The Syntax of Yoruba Proverbs

Abstract

Yorubá people relish in interspersing their utterances with proverbs . Hardly can a typical Yorubá man or woman utter three sentences without putting in a proverb. Hence, Yorubá say: 'Òwelẹṣinọ̀rọ̀,ọ̀rọ̀ lẹṣinòwe, bọ́rọ̀ bá sọnu, oẁe la fi ń wa' translated to mean that 'proverb is the vehicle through which issues are resolved' . However, Yorubá proverbs are not just strung together haphazardly; they follow some particular syntactic rules of the grammar of the language. These syntactic rules give some aesthetic values to proverbs usage in the languge. This paper is set to discuss the various syntactic forms that many of the Yoru bá proverbs manifest. We also look at the implication of the syntactic rules upon which these proverbs are hinged and how these rules are applied to structures to conform to the wellformedness condition of Yoru bá grammatical sentences.