Communicating with Quotes

The use of quotations or proverbs to convey a message is an important communication technique in the Igbo society of southeastern Nigeria. Penfield contends that there are few, if any, satisfactory ethnographic investigations of where, why, how, and by whom or among whom proverbs are used, and the range of interactional situations in which they are used. Such a study, Penfield believes, would reveal the significant patterns and values of a particular society, and suggest concepts that would be useful in developing a general theory of quoting behavior and the use of proverbs.