Abstract:
The purpose of the study is to analyze the pragmatic aspects of Maccaa Oromo marriage proverbs using
Searle’s speech act theory in whcich speakers’ intention is the core. This study employed a descriptive
qualitative method in which the proverbs data were collected through interviews and observation. Twenty five proverbs were systematically identified and translated from Afaan Oromo to English
language using a communicative translation approach. The analysis of the twenty five proverbs was
based on eight contextualized themes: basic faith, omens, upbringing, morals or ethics, caution/advise, wisdom/foolishness, kinship and status. The study attempted to identify the types of the illocutionary
acts, the illocutionary forces and the perlocutionary effects of the proverbs on the hearer in their real
contexts. The study reveals that Maccaa Oromo marriage proverbs are a combination of direct and
indirect illocutionary acts which are mainly assertive illocutionary forces that are direct illocutionary
acts and most of them are directive illocutionary forces that are indirect illocutionary acts. The study
also shows that perlocutionary acts in the proverbs can be categorized into two: the psychological
consequence (of persuading, invoking, convincing, frightening, bad omens, inspiring, good omens, humiliating, and pleasing,) and getting the hearer to do or realize something such as considering, reminding, causing, and character assessment. The study concluded that there are five types of
illocutionary acts performed in Maccaa Oromo marriage proverbs, namely, assertive, directive, commissive, expressive and declaration. Moreover, the study concluded that there are many
illocutionary forces accomplished in Maccaa Oromo marriage proverbs such as asserting, informing, criticizing, advising, warning, hoping, approving, confirming, praising, regretting, counseling, validating
and complimenting. Furthermore, this study also concluded that there are two kinds of perlocutionary
effects that Macccaa Oromo marriage proverbs can produce on the hearer. Finally, the results of this
study would initiate researchers to conduct further applications of pragmatic speech act therories on
Oromo proverbs like politeness strategies. The proverbs could also be studied from psychological, philosophical, sociological and anthropological perspectives to document the indigenous knowledge of
the speech community related to Maccaa Oromo marriage prover
