Abstract
Proverbs are the integral part of spiritual treasures of the culture and language of the people, the age-old wisdom and skills used by them. Proverbs are also an interesting pieces of popular wisdom and tradition belonging to any culture, which help us to foreground the values a shared beliefs held by a speech community. By applying Sperber and Wilson’s Relevance Theory, this dissertation research aims to analyze the functions and uses of Sarawak Malays’ proverbs which up to now received very little attention amongst the local researchers. Besides, the application of this theory has successfully explains how the proverbs allow the speaker to express his or her intentions, feelings and insights in an implicit way and tacit manner. The findings demonstrate that the main functions of the Sarawak Malays’ proverbs are criticism, advice, warning, educating, sarcasm and insinuation which also reflect the wisdoms and wits of the Sarawak Malays. This research also offered an explanation of how the often ironical, metaphorical and figurative nature of the proverbs significantly affects their understanding. In addition, I have also studied the use of ellipsis in the familiar proverbs as well as found out the existence of various types of proverbs amongst the Sarawak Malays’ community. Ultimately, the conclusions of the research are to attain a better comprehension of the functions and uses of the Sarawak Malays’ proverbs
Highlights
Most probably, only a handful of us know about the existence of the Malay community in Sarawak
The Malays are the second largest ethnic group in Sarawak after the Ibans, and they are different from the Malays in the Peninsular Malaysia or Sabah in most aspects except for their religion
The application of Sperber and Wilson’s Relevance Theory (1995) for this research is due to the fact that proverbs played a pertinent role in the communication process, especially among the traditional Sarawak Malays community
Summary
Only a handful of us know about the existence of the Malay community in Sarawak. Abang Yusuf Puteh (1998:8) quoted Alfred Russel Wallace’s, observation on Sarawak Malays his visit to Santubong etc .in 1885: “In character the Malay is impassive He exhibits a reserve, diffidence, and even bashfulness, which is in some degree attractive, and leads the observer to think that the ferocious and bloodthirsty character imputed to the race must be grossly exaggerated. Admiration, or fear, are never openly manifested, and probably not strongly felt He is slow and deliberate in speech, and circuitous in introducing the subject he has come expressly to discuss. I earnestly hope that, by presenting this paper pertaining to the functions and uses of Sarawak Malays’ proverbs, the community will be well-known, and will excite the interest of the local and foreign researchers towards the community, especially in the domain of oral tradition
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