Publications

Publication details [#11897]

Lawal, Adebayo, Bade Ajayi and Wumi Raji. 1997. A Pragmatic Study of Selected Pairs of Yoruba Proverbs. Journal of Pragmatics 27 (5) : 635–652. 18 pp.

Publication type

Article in journal

Publication language

English

Keywords

context dependence | illocutionary act | illocutionary force | inference system

Language as a subject

Yoruba

Place, Publisher

Elsevier

ISBN

0378-2166

Journal WWW

www.sciencedirect.com/web-editions

Annotation

The investigation of contradictory pairs of Yoruba proverbs identified direct (assertive and commissive) and indirect illocutionary force. It is claimed that an intricate system of context-dependent inferences is necessary for proverbs to be understood.