TY - JOUR AU - Christopher E., Nwabudike, PY - 2020/07/01 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Proverbs in Ola Rotimi’s The Gods Are Not To Blame JF - Journal of The Linguistic Association of Nigeria JA - JOLAN VL - 23 IS - 1 SE - Articles DO - UR - https://jolan.com.ng/index.php/home/article/view/267 SP - 139 - 147 AB - <p>This paper examined the sociolinguistics of the proverbs in Ola Rotimi’s <em>The Gods Are Not to Blame</em>.&nbsp;Proverbs form a notable part of both spoken and written discourse in real-life and literary situations. In&nbsp;the Yoruba speech community of Nigeria to which Ola Rotimi belongs and in which the play is set,&nbsp;proverbs are considered as multifunctional and flexible instruments of communication. They are&nbsp;employed to reflect social relationships and for performing routine communicative activities. These&nbsp;proverbs reveal the values of good conduct, respect for elders, the place of royalty, cordiality and&nbsp;cooperation for peaceful co-existence. Though some studies have been carried out on the use of&nbsp;proverbs in literary texts, the sociolinguistics of proverbs in this popular play by Ola Rotimi had not&nbsp;been explored as this paper sets out to do. The study adopted the historical-descriptive design. Data for&nbsp;the study were analysed using Dell Hymes’ Ethnographic acronym, “S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G” to show the&nbsp;nature or gender, age, class and contextual dynamics in the use of proverbs in the play. The study shows&nbsp;that there is male dominance in the use of proverbs; elders and leaders are more disposed to proverbial&nbsp;expressions than young and common individuals and proverbs are conditioned by the circumstances of&nbsp;their users. The researcher recommends that the study of African proverbs be introduced into the school&nbsp;curriculum to help growing children appreciate their culture and those of other people and avail&nbsp;themselves of the moral lessons that proverbs offer.</p> ER -