Book

The proverb in the context of Akan rhetoric: a theory of proverb praxis

P. LangBernPublished In 1989 • Pages: 313

By: Yankah, Kwesi.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is an excellent study on proverbs and their use in Akan society. Proverbs are widely used: in everyday conversation, popular songs, games, contests, sermons, and court oratory. Yankah gives examples of all of these uses. A native Akan speaker, he argues that proverb meaning is dependent on context and usage, or as the Akan say, ‘Without sleep there is no dream; without discourse there is no proverb.’ He examines proverb use with respect to styles, performance, creativity, and authorship. He discusses how proverbs are registered as mementos and kept on a string by proverb custodians.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Sociolinguistics
Semantics
Verbal arts
Oratory
Texts in the speaker's language
Texts translated into english
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Akan
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2000
RegionThe area the document pertains to
Africa
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Western Africa
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
Book
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Ethnographer
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
4: Excellent Secondary Data
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
Ian Skoggard ;1999
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
1979-1984
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
1979-1984
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Ghana
NotesAdditional notes
Kwesi Yankah
Includes bibliographical references
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
89151438
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Akan (African people)