Abstract

Proverbs are traditional and cultural sayings exchanged by people of certain society for the purpose of giving advices, criticizing and conveying information with a specific cultural touch. The focus on the concept of culture here indicates the fact that each society, thus a social dialect, has its own set of proverbs. Some of those proverbs are more commonly used than others. Further, one of the most obvious features of proverbs is the indirect style used in constructing the meaning and, thus, the deeper impact they leave on the listener. This study, therefore, aims at investigating the pragmatic processes involved in constructing such proverbs and conveying such implicit meanings. The study tries to present a systematic and explanatory account of the modified meaning established in a set of common Iraqi proverbs following a lexical pragmatic approach.