Socio-cultural Praxis and Stylistics in Selected Odia Proverbs

Proverbs, sayings, maxims, morals and wittious expressions have practical, social-cultural and linguistic value. They are potential stocks in human discourse and best represent the mythology, history, culture, tradition, creativity and instant verbal wit. Like other languages, Odia has a rich store of such sayings. Here, in this paper, the aim is to present a basic idea about the formation, meaning and use of the frequently used Odia proverbs. In addition, care has been taken to focus on the pragmatic and stylistic aspects. They have been categorized under four heads viz. references to epics and mythological scriptures; legends; anecdotes; and sayings of day to day life. A theoretical assumption has been made on the lingual action in such sayings and finally a basic parameter of discourse function has been presented in relation to such sayings. Proverbs are the cream of semantic notion and the oozing out of the sum and substance of verbal human experience. These are the linguistic reflections of culture, traditional and modern knowledge that embed the human world through the ages. This wisdom literature is the light giver to the system of evidence and logic in justice. The sayings, morals of popular cultural an