CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1  Background to the Study

Proverbsare used with politeness strategies to embellish conversation among people in different cultures and communities. Their relevance in the society is powerful because they facilitate communication.Proverbs contain wisesayings that offer advice in different situations using politeness strategies. They are often traditional, metaphorical and restate a philosophical reality of life. Fasikuas cited in Rumide (2013:138) observes that proverbs which are a reflection of total world view of a people, evolved with the growth and development of the society.Proverbs are wordsof wisdom that guide man’s footsteps in the complexity of life.According to Surakat (2000:138), proverbs appear in different ways. That is,a proverb can have varied or diverse meanings and perform different functions in different contexts. To Rumide (2013:137), ‘usage of proverbs is a universal phenomenon designed to achieve some goals that are related to societal cohesion'.They are usedin a discourse to pass weighty, hard hitting messages in a polite way rather than in a nasty manner.

Proverbs are meant in the main to teach and guide people in relating with others using politeness strategies. It is very important to be polite when using proverbs because effective communication via polite words has positive impact on people’s lives. Naturally, proverbs cannot be expressed in a blunt manner and so, one needs to be polite in the use of proverbs and politeness needs to be implemented in language use in general and proverbs in particular. According to Brown and Levinson (1987:66), people use politeness strategies to help preserve one another's face needs so as to avoid face threatening act. The 'face' is an expression shown on one's public self-image. It is the public self-image that everyone tries to protect. Brown and Levinson (1987) sum up human politeness strategies in four (4) ways which are: Bald on-record which uses direct language, Positive politeness strategy which is somewhat direct, Negative politeness strategy which is somewhat indirect and last but not least Off-record (indirect) strategy which uses indirect language.

These politeness strategies are used in proverbs in a way that will give someone a sense of belonging. When proverbs are used in any interaction, it is always best to apply politeness strategies so that offences, disagreements, unfriendliness will be less likely. The hearts of many people can be won through politeness. The path to a successful life comes through the stairs of politeness. An act of politeness can do wonders for somebody that no monetary thing can do. Politeness is one of the important characters of a civilised person. It can help avoid unproductive arguments, disagreements that may damage personal relationships.Politenessstrategies are relevant to this study because they are used in Yoruba proverbs to avoid swear words which could be shocking or rude. This work, therefore, seeks to examine the presence of politeness strategies in selected Yoruba proverbs and how these strategies are manifested.

1.2    Statement of the Research Problem

According to Delano (1983:ix), it is importantto make use of proverbs in Yoruba discourse. Appropriate and correct usage of proverbs is important in Yoruba life. This is because proverbs embellish or give more weight to utterances.Proverbs occur in everyday conversation and so they should be used correctly and appropriately to avoidcommunication misunderstanding. Proverbs are used differently in different contexts.It is unfortunate that some of the Yoruba native speakers especially the young (in the18-30 age range) misuse proverbs because of their inability to relate them to contexts.Some of their proverbs lack originality because they change the proverbs to suit the contemporary time. The cause of this problem is modern civilization.Some Yoruba proverbs have withered away at the exposure of modernization and so, the younger generation know little or nothing about proverbs.

Some of the youths don’t understand proverbs because they don’t use Yoruba language for communication; some are bilingual in English language and Yoruba language, as a result, they gradually shift allegiance to English language and they cease to use their original language. Also, politeness strategies, which are needed in interaction in general and proverbs in particular, are either misused or not used at all. This is caused either by virtue of inexperience or negative influence of Western education.In addition, much of the works done on Yoruba proverbs studies have been mostly on pragmatic analysis of Yoruba proverbs. Proverbs have been theoretically analysed by reputable studies including perspectives from ethnographers, anthropologists, historians, philosophers,sociologists, psychologists and linguists like (Lawal, 1997; Bamgbose, 1981; Delano, 1983; Olatunji, 2005; Osoba, 2014) and othershave discussed proverbs as a key to good communication because proverbs add flavour to any conversation. 

They are silent on theuse of politeness strategies in Yoruba proverbs.It is in response to this challenge that this research attempts to investigate the politeness strategies in selected Yoruba proverbs. This study will help the Yoruba native speakers especially the younger ones to upgrade their understanding in the use of Yoruba proverbs and politeness strategiesand how they are used in Yoruba proverbs.It will also open the minds of the Yoruba native speakers especially the youngto the relevance of bald on-record politeness strategy, positive politeness strategy, negative politeness strategy and off- record (indirect) strategy in the use of language in general and proverbsin particular. This study will employ these politeness strategies in the analysis of the Yoruba proverbs selected so that the younger generation will be well informed about politeness.

1.3 Research Questions

This study seeks to answer the following research questions:                                                                               

i.              How are bald on-record politeness strategy, positive politeness strategy, negative politeness strategy and off-record (indirect) strategyusedinYoruba proverbs? 

ii.             To what extent are these politeness strategies relevant in Pragmatics?

iii.           How do these politeness strategies relate to Yoruba proverbs? iv. What are the importanceof the politeness strategies to Yoruba proverbs?

1.4Aim and Objectives

It is the aim of this studyto examine the pragmatic politeness strategies of selected Yoruba proverbs and their use based on Austin’s(1962) aspects of Speech Act Theory and Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness strategies. In view of this, the specific objectives are to:                                                                                                                                                      

i. investigate the extent to which bald on-record politeness strategy, positive politeness strategy, negative politeness strategyand off record indirect strategy are used in Yoruba proverbs; ii. investigate the extent to which these politeness strategies are relevant in

Pragmatics;  iii.     analyse how politeness strategies  relate to Yoruba proverbs; iv.    analyse the importance of politeness strategies to Yoruba proverbs. 

1.5   Justification for the Study

Proverbs are vital elements which add value or beauty to a discourse.Manyresearchers have discussed proverbs. A large concentration of studies has been carried out on the analysis of Yoruba proverbs. In comparison to the works of Odujinrin(1979), Delano (1983), Lawal (1997), Olatunji (2005), Fasiku (2006), Asiyanbola (2007), Sotunde (2009), Omoloso (2012), Osoba (2014), little or no research has been done on the pragmatic analysis of politeness in Yoruba proverbs. They do not emphasise politeness in their works. This research is therefore justified in that it attempts to investigate a pragmatic analysis of politeness in selected Yoruba proverbs. This study will help scholarsin similar fields such as anthropologists to have abetter understanding of politeness strategies in the use of proverbs because they see proverbs as fossils to utilize in the reconstruction of the long buried past.

It willhelp philosophers, ethnographers, historians, sociologists and psychologists because proverbs are better means of communication among people in different cultures. They include the totality of Philosophy, Ethnography, History, Sociology and Psychology of a given society. It will also help linguists because proverbs are major linguistic repertoire of the Yoruba people which are passed from generation to generation. This study will enlighten these scholars on the use of politeness strategies in Yoruba proverbs. It will constantly update their understanding of the use of politeness strategies in their use of language in general and proverbs in particular.          

1.6         Delimitation of the Study

The focus of this study is a pragmatic analysis of politeness strategiesin selected Yoruba proverbs. This research attempts to show how Yoruba proverbs are used using politeness strategies.Proverbs exhibit their linguistic proficiency by using them appropriately whenever the need be.Proverbs’syntactic formulae are limited. In proverbs, structural deviations are frequent whereas morphological and phonological deviations are minimal. Every language has its own proverbs.According to Omoloso (2012:1), comprehending the meanings of (Yoruba) proverbs is not what structural Semantics can deal with because the messages are not to be taken at their face value and the lessons take more than a passing judgement. To contextualize and decode the meaning of (Yoruba) language, a user needs a sound grounding in the linguistic, sociological, social, psychological, cosmological, etc. the backgrounds of the users of the particular language.

To Bamgboseas cited in Olatunji (2005:177), the sentence patterns observable in Yoruba proverbs which are simple, complex, sequential and parallel sentences. This study covers fifty Yoruba proverbs using politeness strategies. The fifty proverbs were selected based on five themes used in the analysis of the work. Out of all the themes which form the basis of literary forms which are good/evil, justice, freedom, love and others, this study limits its coverage on the theme of caution/advice, hard work/laziness, wisdom/foolishness, truth/untruth, and decency/indecency. The researcher selects only fifty proverbs based on the five themes in the works of Delano (1983), Lawal(1992), Olatunji (2005), Sotunde (2009), Owokunle (2012) and Rumide (2013). The study considers the four politeness strategies summed up by Brown and Levinson (1987) which are bald on record, negative, positive and off record indirect politeness strategies. The study will not cover other politeness strategies and other themes which form the basis of literary forms.   

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