The Contents and Values of Parts of the Body Related Idiomatic Expressions in Yorùbá

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the contents and values of Yorùbá idiomatic expressions that relate to the parts of the human body in social interactions with a view to establishing their communicative value in Yorùbá socio-cultural discourse. A few research efforts on proverbs and idiomatic expressions have studied the scope of their usage in Yorùbá music, the new mode of their usage in political arena and those that relate to Egungun among speakers of Yorùbá language. None, however, have examined the contents of the Yorùbá idiomatic expressions in relation to the parts of the human body. This, therefore, is the preoccupation of the study. Our data for this study comprised thirty purposively selected idioms in Yorùbá language which are used frequently, especially among the elders, in social interactions. The idioms were classified into three domains which captured roughly the major divisions of the human body. The three major parts altogether ensure, in scientific parlance, the homeostasis and viability of the human body. The paper adopted the Ethnography of Communication model as its theoretical framework. Results from the study showed that almost every part of the human body is capable of being used to construct profound and thought-provoking idiomatic expressions which can enhance poetic and rhetoric vigour as well as serve as cultural fillip meant to rekindle the flagging interest of the youths in Yorùbá culture so as to save the Yorùbá language from extinction.