ABSTRACT
Proverbs as the itemized speech genres play an essential role in the cultural system of a certain society. People especially native speakers reveal their linguistic proficiency and the eco-cultural knowledge by using appropriate proverbs whenever they need. The present paper through descriptive- analytic method and content analysis aims to reveal the inscribed environmental discourses in Bengali proverbs. The results indicated that Bengali proverbs contain environmental elements such as fruits, nature, flowers, animals and even agricultural elements.
KEYWORDS: Environmental Discourse, Bengali Proverbs, Anthropological Linguistic, Encoding
INTRODICTION
Discourse is a specific collection of …show more content…
It is based on such approach that oral literature contains the indigenous beliefs, knowledge and values about nature (physical environment) and the people’s place in it (Belay Adugna, 2014). Some consider oral literature as a source of artistic expressions that are commonly found in various cultures enhancing the desire for harmony and beauty engraved in humanity (Appell, 2012). Since proverbs are the elements that directly are connected with cultural background of the society (Fasold, 1990: 46). They are available in all languages different lexical, structural and meaning items are used to express the same or different ideas (Bhuvaneswar & Hyderabad, 2009). Proverbs belong to the common knowledge of all native speakers who are living in a certain society and are very effective devices to communicate wisdom and knowledge about human nature and the world at large (Meider, 2004). Many worthy studies have been done in the area of proverbs around world but a few of them have covered proverbs from the view point of environmental discourse, thus the present study for the first time aims to investigate Bengali proverbs from environmental discourse point of view to draw attention to the crucial role of this perspective in understanding proverbs since proverbs are highly cultural linguistic units and adequate cultural understanding is required in order to comprehend them correctly and