Journal of Pragmatics 178 (2021) 192e207 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Pragmatics journal homepage: www.elsevier .com/locate/pragma Cultural values and the pragmatic significance of proverbial sayings in Tafi and Ewe Mercy Bobuafor 1 Department of Linguistics, School of Languages, College of Humanities, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Available online 14 April 2021 Keywords: Proverbs Cultural values Proverb performance Tafi Ewe E-mail address: mercybobuafor@gmail.com. 1 Postal Address: University of Ghana, Departmen 2 The impression one gets from the literature is t genre is not found in Khoisan languages and in som hunter-gatherer cultures. It is also reported that Aust proverb is widespread, but surprisingly missing amo https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2021.03.013 0378-2166/© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. a b s t r a c t Proverbs have cognitive and socio-cultural value. As tools for socialisation, proverbs are channels of shared moral and cultural values in communities of practice. The paper in- vestigates the functions of, and the cultural values embodied in selected proverbial sayings in Tafi, a Ghana-Togo Mountain language, and their counterparts in Ewe, a Gbe language. The analysis is based on a small corpus of proverbs gathered during immersion fieldwork among the Tafi, and relies on ethnographic and linguistic methods. The Ewe versions are extracted from proverb collections and from the equivalents provided by Tafi bilinguals. From a semantic and a pragmatic perspective, proverbs have both textual and indexical, context-dependent, meanings. I explore the textual semantics of some of the Tafi and Ewe proverbial sayings drawing on the semantic template for proverbs used in the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM). It is suggested that the semantic structure of proverbs comprises framing components of traditionality and of their status as folk wisdom, as well as components describing the message, namely, the recurrent situation that calls forth the proverb, the advice and the analogy in the proverb. The paper reveals that patterns of proverb performance are similar across the languages suggesting shared practices due to language and cultural contact in proverbial language use. © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction There is no shortage of literature on proverbs and their significance in various African societies (see e.g., Dzobo,1973; 1997; 2006; Yankah,1989a, b; �Skara, 1997; Appiah et al., 2007; Tsra, 2005, on the universality of the proverb).2 Various authors have pointed to their ubiquity and salience in interactional discourse and situations (e.g., Obeng, 1996; Hansford, 2003). Their rhetorical force and oratorical functions are represented in their characterization by Chinua Achebe in his novel Things Fall Apart as “the palm-oil with which words are eaten”. Proverbs are semantically ambiguous. As such they are viewed as one of the linguistic forms through which “indirection” is achieved in communication (see e.g., Schotmann, 1993; Obeng, 1994). Finnegan (2012: 405) also observes that proverbs are used in African societies “as an oblique and allusive way of commu- nication, as a form of expression with a certain educational relevance, as an artistic activity in its own right, or as all these at t of Linguistics, P. O. Box LG61, Legon, Accra, Ghana, West Africa. hat proverbs are universally found in all African linguacultures. This is an exaggeration as the speech e Nilotic languages, for example (see Finnegan, 2012). It appears that proverbs are rather absent in ralian Aboriginal languages also do not use proverbs (Yankah, 1999). As Yankah (1999: 205) put it: “The ng a few cultures including Australian Aborigines, American Indians, and Bushmen in Southern Africa.” mailto:mercybobuafor@gmail.com http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1016/j.pragma.2021.03.013&domain=pdf www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03782166 www.elsevier.com/locate/pragma https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2021.03.013 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2021.03.013 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2021.03.013 M. Bobuafor Journal of Pragmatics 178 (2021) 192e207 once”. The aesthetics of the proverbs is also acknowledged (cf. Yankah, 1989a). They are used and encountered in various genres such as songs and poetry, both traditional and modern forms such as pop-music, folktales as well as in slogans, sermons, advertising and in mass media productions. Knowledge and artful deployment of proverbs in social interaction is a mark of communicative competence in most African cultures. In interactional discourse, be it of the formal or informal type (cf. Irvine, 1979), proverbs are used to serve various illocu- tionary functions such as giving advice, persuading, rebuking, ridiculing or strengthening an argument etc. They are deployed in contexts of conflict resolution, and in arbitration as well as in public speeches, in announcing deaths and funerals etc. Proverbs are representations of a philosophy of a people, a rich source of cultural values; e.g. about gender relations (e.g., Schipper,2003ondepictionsofwomeninproverbsacross theworld;Aku-Sika,2016onEwe;Ezeifeka,2017onIgbo).EtaandMogu (2012)useproverbstoargueforepistemologyinAfricanphilosophy.Proverbsalsoserveasawindowonasociety.Awedoba(2000), for instance, studies theKasenasocietyofnorthernGhanaandBurkinaFaso throughKasemproverbs.Proverbscan thusbestudied to reveal the cultural preoccupations and social structure of a group, e.g., proverbs pertaining to social relations. Because of their high socio-cultural content, proverbs are a tool for socialization and for the transmission of traditional wisdom as well as the history and memory of the experiences uponwhich they are based (see Arewa and Dundes, 1964; and Penfield and Duru, 1988 on the use of proverbs in Igbo child socialization). As we shall see below, proverbs in Tafi and Ewe are not only used for the socialisation of children but they also relate to the regulation of social interaction norms of adults (see e.g. the discussion of the proverbs in (1) about emotional display). The significance of proverbs for all aspects of the life of a people cannot be overemphasized. This becomes even more pertinent in the context of endangered languages such as Tafi where some of the proverbs and underlying metaphors might be fading away, and shifts might be occurring (see the contributions in Idstr€om et al., 2012 and Piirainen and Sherris, 2015). Thegoalsof thispaperaretwo-fold:First, to investigatetheconceptualmeaning, functions,contextsofuseandculturalvalues of selectedproverbial sayings inTafi, anendangeredGhana-TogoMountain language, and their counterparts inEwe, adominant lingua franca in southeasternGhana. Second, to showthat in a language contact situation suchas theone involvingTafiandEwe, proverbialmessages come to be shared. I demonstrate that the Tafi proverbs analysed have counterparts in Ewe, the dominant lingua franca inTaficommunities.Giventhe intenseyetasymmetriccontactbetweenEweandTafiwherevirtuallyall speakersof Tafiarebilingual inTafiandEwe,but therearehardlyanyspeakersofEwethatuseTafi in theTaficommunity, it canbearguedthat the Tafi proverbs discussed in this paper are calqued from the Ewe ones. The reason for saying so is that the corresponding proverbs in the two languages are very similar in theirwording, their grammatical structure, their imagery and their functional contexts of application. As we shall see below, many of the proverbs in the two languages can be matched word for word. The study thus highlights the spread of proverbs as another form of routine expressions that come to be shared in a speech area (cf. Hymes,1968; and Ameka,1994, 2006). In the next section, I provide the language context introducing the Tafi people and their languageandthecontactwithEwe,aswellassometypological featuresofboth languages.Section3outlines theassumptions for the investigationof thesignificanceof theselectedproverbsandprovidesananalysisof thepairsofTafiandEweproverbsthatare counterparts pointing out the frames, messages and their status as part of folk wisdom. Section 4 draws attention to the co- construction of proverbs and Section 5 concludes the paper. 2. The language context The Tafi live at the foot of the Togo Hills in the Ghana-Togo borderland in the Volta region in four communities: Agɔme, M�adɔ, AbuiG�e and Atome. Their immediate neighbours are the Nyangbo (to the south) Avatime and Logba (to the east) and the Ewe to the west. The Tafi together with the Nyagbo, Logba and Avatime constitute the Southern Ghana-Togo Mountain (SGTM) Languages group (Ameka 2017). The Tafi are an agricultural people cultivating crops mainly for subsistence, but also some cash crops such as oil palm and cocoa. Their language and some cultural practices are highly endangered largely because there is a growing decrease in intergenerational transmission. Schooling, urbanisation, new religions and mixed marriages are endangering the transmission of Tafi language and lore. Speakers are highly multilingual and every Tafi speaker is bilingual in at least Tafi and Ewe (the dominant regional lan- guage). The variety of Ewe used in the community is Ewedomegbe (Inland Ewe) (Ansre, 2000) which is the variety also used in the Ewe examples. Ewe is the language of communication with their immediate neighbours and in commercial transactions in the market. It is also the language used in churches, especially the Ewe Bible and Ewe hymnals. Ewe is the medium used in health care centres in the Tafi area as well as in the neighbouring areas. Some speakers also have Akan and English in their repertoire. Tafi is not supported officially for use in the classroom. English is the official language and Ewe is taught as a school subject and is the medium of instruction for the first three years of primary school and in the kindergarten in the Tafi schools. Tafi is also not used in mass media, e.g., radio or television. The languages used on the regional radio station are English, Ewe and Akan. The same languages are also available on the television in the Tafi area. In addition, though Tafi is spoken at home, most children speak Ewe in school and this is because they have to interact with other children who are not Tafi speakers (cf. Dorvlo, 2014). Contact with these languages has had an effect on the language itself as well as the linguistic practices of the speakers. Some forms of language used in Tafi speech, for example, some appelations for chiefs, are in Akan, while some dirges used at funerals are in Akan or Ewe. Speakers tend to code-mix a lot such that Tafi has a lot of borrowings from Ewe, Akan, and English. As we shall discuss below, some proverbs used by the Tafi seem to be based on the same imagery and the kind of recurrent experiential situation as well as being expressed in equivalent surface linguistic forms. Are such parallel expressions due to genetic inheritance or are they contact-induced? Due to the intense yet asymmetric contact 193 M. Bobuafor Journal of Pragmatics 178 (2021) 192e207 between Ewe and Tafi, and the pervasive use of Ewe by the Tafi, one cannot rule out the contact process of loan translation which may be playing a role with respect to the proverbs. TheTafidataarebasedona small corpusof proverbs collectedduringvariousperiodsof immersionfieldwork since2007 in the Tafi area. The interpretations are derived from interviewsessions, observed languageuse andpractices and thedeploymentof the proverbs in folktale narrations. The English renditions of the Tafi proverbs discussed in the paper are provided by a principal researchparticipant,Mr.NelsonAgbleywhoisaretiredsecondaryschoolFrenchteacher.Togivevoice tothecommunitymember, I have not modified the translations offered nor tried to align themwith those of the Ewe proverbs. For Ewe, I consulted the col- lectionsofproverbsbyDzobo(1973,1997, 2006) andTsra (2005). I also reliedonmy “insider”knowledgeofEweculture andnative intuitions about the language. Unless otherwise stated, the interlinear and free translations of the Ewe proverbs are mine. Before turning to the analysis of the proverbs, I want to draw attention to some typological features of Ewe (see e.g., Ameka, 2001)andTafi (seeBobuafor, 2013:8e10). Both languagesbelong todifferent subgroupsof theKwa (NigereCongo) family. Tafi is a Ka-GTM language while Ewe is a Gbe language. From the point of view of typological features, the two languages have some similarities and differences. Tafihas a nine-vowel systemwith root-controlled Advanced Tongue Root (ATR) vowel harmony, as well as labial harmony triggeredby the secondpersonpronounwhichhasa roundedvowel. Ewe, on theotherhand,has a seven- vowel system with mid vowels undergoing different height assimilation processes. In the Tafi examples we thus see high unadvanced ATR vowels ɩ and ʊ. Both languages are tone languages with Ewe having a two toneme system. In the linguistic orthography employed in the Ewe examples, the high tones are marked with an acute accent ( '). Rising and falling tones are phoneticallyderived.Tafi, bycontrast,has threecontrasting level tonesandcontrasting fallingandrising tones. Inaddition tothe high tonesmarkedwith the acute accent, themid tones are alsomarkedwith themacron ( �). The low tones are left unmarked. Tafi has an active noun class system with five singular and four plural classes as well as a non-count class. There is agreement between the noun head and some modifiers in the noun phrase: numerals and demonstratives. Subjects are also cross-referenced on the verb signaling agreement. This gives rise to an agglutinative with fusional morphology. By contrast, Ewe is an isolating language with some agglutination in derivational morphology. Both languages are SV and AVO languages. In double object constructions, the Dative argument occurs only in the immediate post-verbal position in Tafi. In Ewe, on the other hand, the Dative argument can occur before or after the Object argument. Both languages have two classes of adpositions. Tafi has two prepositions, a general locative and a comitative preposition, and a number of postpositions that denote spatial parts and regions anchored to entities. Ewe has about half a dozen prepositions including locative and comitative ones, as well as two dozen or so postpositions. Impersonal constructions, as we shall see in example (1), are expressed by 3PL pronoun subject constructions in both languages. Both languages have serial verb constructions (SVC) although they differ in how the subject is marked on the verbs. In Tafi, the subject in an SVC is expressed once and cross-referenced on the subsequent verbs by agreement markers. In Ewe, the subject is expressed only once on the first verb in the series. Both languages have information structure constructions with distinct slots in the left periphery for frame topics, contrastive topics and focus, marked by particles, some of which are areal particles such as the exclusive particle ko ‘only’ as we shall see in some of the proverbs. 3. The significance and analysis of proverbs As indicated above, proverbs are used in most African cultures. Many languages have terms for them that distinguish them fromother speech genres or forms of verbal art. For the Tafi, the term for proverbs is akpalɩ. This term is distinct from the one for folktale,which isɔdzɩdzɩ. TheTafi termfor riddles isadzyo. Even though the termforproverbs and folktales seemtobe indigenous Tafi terms, the riddle termis aborrowing fromEwe: the termfor riddle inEwe isadzyo. TheEwe termfor folktale isgli, andthat for proverb is l�od�od�o. This is a nominalization of the delocutive verb phrase d�o l�o ‘say/tell a proverb’. Anyidoho (1997: 131) suggests that there is a special Ewe proverbial form abebúbúwhich “is generally used only by themost skilled orators, mainly because it requires not only wisdom but superb verbal creativity”. In fact, abebúbú is a nominalization also of the borrowed verb phrase bú abe literally, ‘break proverb’, from Akan. It is not surprising that it has been specialized for a particular type of proverbial form. The significance of proverbs is usually talked about in terms of three components or levels (see e.g. Nwoga, 1975): (i) the textual or literal meaning, i.e that which is the surface form. This form can point to the imagery or analogy. (ii) the symbolic or generalised moral and cultural principle that is embodied in the proverb, and (iii) the contextual meaning. This last component relates to issues of pragmatic contextualisation, interdiscursive indexicality as well as the usage rules that govern its appropriate deployment in discourse (cf. Barber,1999). These elements constitute the understandings of the significance of proverbs, and as White (1987: 152, cited in Goddard and Wierzbicka, 2014ː185) observed with respect to English proverbs, ʻʻcertain key understandings make up a kind of kernel of proverb meaning, even though such meanings may be shifted or elaborated in particular contexts of useʼʼ. The key understandings that make up the ʻkernel of the meaningʼ of a proverb, as White puts it, is what we are concernedwith. This kernel, I suggest, is roughly what Goddard andWierzbicka (2014ː 190) refer to as the content of the proverb which is made up of the recurrent situation that underlies the proverb, the proverbial advice and the proverbial analogy. These features make it possible for the proverb to be applied in particular contexts. In explaining the proverbs, I adopt the semantic template for proverbmeanings in theNatural SemanticMetalanguage (NSM) framework (GoddardandWierzbicka, 2014:190). Ithasamaximalfive-part componential structure, twoofwhichareconstant for allproverbs:ThefirstcomponentspellsoutthegenusoftheproverbandistermedTraditionality.Thiscomponent indicatesthatthe proverb isconstitutedofmoreor lessafixedsetofwordswhichhavebeenroutinelyused fora longtime.The lastcomponentwhich is also constant for all proverbs is that which spells out their status as folk wisdom. The first and the last component are what 194 M. Bobuafor Journal of Pragmatics 178 (2021) 192e207 Goddard andWierzbicka call the framing components (see Fig.1). The remaining three components of the semantic template are kernelof theunderstandingsof theproverbs (mentionedabove).Theseare (i) the recurrent situation, i.e., thesituationuponwhich the proverb is based, (2) the proverbial advice and (3) the proverbial analogy. Somemaxim-like proverbs such as the Tafi proverb kepi ko kepi ‘Home only home’ discussed below lack the analogy component. Fig. 1. Structure of semantic template for proverb meanings (see Goddard and Wierzbicka, 2014:190). For the description of the meanings of the proverbs I use Minimal English as developed by Goddard and Wierzbicka (Wierzbicka, 2014; Goddard, 2018). They characterise Minimal English as a language “for the elucidation of ideas and ex- planations of meanings-not only in scholarship but also in international relations, politics, ethics…, and in any context where it is important to explain precisely what one means.” (Goddard and Wierzbicka, 2018: 8e9). Minimal Englishhas a restrictedvocabularymadeupof (i) 65 semanticprimes-words that are considered tohave translation equivalents in all languages, including actionwords such as “do”, and “say”, timewords such as “before” and “after”, words for logical concepts such as “not”, “because”, “if” and “maybe”, and words that describe qualities such as “good” and “bad”. These words cannot be further explicated by using other words to define them. (ii) semantically complex words called semantic molecules that appear to have translations inmany languages, butmay not be universal, such as “men”, “women”, “sun”, “sky”, “teeth”, “hard”, and “hands”. These are useful building blocks for other concepts. (iii) non-universal but useful words that are important in a local context and refer to concrete things and for the Ghanaian context can bewords like “hometown”, “village”, “farm”and “soup”. Given that thevocabulary is restrictedsomeof thedescriptionsoffered for theproverbsbelowmaynotsound as sophisticated to the English ear, but this facilitates explaining the culture-specific content to cultural outsiders aswell as the translation into the languages for the cultural insiders to verify. Also, an anonymous reviewer finds the descriptions vague, but this is becauseproverbmeanings likewordmeanings are vague. It is in their contexts of use that theyget precision invagueness. Todemonstrate the representationofproverbs, consider theproposedexplicationof themessage contentof theEnglishproverb Make hay while the sun shines in NSM (Goddard andWierzbicka, 2014: 192)3: [A] Make hay while the sun shines. a. for a long time before people said these words at many times TRADITIONALITY when they wanted to say something like this: b. often it is like this: RECURRENT SITUATION someone wants to do something in a place this someone can’t do it at this time because some other things aren’t happening in this place at this time c. when it is like this, it is good if this someone thinks like this: PROVERBIAL ADVICE “when these other things happen, they can happen for a short time because of this, when they happen it will be bad if I don’t do it at this time” it is not good if this someone thinks like this: “I can do it after” d. it is like this: PROVERBIAL ANALOGY when people in a place want to make [m] hay*, they can’t do it if the sun [m] is not hot [m] above this place at the same time when the sun [m] is hot [m] above a place, it can be like this for a short time (not for a long time) because of this, it is good if people make [m] hay* at times like this, it is not good if they do something else e. many people live for a long time STATUS AS FOLK WISDOM because of this, these people can know many things this is one of these things it can be good for someone if this someone thinks about this at some times. 3 See Goddard and Wierzbicka, 2014: 190ff for justification of the components. [m] by a word in the explication means that the word is a semantic molecule (as opposed to the primes) and an asterisk by a word such as hay means that it is not a universal term but belongs to the third category of terms in the restricted vocabulary of Minimal English, being a culturally important local term. 195 M. Bobuafor Journal of Pragmatics 178 (2021) 192e207 In the rest of the paper, I discuss the message content of some Tafi proverbs and their counterparts in Ewe pointing out the values they embody as well as their significance. The discussion is partly inspired by the NSM approach and the elements of the semantic template related to the message - the b, c, and d components in the explication above. I do not adopt the format of representation, although each component of the message that is relevant for the proverbs are dis- cussed. The proverbs are discussed according to their focal functions as conceptual tools (Section 3.1); as tools for socialisation (Section 3.2); as pedagogical tools (Section 3.3); and as reflections of cultural practices (3.4). As a first illustration, before turning to the functions of the proverbs, consider the following Tafi proverb in (1a) and a parallel proverb in Ewe in (1b)4: This is a saying that people have performed for a long time. Its content includes the recurring situation upon which it is based, namely, sometimes people do something bad and other people (community members) want to know why the person did it. After they have come to know why the person did it, they can do something to the person. The proverbial advice it contains is that one must thoroughly and patiently investigate the person who does something bad before doing anything to them. The proverbial analogy is one between instantaneous destruction of the roof or the house of the wrong doer, a liar, and the systematic tearing down of the roof or the house bit by bit to discover anything that this person may be hiding further. The tearing down bit by bit takes time and requires patience. This represents the kernelethe key un- derstandings of the proverb. A contextualized use of this proverb occurs in a folktale about a striped mouse who stole food reserved for a child. It so happened that one day, striped mouse's mother-in-law sent him to go and work for her on her farm. So, he called all his relations and his friends to accompany him. Lunch was prepared and all the animals were invited to come and eat. When the other animals like lion, elephant and monkey were having lunch, striped mouse indicated that he was not hungry because he was feeling shy of his mother-in-law and therefore, he didn't want to eat in her presence. So, although he was indeed feeling hungry, he said he was not feeling hungry as yet. He was doing this for his mother-in-law to see that he was industrious, so he continued working. Meanwhile some of the fufu5 had been reserved for a child who was taking a nap. At a point in time, striped mouse was very hungry and as he went to sharpen his cutlass, he found the food reserved for the child. He went and took the food and ate when nobody was watching him. When the child woke up, his food was nowhere to be found. The animals did not want to lose face before their friend's mother-in-law. So, they decided that they would look for the fufu-thief through a trial by ordeal. Each of the animals present would pass under a huge falling trap and once the guilty animal passes under the trap he would be crushed. All the other animals went through the ordeal successfully. It was the turn of striped mouse. Each time he was asked to undergo the ordeal he would give an excuse. He was procrastinating. He would say: “I have to take my bath”; after that he would say, “I need to apply lotion to my body before I can come among people”. Another time he would say he would have to iron his clothes etc. etc. The other animals were patient with him and gave him as much time as he needed so that they could determine whether he was the culprit or not. This proverb was cited as the reason why the animals were patient with him and gave him all the time to get ready to undergo the ordeal. The predictions of the proverb were met. Eventually, striped mouse ran out of excuses to delay his trial and he failed the test. As he passed under the trap, he made an attempt to run out as the trap descended. The trap was made of palm branch stems. The thorns on the palm branch stems scratched his back, his tail and the middle of his head. This is used to explain why there are stripes on the skin of the striped mouse. The advice contained in the proverb relates to the need to investigate any misdemeanor thoroughly, and it suggests that patience with an accused person is a value that should be upheld. There is a parallel proverb in Ewe with a similar structure and whose words and information structure can be matched. Consider the Ewe proverb in (1b) taken from Dzobo (1973: 93): 4 In this paper, the Tafi examples are presented in four (4) lines. The first line represents the spoken form and shows word divisions. In the second line, the data is presented with hyphens (�) symbolising morpheme breaks. The morphs in the first line are fully spelt out as morphemes in the second line thus initial consonants and syllables deleted are presented in their recoverable forms. The interlinear gloss and a free English translation provided in single quotes are given in the third and fourth lines respectively. 5 Fufu is a local staple food made from pounded tubers such as yam, cassava or cocoyam and plantain. It is eaten with soup. 196 M. Bobuafor Journal of Pragmatics 178 (2021) 192e207 Dzobo (1973ː93) gives the moral teaching for the proverb asː ʻʻPatience and painstaking effort overcome certain diffi- culties.ʼʼ This is parallel to the proverbial advice proposed for the Tafi proverb. Dzobo further explains that one ought to painstakingly search the house of a dishonest person before setting fire to it, so that one can have a good record of its contents, otherwise the owner who is a liar can always claim other things to be there and the one who sets the fire will be held accountable. Thus, the message of the two proverbs are very similar. Moreover, and as noted earlier, the words in the versions of the two languages can be matched to a large extent. The Tafi version in (1a) uses the roof metonymically for housewhereas the Ewe version in (1b) uses the basic term for house. In terms of structure, both languages use a complex sentence structure with the first clause providing the frame topic and the second clause has a predicate focus structure. Ewe marks its predicate focus in this context with the particle ɖe ʻpFOCʼ while Tafi expresses it by fronting a copy of the verb to clause initial position and nominalising it. These parallels suggest a process of calquing from Ewe into Tafi. I argue that this is the pattern of transfer as there are Tafi-Ewe bilinguals and hardly any Ewe-Tafi bilinguals due to the asymmetric nature of the contact between the two languages. The same arguments can be given for the pairs of corresponding proverbs discussed in the subsequent sections. 3.1. Proverbs as conceptual tools Proverbs are tools for achieving various functions in lingua-cultures. Some proverbs are conceptual tools for representing salient cognitive and perceptual features (cf. Honeck, 2013). One such proverb is the Tafi proverb given in (2a) with its Ewe counterpart in (2b). In order to draw out the parallels in wording and structure in the two proverbs, the forms and interlinear glosses are presented and then the free translation is given. These proverbs are based on the observation that a foot or leg's swelling is proportional to its size. The proverbial advice contained in these proverbs is that if one wants to do something (especially good) one does it according to one's capacities and possibilities. The message of these proverbs is similar to the one contained in the English saying “Cut your coat according to your size.” It is striking that the structure of the proverb in both languages is very similar. The utterances are comitatively conjoined noun phrases. The first NP is a simple noun phrase comprising the noun head and an adjective ‘small’ in both languages. The second NP in both languages is a possessive phrase with the possessor pronoun referring to the first NP while the possessed NP is a deverbal nominal in both languages. They are verbless clauses. They are similar in usage as well. For Ewe, Dzobo (1997:2) suggests that the proverb may be used in two ways: “It can be used to tell people to appreciate the contribution of others, however small they may be. It is also used as a warning to people not to attempt what is beyond their powers.” Similar contexts may call for the use of the proverb in Tafi. One of my Tafi consultants explained the ethical principle of the proverb as “to everything, there is a standard by which people measure it”. 197 M. Bobuafor Journal of Pragmatics 178 (2021) 192e207 3.2. Proverbs as tools for socialisation Proverbs are used as a tool for socialisation not only as a didactic tool for children but also as a means of regulating the social behaviour of adults. For instance, in both Tafi and Ewe there are proverbs that warn against the public display of bad feelings by people who are considered to be above others (elders) in the communities. Consider the following proverbs. Note again the word-for-word matching as shown in the examples and the identity of the literal translation. The infor- mation structure is also similar, the frame topic is a prohibition expressed by the negative and the comment part is a clause in which the object is fronted for focus. The parallels here again point to calquing in an asymmetric contact situation. These proverbs can be seen as being culturally prescriptive and providing guidelines as to how a personwith status should go about expressing their feelings especially bad feelings in public (cf. Grzybeck, 1994 on the semiotics of proverbs). The message content can be roughly paraphrased in Minimal English as follows: 198 M. Bobuafor Journal of Pragmatics 178 (2021) 192e207 The proverbial advice contained in these sayings is that elders or respected people should not show their negative emotions in public. They should hide any such feeling especially from those who hold them in high esteem. This is like a cultural script for emotional display which works on the analogy between frowning one's face which people can see and squeezing one's bottom which people cannot see. This pair of proverbs reflect a cultural expectation of display of feelings in public and points to a value of not showing bad feelings in public, especially of people in authority. While the proverbs in (3) relate to the display of bad feelings in public, the next pair of proverbs which are also used as tools for socialisation relate to the interdependence between members of a social unit such as a family, a village or an entire ethnolinguistic group. Consider the proverbs in (4). The two proverbs again can be matched word for word as well as in information structure. The first NP is marked for focus in the versions of the two languages. The proverbs are structurally SVCs. They are based on an observation that one can walk with two legs in a muddy place without being smeared with mud. However once one leg goes astray, i.e., is not straight, then it causes mud to be smeared on the other leg. The imagery is that because of the crooked nature of one leg, the other leg, the straight one gets mud splashed onto it. There is also the idea that tomove on, the two legs have to work in unison and not one going astray, being crooked. The message of the proverbs involves a recurrent situation where people who can be thought of as being part of the same unit, e.g., a family, engage in various activities. When these people want to do things, they should think that whatever they do reflects on the group as a whole. Because of this, they should strive to do only good things. The proverbial advice is that when one member of the group goes astray or does something bad, it affects the other members as well. The proverbs admonish people to behave appropriately in order not to soil the name or reputation of the socio-cultural unit to which they belong. One of my Tafi consultants interpreted the proverb as “The misdeeds of a bad relation will have an adverse effect on an innocent one”. These proverbs reflect the premium that is placed on group or social face in these communities like other African societies (Nwoye, 1992; De Kadt, 1998). Social or group face concerns the idea that people who belong to a group, be it family, clan or the ethno-cultural group at large, lose face, i.e., their faces die literally, when one member of the group does something that is not socially approvedof. This cultural value iswhat is enshrined in the proverbs in (4). These proverbs are used in advice aswell as for didactic purposes in socialisation. 3.3. Proverbs as pedagogical tools Some proverbs are based on observations of things happening in the environment and which provide the basis of life lessons. These tend to be used to advice people who find themselves in situations that call forth the proverbs. Thus, the pair of 199 M. Bobuafor Journal of Pragmatics 178 (2021) 192e207 proverbs in (5) are used to advice people who cannot concentrate on one task at a time. The proverbs in both languages have similar wording and are based on the same observation of happenings in the physical world. The observation of the real-world situation is that lather is created when one urinates at one spot. If one moves about as one urinates no lather is formed. The essential message of these proverbs can be paraphrased in [C] as follows: From here on, as the traditionality and folk wisdom components are constant for all proverbs, they are left out of the explications. The analogy and imagery involved relates to how one urinates at one spot and obtains foam. If one is doing different things, it is comparable to urinating in different places and this does not achieve the goal of having lather formed, that is, the goal of what one wants is not achieved. In a sense these proverbs advise to concentrate on one task at a time. Another pair of proverbs in both Tafi and Ewe which have very similar wording and structure is given in (6). These proverbs are used to show the importance of one's hometown and to advice people not to neglect their native hometowns nomatter how rural or underdeveloped it may be. They are used to enjoin community members to be proud of their hometown. These proverbs use the rhetorical device of tautology. The structure of the proverbs in the two languages is where the heads of the two juxtaposed NPs are the same and the first NP contains the exclusive intensifier ko ‘only’which is used across the two languages. One difference between the two languages lies in the use of a focus marker to mark the comment part of 200 M. Bobuafor Journal of Pragmatics 178 (2021) 192e207 the tautology in Ewe. There is no such marker in the Tafi expression. By and large the words in the two proverbs can also be matched, indicating a loan translation process. As Wierzbicka (2003: 446) notes tautologies are “like convenient all-purpose vessels, into which ‘basic truths’ can be poured”. She adds that these basic truths vary from culture to culture. A basic truth about African cultures is that people have a special affinity to a place which they view as their native home. This is a place which is their parental heritage and to which their lineage and clan belong. Various practices attest to the special importance attached to a hometown, in particular, many people think that it is a good thing if one is buried in a place they call their hometown. The recurrent situation upon which these proverbs are based is onewhere sometimes people can harbour negative attitudes and thoughts about their hometown. These proverbs are maxims and as such they lack an analogical component (cf. Goddard and Wierzbicka, 2014: 193). The proverbial advice is that a place that one calls the hometown is always home and has to be accorded the respect and attitude it deserves. No other place is as good as one's hometown. It is good if one thinks of this place as a very good place. There are other sayings in the languages which give specific instructions about how to relate to one's hometown. For instance, in Ewe there is the proverb in (6c): Dzobo (2006; xiv) notes that proverbs like this simply state a prohibition on behaviour. He indicates that the approved behaviour implied in the proverb in (6c) is ʻʻBe proud of the village or country of your origin and do not be ashamed of it or downgrade it.ʼʼ Pointing to your hometownwith the left handwould amount to downgrading or not showing respect to it. The culturalmeaningof the left hand inmanycultures, includingGhanaian lingua-cultures is that it is adirtyhandand it is impolite or an insult to use it in interaction including using it topoint (see e.g. Kita and James, 2001). Thus, it is contemptuous topoint to one's hometown with the left hand. The proverb has an evaluative meaning and moral truth about the hometown which is being conveyed also in the proverbs in (6a) and (6b) through tautologies in both Tafi and Ewe. The pairs of proverbs discussed so far from both Tafi and Ewe have all been based on the same elements and structures. The pair of proverbs in (7) however differ in structure and in the standard of comparison upon which the analogy is based. Compare the two proverbs belowː The Tafi expression is made up of twoNPswhich are just juxtaposed and the utterance is completedwith an utterance final particle whose illocutionary force is to draw an interlocutorʼs attention to the statement. The first NP serves as a Topic and the second as theComment. Bycontrast theEweexpression is a copular clausewith the twoNPs linkedby the equative copula. Both expressions involve a comparison of similarity or resemblance, and in both expressions a human being is likened to something 201 M. Bobuafor Journal of Pragmatics 178 (2021) 192e207 which is deep. InTafi, it is a pit and in Ewe it is a river. The imagery and analogyare thus similar. One difference between the two proverbs is that the Tafi one is predicated only about some peoplewhile the Ewe one is stated as a general truth about humans. The message of the proverbs in both languages is very similar. It can be roughly paraphrased as follows: [D] a. sometimes when people do some things, RECURRENT SITUATION other people do not know why they do them b. one cannot know what a person thinks PROVERBIAL ADVICE because of this one should not think like this: I can know what other people think c. It is like this: PROVERBIAL ANALOGY If there is something deep When one looks inside it, one cannot see the bottom part of it One can think of a person like this: A person can be bad One cannot know all things about a person The analogy and imagery is that just as one cannot see the bottom of a deep pit (Tafi) or a deep river, so one cannot also know everything about other people. The extreme depth of the pit or the river is meant to indicate danger. The comparison is meant to point to the idea that a person is dangerous. Therefore, one needs to be extra careful when dealing with people.With respect to the Ewe proverb, Tsra (2005:24) suggests a context of use, namely, that it is used for ʻʻpeople who do not tell the truthʼʼ. 3.4. Proverbs and cultural practices Proverbs tend to be generalisations over a community's experiences. The next two pairs of proverbs use concrete images related to cooking (and eating) to imply some cultural values that are viewed as basic truths by the Tafis and Ewes. The cultural activity in (8) relates to roasting on hot coals. Typically, in these communities, one way of preparing food items like tubers of yam or cassava and plantain or maize on the cob is to put them in direct contact with hot coals (see Bobuafor, 2018 for a description of the lexicalisation of this process in Kwa languages of Ghana). The observation which is being represented is that when one is preparing such food items in this way one can only be sure that they are well done if one allows them to be slightly burnt. The Tafi proverb in (8a) has a close Ewe counterpart as shown in (8b). The recurrent situation associatedwith these proverbs is that sometimes peoplewant to do some things and to accomplish them. Sometimeswhen this happens people donotwant anyobstacle to stop them fromachieving their goal. At the same time, peoplewant only good things to happenwhen they are doing these things. The proverbial advice is that if onewants to achieve good results one should sacrifice one's pleasures over and abovewhat onewould expect and know that these sacrifices lead to good results. As a Tafi consultant interpreted it: “To gain anything, one must be prepared to make some sacrifice”. It is noteworthy that the structure of the expression in both Tafi and Ewe is very similar: The expressions comprise a conditional protasis which is marked in both languages as a scene-setting topic followed by the consequence clause. Like in 202 M. Bobuafor Journal of Pragmatics 178 (2021) 192e207 the other cases, it is not clear if this is a case of proverb calquing between Ewe and Tafi or it is the case of the spread of conceptual proverbs in the cultural area. One way of addressing this issue is to investigate whether proverbs with similar structure and wording are used in the other languages in the area. For instance, if there are such proverbs in Ga or Akan, one might conclude that it is an areal proverb. However, if we do not find such parallels then the potential of loan translation between Ewe and Tafi cannot be ruled out. The proverbs can be used in a situation for example where one is advising a student to sacrifice some pleasures and study hard in order to achieve success in schooling. A second set of proverbs related to the cultural practice of cooking and eating are also close in structure and form, as can be seen in (9). The experience or real world situation onwhich the proverbs are based is that whenyou ladle some soup, some of the soup that sticks to the bottomof the ladlemay be dripping and in an attempt to save it youmight end up spilling the bit that is in the bowlof the ladle. The recurrent situation that theproverbs evoke is that sometimespeoplehave something. Theydonotwant to losean iotaofwhat theyhave. Inanattempttoprotecteverybitof thething, theymayloseamoresignificantpartof the thing.The proverbial advice as well as the cultural value entailed is that one should not be greedy. That is, one should not want more and more of things. The analogy that is invoked relates to a comparison of droplets of soup to a whole bowl of soup where in an attempt to get more of the soup from under the ladle youmight end up losing everything. The lesson is that greed is not good. 4. Proverb performance: Co-constructing proverbs There is a debate in folklore about what is involved in the enactment of proverbs in social interaction and in other folkloric genres. Some like Yankah (1989a) would argue it is performance and metaphor. Others like Barber (1999) draw attention to their quotation as part of prepatterned formulaic utterances. Cram (1983), for instance, thinks that proverbs are lexical el- ements with a quotational status. As such they are utterances that invite comment, analysis and assessment. People judge whether a proverb is used in an appropriate context or not. There is an aspect of proverb performance which has been less attended to and it is the situation where two interlocutors co- construct the proverb in discourse. This draws on various properties of proverbs. First, proverbs tend to be part of the 203 M. Bobuafor Journal of Pragmatics 178 (2021) 192e207 communicative knowledge of communities of practice. Second, proverbs tend to have fragments which are indicative of the full utterance. Themajorityofproverbshaveabipartite structureandbothparts can functionasproverb fragments.Mostof theproverbs we have discussed have such bipartite structure. Recall that for most of the proverbs there is a topic part and a comment part, sometimes explicitly indicated by lexicogrammatical means. This structure allows interactants to co-construct them. The co- construction performance of proverbs typically works like this: Because of their quotational status, speakers know and recognise proverbsof their language.Duringan interaction, a speakermay invokeorquote aproverb fragment, typically the topicpart, thenan interlocutormay complete the proverbwith the comment fragment. For instance, consider the full Tafi proverb in (10a). It has two parts, a topicpart anda commentpart. A speakermaycite the topicpart, and the interlocutor completes it, as illustrated in (10b) and (10c). Similarly, the two fragments of the Ewe counterpart of the proverb can be performed by two interlocutors in a sort of call and response pattern. The full Ewe proverb is provided in (11a)while the two fragments are presented in (11b) and (11c) respectively. 204 M. Bobuafor Journal of Pragmatics 178 (2021) 192e207 The conceptual underpinnings of the pair of proverbs are the same but the forms here are a bit different. Nevertheless, they are based on a cultural practice of how andwhere onewears the hat. A hat is worn on the head, so when the head is available, the hat should beworn on it. I think the analogy to the knee is based on a practicewherewhen one takes off one's hat, e.g., for politeness reasons, one hangs it over the knee. The recurrent situation is that sometimes when there is someone who should carry out a particular task, people sometimes want someone else to do it. The proverbial advice is that one should let the appropriate person do the things that are required. The analogy is that one wears the appropriate clothing on the appropriate body part. The co-construction of proverbs in performance has the effect of creating an adjacency pair of the two fragments of the proverb. It is similar to the pattern of call and response displayed in the performance of praise names or appellations (Agbedor, 2008). Praise names also have a bipartite structure and especially if addressed to the bearer of the praise name have a call-response pattern. The caller intones the praise name and the addressee responds by completing the appellation. Agbedor (2008:5) in discussing the performance of such names in Ewe notes that when two people (A and B) meet and A calls to B by uttering part of the full name, B responds by completing the discourse. (12a), for instance, exemplifies the full discourse of the praise name. (12b) is the initial part of the praise name (the call) and (12c) is the response. The co-construction of proverbs in discourse is a manifestation of a performace strategy which applies to other genres such as praise names. The co-construction involves a completion of an intoned fragment. This is possible because of con- ventionality and the shared knowledge of the structure and form of the relevant proverb or name. 5. Conclusion In the foregoing, I have examined the message content of pairs of proverbs from Tafi and Ewe, two languages that are in contact. I have outlined the situation thatmay engender the proverbs, the advice they contain and the analogy or imagery that is embodied in them. I have discussed the proverbs in terms of their use as tools for socialisation, for representing perceptual conceptualisations, for pedagogic purposes and for reinforcing and articulating cultural practices as well as cultural values. The argument is that the messages or significance of the proverbs as outlined are the kernel meanings of the proverbs on the basis of which they are deployed in specific contexts in interaction. I have highlighted two features of the proverbs: first, since the Tafi proverbs and the Ewe proverbs share similar information structures and wording, it is suggested that the Tafi proverbs seem to be calques of the Ewe ones or the conceptual patterns may have spread in the Ghanaian or West African cultural area. This raises the question of how to explain the similarity of the proverbs that occur in Ewe and Tafi which are historically related as Kwa languages and therefore could have inherited from a parent language. Or are the similarities to be explained as being contact-induced, as these languages are in close asymmetric contact? The extent of the spread of such similar proverbs in the southern Ghana linguistic area is an issue to be further investigated. Finally, I drew attention to the performance of proverbs involving co-construction between the interactants using proverb fragments. I noted that the members of a community of practice know the proverbs so once a speaker intones it, the interlocutor can complete it. I also 205 M. Bobuafor Journal of Pragmatics 178 (2021) 192e207 noted that other genres such as praise names are also co-constructed. The articulation of this in everyday discourse deserves further investigation, but the co-construction of proverbs does involve the joint creation of form, and to some extent of ideology and of identity. Abbreviations AM Agreement Marker CM Class marker CMPL Class marker (plural) COM Comitative COMP Complementiser COND Conditional COP Copula DAT Dative DEP Dependent DISJ Disjunctive FOC Focus FUT Future HAB Habitual IND Independent INDEF Indefinite INTJ Interjection LOC Locative NEG Negative PERF Perfective pFOC predicate focus PL Plural POT potential PROX Proximal PRSPROG Present progressive RED Reduplicative REL Relative marker REP Repetitive marker VENT ventive 1PL First person plural 2SG Second person plural 3PL Third person plural 3SG Third person singular SM Subject marker TOP Topic marker Funding This research was partly made possible by a grant from the Endangered Languages Programme of the Council of Hu- manities (GW) andWOTRO of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) as part of the project The Southern GhanaeTogo Mountain Groups: A description of their languages and cultural heritage (grant nr. 256-00-500). Declaration of competing interest None. Acknowledgements I am greatly indebted to my language consultants in the Tafi community especially, my principal language consultants Mr. Nelson Agbley and the late Madam Beatrice Amoadza for the immense help they gave me during periods of field work in the community. I am also grateful to the participants at the 3rd School of Languages Conference (SOLCON III) at the University of Ghana, Legon where some of the ideas were first expressed. I want to thank Felix Ameka for his incisive comments on an earlier draft and for introducing me to the NSM approach to the semantics of proverbs. My thanks also to the anonymous reviewers and Editors for their comments, guidance and patience. References Agbedor, Paul, 2008. A sociolinguistic study of Ewe “drinking” names. Issues in Intercultural Communications (2010) 2 (2), 1e18. Aku-Sika, Cudjoe M., 2016. Gendered Power Relations as Expressed in Selected Ewe Proverbs. MPhil thesis. University of Ghana. Ameka, Felix K., 1994. Areal conversational routines and cross-cultural communication in a multilingual society. In: Pürschel, Heiner (Ed.), Intercultural Communication: Proceedings of the 17th International LAUD Symposium, Duisburg 23-27 March 1992. Peter Lang, Bern, pp. 441e469. Ameka, Felix K., 2001. Ewe. In: Garry, Jane, Rubino, Carl (Eds.), Facts about the World's Languages: an Encyclopaedia of the World's Major Languages, Past and Present. H. W. Wilson, New York, pp. 207e213. 206 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref1 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref1 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref2 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref3 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref3 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref3 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref4 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref4 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref4 M. Bobuafor Journal of Pragmatics 178 (2021) 192e207 Ameka, Felix K., 2006. ‘When I die, don't cry’: the ethnopragmatics of gratitude expressions in West African languages. In: Goddard, Cliff (Ed.), Ethno- pragmatics. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin, pp. 234e266. Ameka, Felix K., 2017. The Ghana-Togo mountain languages: introduction. STUF - Lang. Typol. Universals 70 (2), 239e244. Ansre, Gilbert, 2000. The Ewe language. In: Gavua, Kodzo (Ed.), A Handbook of Eweland, The Northern Ewe of Ghana, vol. 2. Woeli Press, Accra, pp. 22e47. Anyidoho, Kofi, 1997. Ewe verbal art. In: Agbodeka, Francis (Ed.), A Handbook of Eweland, The Ewes of Southeastern Ghana, vol. 1. Woeli Press, Accra, pp. 123e152. Appiah, Peggy, Anthony Appiah, Kwame, Agyeman-Duah, Ivor, 2007. Bu Me Be: Proverbs of the Akans. Ayebia Clarke Publishing, Oxfordshire. Arewa, E. Ojo, Dundes, Alan, 1964. Proverbs and the ethnography of speaking folklore 1. Am. Anthropol. 66, 70e85, 6 PART2. Awedoba, Albert K., 2000. An Introduction to Kasem Society and Culture through Their Proverbs. The University Press of America, London. Barber, Karin, 1999. Quotation in the constitution of Yorùb�a oral texts. Res. Afr. Lit. 30 (2), 17e41. Bobuafor, Mercy, 2013. A Grammar of Tafi. LOT, Utrecht. Bobuafor, Mercy, 2018. “Paddling a Canoe and Preparing Rice Balls”: the Semantics of Tafi Cuisine. https://doi.org/10.4314/gjl.v7i2.6. Cram, David, 1983. The linguistic status of the proverb. In: Mieder, W. (Ed.), Wise Words Essays on the Proverb. Garland, New York, pp. 73e98. De Kadt, Elizabeth, 1998. The concept of face and its applicability to the Zulu language. J. Pragmat. 29 (2), 173e191. Dorvlo, Kofi, 2014. Ewe borrowings into Logba. Int. J. BiLing. 18 (4), 428e446. Dzobo, Noah Komla, 1973. African Proverbs. The Moral Value of Eʋe Proverbs, Guide to Conduct, vol. I. University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast. 1975 Dzobo, Noah Komla, 1997. African Proverbs. The Moral Value of Eʋe Proverbs, Guide to Conduct Vol II. Bureau of Ghana Languages, Accra. Dzobo, Noah Komla, 2006. African Proverbs. The Moral Value of Eʋe Proverbs, Guide to Conduct Vol III. Woeli Publishers, Accra. Etta, Emmanuel Efem, Francis, Ibe Mogu, 2012. The relevance of proverbs in African Epistemology. Lwati A J. Contemp. Res. 9, 1. Ezeifeka, Chinwe R., 2017. Gender stereotypes in selected Igbo proverbs. Contemporary Journal of African Studies 4 (2), 93e126. 1970 Finnegan, Ruth, 2012. Oral Literature in Africa. Open University Books, London. Goddard, Cliff (Ed.), 2018. Minimal English for a Global World: Improved Communication with Fewer Words. Macmillan Palgrave, Cham. Goddard, Cliff, Wierzbicka, Anna, 2014. Words and Meanings: Lexical Semantics across Domains, Languages and Cultures. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Goddard, Cliff, Wierzbicka, Anna, 2018. Minimal English and how it can add to Global English. In: Goddard, Cliff (Ed.), Minimal English for a Global World: Improved Communication with Fewer Words. Macmillan Palgrave, Cham, pp. 5e28. Grzybeck, P., 1994. Foundations of semiotic proverb study. In: Mieder, W. (Ed.), Wise Words: Essays on the Proverb. Garland, New York, pp. 31e71. Hansford, Gillian F., 2003. Understanding chumburung proverbs. J. W. Afr. Lang. 30 (1), 57e82. Honeck, Richard P., 2013. A Proverb in Mind: the Cognitive Science of Proverbial Wit and Wisdom. Psychology Press, New York. Hymes, Dell, 1968. The ethnography of speaking. In: Fishman, Joshua A. (Ed.), Readings in the sociology of language. Mouton, The Hague, pp. 99e148. Idstr€om, Anna, Piirainen, Elisabeth, Falzett, Tiber (Eds.), 2012. Endangered Metaphors. John Benjamins, Amsterdam. Irvine, Judith T., 1979. Formality and informality in communicative events. Am. Anthropol. 81 (4), 773e790. Kita, Sotaro, James, Essegbey, 2001. Pointing left in Ghana: how a taboo on the use of the left hand influences gestural practice. Gesture 1 (1), 73e95. Nwoga, Donatus Ibe, 1975. Appraisal of Igbo proverbs and idioms. Igbo language and culture 1, 186e200. Nwoye, Onuigbo G., 1992. Linguistic politeness and socio-cultural variations of the notion of face. J. Pragmat. 18 (4), 309e328. Obeng, Samuel Gyasi, 1994. Verbal indirection in Akan informal discourse. J. Pragmat. 21 (1), 37e65. Obeng, Samuel Gyasi, 1996. The proverb as a mitigating and politeness strategy in Akan discourse. Anthropol. Ling. 38 (3), 521e549. Penfield, Joyce, Duru, Mary, 1988. Proverbs: metaphors that teach. Anthropol. Q. 119e128, 1988. Piirainen, Elisabeth, Ari Sherris (Eds.), 2015. Language Endangerment: Disappearing Metaphors and Shifting Conceptualizations. John Benjamins, Amsterdam. Schipper, Mineke, 2003. Never Marry a Woman with Big Feet: Women in Proverbs from Around the World. Yale University Press. Schottman, Wendy, 1993. Proverbial dog names of the Baatombu: a strategic alternative to silence. Lang. Soc. 22 (4), 539e554. �Skara, Danica, 1997. Comparative analysis of proverbs: Universals and Specifics. Studia Romanica et Anglica Zagrabiensia: Revue publi�ee par les Sections romane, italienne et anglaise de la Facult�e des Lettres de l'Universit�e de Zagreb, vol. 42, pp. 365e370. Tsra, Stephen W.K., 2005. Eʋe Lododo Aɖewo Gɔmeɖeɖe Kple Wo sudɔwɔwɔ [Some Ewe Proverbs and Their Literal Meaning in English [sic]]. Sundel Services, Accra. Wierzbicka, Anna, 2014. Imprisoned in English: the Hazards of English as a Default Language. Oxford University Press, New York. Wierzbicka, Anna, 2003. Cross-cultural Pragmatics: the Semantics of Human Interaction, second ed. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin. Yankah, Kwesi, 1999. Proverb. J. Ling. Anthropol. 9 (1/2), 205e207. Yankah, Kwesi, 1989a. The Proverb in the Context of Akan Rhetoric: a Theory of Proverb Praxis. Peter Lang, Frankfurt. Yankah, Kwesi, 1989b. Proverbs: the aesthetics of traditional communication. Res. Afr. Lit. 20 (3), 325e346. Mercy Bobuafor (PhD, Leiden University, 2013) is a senior lecturer in the Department of Linguistics, University of Ghana, Legon. Her research interests are in language documentation and description, lexicography, and anthropological linguistics. She focuses on Kwa languages especially, Ewe and Gbe languages, Tafi and other Ghana-Togo Mountain languages. She has done immersion fieldwork among the Tafi and has published a grammar and other articles on the syntax and semantics of the language. She is a Fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies-African Humanities Program (ACLS-AHP), 2018e2019, and currently a Visiting Fulbright Scholar (ARSP), 2020e2021, at the University of Florida. 207 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref5 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref5 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref5 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref6 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref6 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref7 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref7 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref8 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref8 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref8 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref9 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref10 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref10 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref11 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref12 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref12 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref12 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref13 https://doi.org/10.4314/gjl.v7i2.6 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref16 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref16 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref17 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref17 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref18 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref18 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref19 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref20 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref21 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref22 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref23 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref23 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref24 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref26 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref27 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref28 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref28 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref28 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref29 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref29 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref30 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref30 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref31 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/optsA2vG14xoH http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/optsA2vG14xoH http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref32 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref32 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref33 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref33 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref34 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref34 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref35 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref35 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref36 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref36 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref37 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref37 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref38 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref38 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref39 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref39 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref40 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref40 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref41 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref42 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref42 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref43 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref43 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref43 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref43 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref43 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref43 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref44 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref44 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref44 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref45 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref46 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref47 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref47 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref48 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref49 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0378-2166(21)00116-8/sref49 Cultural values and the pragmatic significance of proverbial sayings in Tafi and Ewe 1. Introduction 2. The language context 3. The significance and analysis of proverbs 3.1. Proverbs as conceptual tools 3.2. Proverbs as tools for socialisation 3.3. Proverbs as pedagogical tools 3.4. Proverbs and cultural practices 4. Proverb performance: Co-constructing proverbs 5. Conclusion Funding Declaration of competing interest Acknowledgements References