Investigating the Pragmatic Functions of Nigerian English-Based Proverbs: A Corpus-Driven Method

This article explores the use of Nigerian English-based proverbs, with a view to accounting for the situational contexts in which they occur and their pragmatic roles in Nigerian English online interactions, through the theories of postcolonial pragmatics and pragmatic acts. Using a corpus-driven method, the article examines 198 proverbs that were obtained from the Nigerian component of the Global Web-based English corpus through three sets of paremiological introductory formulas: adage, x + saying (a saying, the saying, wise/old saying), and x + say/said (they say/said, elders say/said, it is said). The results show that the proverbs occur in diverse situational contexts such as politics, history/culture and religion, and perform the pragmatic acts of evaluating, criticising, advising, warning, clarifying/explaining, exemplifying and justifying. These proverbs contribute to the nativisation of Nigerian English.