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AMBIGUITY IN THE USE OF PROVERBS: A CASE STUDY OF SELECTED LUGANDA PROVERBS

In this dissertation which aims at establishing different ambiguous aspects in Luganda proverbs and assessing the role of the ambiguity of the proverb to the interpretation and contextual use of the proverbs, it shall be noted that that proverbs are not created by the folk but rather by an individual. Someone at some time and somewhere couches a general observation, behaviour, or experience into a short complete sentence that subsequently is picked up by others who might well change the wording slightly resulting in a number of variants until a standard formulation result. Lord John Russell said it best, when he defined a proverb as One man’s wit, and all men’s wisdom that in itself has become proverbial as The wit of one and the wisdom of many (Taylor, 1975: 68). It shall be noted that proverbs are a part of a wider oral literature of a society which include oral narratives like: myths, legends, folktales and fables; short formulaic forms like: proverbs, riddles, tongue twisters, and similes; poetic forms like: epics, lullabies, children’s rhymes, recitations, popular poetry, festive songs, popular songs and several other forms.(Abasi Kiyimba (2014, p8). Language can lead to many ambiguous utterances. A mere word or a phrase may, in its relationship to other words or phrases, force a reader or listener to attempt to construe its meaning in more than one way. (Maria Kadlub, 2017, p,44) in the study, the different forms of ambiguity in Luganda proverbs, I came in agreement with Lina Bikeliene that linguistic ambiguity could be discerned in five main types: phonological, morphological, lexical, syntactic, and contextual ambiguities. (Lina Bikelienė , 2017, p101). The study also notes the key roles of ambiguity in the language as per selected Luganda proverbs as cultural differentiation, Rich imagination and esthetic effect, multiplicity of interpretation, Flexibility in language and interpretation, and moral value.

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Author: namugenyi rose mary
Contributed by: asbat digital library
Institution: makerere university
Level: university
Sublevel: under-graduate
Type: dissertations