Timothy Adeyemi Akanbi

Research

The Syntax of Yoruba Proverbs

Article September 2, 2015

Yorùbá people relish in interspersing their utterances with proverbs. Hardly can a typical Yorùbá man or woman utter three sentences without putting in a proverb. Hence, Yorùbá say: ‘Òwelẹṣinọ̀ rọ̀ ,ọ̀ rọ̀ lẹṣinòwe, bọ́ rọ̀ bá sọnù, òwe la fi n ́ wa’ translated to mean that ‘proverb is the vehicle through which issues are resolved. However, Yoruba proverbs are not just strung together haphazardly; they follow some particular syntactic rules of the grammar of the language. These syntactic rules give some aesthetic values to proverbs usage in the languge. This paper is set to discuss the various syntactic forms that many of the Yorùbá proverbs manifest. We also look at the implication of the syntactic rules upon which these proverbs are hinged and how these rules are applied to structures to conform to the wellformedness condition of Yoruba grammatical sentences

Shortcut in Communication: A Case of Aroko in Information and Communications Techonology (ICT)

Article November 6, 2014

Scholars have always discussed Àrokò in relation to the use of symbols, signs and material objects. These include salt, snail shells, horse tales, sword or cutlass, and gun, among others. Each of these symbols has its own interpretation. This present paper looks beyond the aforementioned symbols. While such symbols have to do with Yorùbá cultural way of communication, this paper discusses Àrokò in relation to Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Àrokò as one of the Yorùbá cultural ways of communication is encapsulated in symbols and signs. This cultural practice is a branch of Semiotics studied within the purview of Linguistic Anthropology. However, we are going to show in this paper that Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has brought into being new forms of Àrokò which have made the old ones to give way to the modern ones. And that these modern ones which is the focus of this paper arerelated to the use of Global System of Mobile Communications (GSM) and are prevalent among the youth.