POLITENESS AND IMPOLITENESS IN THE USE OF IGBO PROVERBS

Abstract

Proverbs, being integral to the communication practices of the Igbo people, are aptly described as the palm oil with which words are eaten. The position of proverbs in the communicative practices of the Igbo people has attracted diverse studies with varied orientations, stylistic, semantic, sociolinguistic, pragmatic, etc. This study further promotes the strategic position and function of proverbs in Igbo by focusing on their expressional values for politeness and impoliteness in typical interactions in the Igbo language. Guided by the theoretical frameworks of Brown and Levinson (1987) and Culpeper (2011), the analysis identifies and illustrates how Igbo proverbs are employed to realise politeness and impoliteness strategies as conceptualised in the respective models. The data for this study are drawn from two selected Igbo novels, Onye kpaa nkụ ahụhụ and Enyi mere enyi ya, as the interactions in the novels represent typical real-time and Igbo-based context interactions. The result shows that Igbo proverbs apply to the strategies as identified by the theories, which are bald-on-record politeness, positive politeness, negative politeness, off-record (indirect) politeness, bald-on-record impoliteness, positive impoliteness, negative impoliteness, sarcasm, or mock politeness, and withholding politeness. Additionally, it recognises the possibility of categorising Igbo proverbs according to these strategies and the capacity to convey politeness and impoliteness, reflecting their face-saving and face-threatening features in the various discourses highlighted in this study.