Balance and bi-partie structure in Hausea proverbs

• Main Author: Jang, Tae-Sang
• Published: SOAS, University of London 1994
• Subjects: 493
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.521191

There are two basic assumptions that initiated this study. The first is that Hausa proverbs, as is so often the case with many other African oral traditions, are highly abundant in poetic elements. The second is that these poetic elements can be identified and described in a systematic literary manner. The main thesis starts from a discussion of the notion of quantitative balance and bipartite structure. Hausa proverbs are normally bipartite in form and many aesthetic connotations arise from this. This will be the main thrust of Chapter 2. What follows this initial discussion is the analysis of proverbial syntax, which is the main task of Chapter 3. The particular concern addressed here is that quantitative balance is so basic a feature in Hausa proverbs that varied syntactic features are often intimately involved in enhancing it: the deleting, retaining, frontshifting, genitivising or inserting pressure upon a grammatical or lexical element can be connected to the issue of the quantitative balance. Not only does the bipartite structure produce the hypothesis of quantitative balance, but it also operates as a structural frame on which phonological balance and cohesion derived from inter-section phonological correspondence can be superimposed. As quantitative balance is often enhanced in terms of various syntactic devices, so is the phonological balance and cohesion. It is this that characterises Chapter 4. The remainder of the thesis, i.e. Chapter 5, takes up the discussion of syntactic balance due to syntactic parallelism whose realisation would also be impossible without the postulation of the notion of bipartite structure. However. this thesis addresses another issue: the definition of the proverb. It is a generally well-known fact that the proverb is the shortest form of verbal art, but the most difficult genre of oral literature to define. As a student of oral literature, I am also interested in this topic. Thus, Chapter 1 deals with the definition of the proverb through a new approach, i.e. contextual approach. Finally, I attach two appendices at the back of the thesis. Appendix 1 lists extra examples to provide more support for the arguments in the main discussion. Appendix 2 covers all the examples presented in both the main discussion and appendix 1, listing them alphabetically. Thus cross-reference may be an advantage that these two appendices can provide.