PROVERBS IN FRENCH AND YORUBA LANGUAGES: POINTS OF CONVERGENCE AND DIVERGENCE

• Eunice Modupe FABIYI Ph.D.

  Adeyemi Federal University of Education

  Author

Abstract

Proverbs are simple and insightful traditional sayings that express perceived truths based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are special, fixed, unchanged phrases which have special, fixed and unchanged meanings. They are collective wisdom of a society and thus contain much that must be known and constantly remembered. One major way to facilitate learning and internalization of events is through creation of imageries in spoken words and these are found in proverbs. They are often metaphorical and use formulaic language. Proverbs are very important aspects of any given language, be it foreign or indigenous. They are colourful expressions that add beauty to any given conversation. The importance and functions of proverbs cannot be over-emphasized. This, on one hand will be our focus on this paper and on the other hand, we shall consider the areas of differences in the two languages (French and Yorùbá). Since proverbs are metaphorically motivated, the paper therefore hinges on conceptual metaphor theory in Cognitive Linguistics. The theory postulates that human thought processes are largely metaphorical, and human conceptual system is structured and defined in a metaphorical way. Findings revealed that proverbs in the two languages (French and Yorùbá).  may be used to express similar realities but with different words pattern.

• PDF