A socio-pragmatic analysis of idiomatic expressions in icibemba.
Date
2019
Authors
Chanda, Edward
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
The University of Zambia
Abstract
This dissertation is a Socio-Pragmatic exploration of the research that was conducted in Mpika District of Zambia. It focuses on how social factors such as age, gender, wealth, education level, relationships as well as cultural norms affect the use of idiomatic expressions. The study goes further to probe those factors which are situational and may not be repeated at any other given moment but can momentarily affect the use of idiomatic expressions. Taking the aforementioned factors into consideration, the research explored discourse surrounding the use of idiomatic expressions. The research was qualitative in nature, and the researcher purposefully selected 12 informants. Among these were six (6) experienced secondary school teachers of Icibemba from different schools, three (3) ordinary people who are fluent speakers of Icibemba two (2) chief’s advisors and one (1) Licentiate Medical Officer. All these informants were interviewed on a one to one basis. The interviews were guided by a semi structured interview schedule which the researcher prepared. The rest of the information was collected through observation and introspection because the researcher is a native speaker of Icibemba. The data analysis was informed by Austin’s (1962) Speech Act Theory, Brown and Levinson’s (1987) Face and Politeness Theory and Grice’s (1975) Conversation Implicature. The study identified common idiomatic expressions used in the sampled area and established that they are not used haphazardly but are used in line with local conditions. These are conditions which are socially and culturally reflective. It was also established that the Bemba people use idioms to hide information, to show politeness, to express anger, love and many other attributes. It was also discovered that in the courts of law, there is limited use of idioms due to the ambiguity they (idioms) may bring about. Lastly the study makes the following recommendations to policy makers and people who may want to carry out a similar study: These being that the Ministry of Education should encourage publication of books about figurative language. This will equip learners with good command of Icibemba. On the other hand those who would want to research on idiomatic expressions can focus on those Idioms which are language specific and also investigate their origin or how they came about. To the best of the present researcher’s knowledge, no research has been carried out using such theories to analyze idioms in Icibemba. Thus, this study makes a positive theoretical and practical contribution to the body of knowledge in an area that is by and large unexploited.
Description
Thesis of Master of Arts in Linguistic Science.