Language and Reality: A case study of Haroti proverb

Amitabhvikram Dwivedi
Faculty in English
School of Languages & Literature
College of Humanities & Social Sciences
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra
Jammu & Kashmir-182 320

Abstract

This paper discusses the socio-cultural reality created by proverbs in Haroti language.
Everything exists in a culture is meaningful in a given context. Language and objects are
culturally functional. Proverbs are part of every culture, and Haroti proverb is no exception to it.
The matter of fact is that it says something about Haroti culture, but the statements that derive
from a single line phrase or a couplet mirror the socio-cultural reality of this culture that at once
makes this cultural reality unique and specified. This distinguishing feature of using proverb
makes it different culturally. Generally, Proverbs give meaning when they interact with a living
subject. The perception from an object acquires meaning when it is more redundant, and this
feature of giving meaning from redundant words make the study more interesting. The main
function of a proverb is phatic and poetic, and they get their meaning from a metalingual source.
The grammar of a proverb is culture, and the syntactic element depends upon the cultural
knowledge of a speaker rather than his/her ablitiy of simply acquiring the form of a language.
Any competent speaker of a language is able to get the unified message of a proverb, and this
meaningfulness is determined by the matching form and content accurately.

Keywords: socio-cultural reality, Haroti, proverbs, meaning, etc.