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© Kamla-Raj 2005 Anthropologist, 7(1): 19-24 (2005)
Pragmatic Inferencing in a Social Action: An Ethnography of a Marriage Proposal Among the Yoruba of Nigeria
L. Oladipo Salami
Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria E-mail: lsalami@oauife.edu.ng, diposalami@hotmail.com
KEYWORDS Speech Event. Language. Use and Context
ABSTRACT This paper reports a speech event among the Yoruba-speaking people of southwestern Nigeria. It describes and analyses the activity of ‘writing in’ and tries to explain the verbal and nonverbal routines and ritualized behaviour involved in the activity using both the ethnography of speaking approach and interpretive framework. The paper concludes that the knowledge of some Yoruba cultural rules and norms is critical to both the understanding as well as successful participation in the social activity of ‘writing in’.
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