditions to people of various cultures.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title pagei

Certificationii

Dedicationiii

Acknowledgementsiv

Abstractv

Table of contentsvi

Chapter One: 

GENERAL INTRODUCTION 

1.1Introduction1

1.2Aims of the study2

1.3Justification3

1.4Scope of the study4

1.5Methodology4

1.6Data Description5

1.7The Author: Adimora- Ezeigbo5

LITERATURE REVIEW 

2.0 Introduction6

2.1 The concept of Sociolinguistics6

2.2 Sociolinguistic Theories9

2.2.1 Language Ideology10

2.2.2 Basil Bernstein’s Sociolinguistic Theory of Language Codes11

2.2.3 The Sapir- Whorf Language Hypothesis12

2.2.4 Dell Hathaway Hymes’ ‘Ethnography Theory’14

2.2.4.1 Hymes’  “SPEAKING” Model15

2.3 Social Variables18

2.4 Diglossia18

2.5 Bilingualism and Multilingualism19

2.6 Speech Communities20

2.7 Taboo and Euphemisms21

2.8 Code Mixing and Code switching22

2.9 The Igbo Tradition in the Nigerian novel23

INTRODUCTION                                                            

Language is both an individual and a social possession. It is said to serve interactive and integrative functions. We would expect, therefore, that certain individuals would behave linguistically like other individuals; they might be said to speak the same language or the same dialect or the same variety. Language is what the members of a particular society speak. When two or more people communicate with each other in speech, we can call the system of communication a code. In most cases, that code will be something we may also want to call “a language”.                                                                             

Every culture codifies its values in its own language. Through systems of myths, anecdotes, stories, proverbs and others, values are defined and good-bad differentiations are specified. More formal systems are also evolved and are represented by ethical codes and religious institutions. Communication, including communication through language, can be classified into different modes. That aspect of communication in which comment on behaviour, that is to say, which modifies or makes some definitions of other behaviours, is called “meta-communication” and the aggregate of its forms “meta-systems”. Meta-systems are the carriers of values and as an individual in any culture develops, he learns sets of meta-systems. In this way, the culture passes along its values systems and continuity in the values of the culture is thereby maintained. (Alger, 1970, p. 51).

       Sociolinguistics is concerned with investigating the relationship between language and the society with the goal being a better understanding of the structure of language and of how language functions in communication. The equivalent goal in the sociology of language is trying to discover how social structures can be better understood through the study of language.

       As observed generally, the use of proverbs, other folklores and songs are dwindling amongst cultures in our day-to-day interaction and even literary works as observed in the 90s. Research works on sociolinguistics will help bring back the cultural values of story- telling, parables, riddles, folklore and so on.