Pragmatic semantics and chichewa proverbs

pp. 17-31

in: Grivas Muchineripi Kayange, Meaning and truth in African philosophy, Berlin, Springer, 2018

Abstract

This chapter investigates the semantics of Chichewa proverbs using insights from contemporary philosophy of language. It is argued that the structure of different proverbs reveal a great deal of metaphorical conceptualisation from the literal and non-literal source domains to a targeted context of use. It is further argued that, using the use-theorists approach, utterance-use meaning is a consequence of the intention of the creator of a proverb, the speaker's intention and the hearer's recognition of the speaker's intention in a particular context. The use of proverbs, suggests that they are a special type of speech acts that are used in communication.