Abstract
This paper takes a look at the use of African traditional proverbs and idioms in literary text. The focus of the paper is to conduct a critical linguistic study of selected Hausa proverbs and idioms in Aliyu Kamal’s fictional text “The Imam of the Corner Mosque’’ with the quest of unveiling their functions and meaning in the text, and to uncover the linguistic means they were expressed and utilized to fit into the context of communication. Employing Fowler et al’s (1979/1985) theory of critical linguistics, fifteen Excerpts containing (20) proverbs and idioms were purposively sampled and analyzed through content analysis method by identification, translation and interpretation to decode their meaning and functions. The study concludes that the proverbs were portrayed to serve different purpose such as warning, reminder, advice, correction, praise, teaching, joke, deceit, indictment, and condemnation; which were portrayed through different modes of representation which assists in pointing out some of the cultural and religious traits of the society. The research also contributes in translation and interpretation studies as it provides a guide to students and learners towards understanding the meaning and functions of certain idioms and proverbs.
Keywords: Critical linguistics, linguistic choices, idioms, proverbs, culture.
DOI: www.doi.org/10.36349/sojolics.2025.v01i03.023
author/Halima Lawal
journal/Sokoto JOLICS 1(3) | December 2025 |
