A Pragmatic Study of Overstatement in Kurdish Proverbs

Abstract

Language has been a communication tool from early human history up to date. It is by using this significant tool that events and traditions have remained from the forefathers of every nation. An instance of the remained treasures of history is the items of folklore, in essence, proverbs, which is the subject of the current study. Admittedly, proverbs of any language comprise numerous figures of speech. This paper entitled “A Pragmatic Study of Overstatement in Kurdish Proverbs” is an extract from an MA thesis which pragmatically investigates the trope of overstatement in Kurdish proverbs. Introducing the two items related to the topic, namely, the proverb is an item of folklore inherited by the generations of every nation from their ancestors, which mostly gives a lesson. The trope, which in the current study is to be investigated inside the Kurdish proverbs, overstatement, is said to be, as the word itself suggests, an overly stated statement. Usually what is explained is given coloring and excessive importance or it is embellished more than its normal being. The study aims to investigate the aforementioned trope in some selected proverbs of the Kurdish language from a pragmatic perspective. This is to be conducted by adopting the eclectic model of Braim (2014). In light of the results, the trope was found to be present in seven proverbs from the data provided. The trope's most recurrent pragmatic forms and functions are seen to be adverbs and emphasis. Pragmatically, it is affirmed that overstatement has implicature in every analyzed instance during the analysis of the current study.