A PRAGMATIC STUDY OF SELECTED PAIRS OF YORUBA PROVERBS

Proverbs represent the quintessence of a people's collective wisdom su stained and transmitted from generation to generation. Due to the poly morphous nature of the context and competence needed to be reactivated in interpreting them, they also provide insight into some of the grea test pragmatic constraints in language use. The purpose of this study was to identify the illucutionary acts performed through the use of tw elve Yoruba proverbs and then analyse the types of pragmatic context a nd competence which listeners have to invoke and deploy respectively t o interpret them appropriately, and to also resolve the overt contradi ction in each of the six selected pairs of proverbs. On the basis of t he findings, recommendations have been made towards a more pragmatic t eaching and testing of Yoruba proverbs in particular and of the langua ge as a whole.