Cultural values have been categorized into two according to Odor (2002:):
a. Material cultural values
b. Non- material cultural values
Material cultural values include all that the people of a particular society have created or developed for their own use and comfort and which they can be identified with. These include the acts and patterns of building houses, the fabrication of local tools or implements for farming, fishing, hunting and even excavation, the arts and crafts of the Benin, Yoruba, Hausa- Fulani, Igbo and Kanuri people and finally the different patterns of dressing amongst the people.
The Non- material cultural values predominantly include language, attitudinal values and beliefs, philosophy, literature and festival of the people.
Also, according to Aghaulu (1996:80), the non-material cultural refer to those aspects of human activities that are transmitted from generation through process of socialization. These have given rise to the old cultural values of modesty, integrity probity and highly prized scholarstic attainments (Abamba, 2005:22) high respect for constituted authorities and elders as well as human life, and respect for human dignity and integrity rather than money. There is a dire need to re-orientate our educational system towards the blending of creativity and pragmatism.
There are four ways by which cultural values are formed.
1. Environmental Adaptations
2. Historical factors
3. Social and economic evolution
4. Contact with other cultural values
In the Nigerian aspects, there are seven aspects of traditional education among the Yoruba people including development of later physical skills, respect for elders and peers, intellectual development, vocational development, community participation, development of ethical character and promotion of cultural heritage (Fafunwa, 1983).
The concept of culture can be linked to the customs and beliefs, art, music, literature, way of life and social organization of a particular group of people. In other words, it is associated with the beliefs and attitudes about something that people in a particular group or organization share, which are to a large extent preserved in and transmitted through the language they interact with. Thus, the way of life of the people is intimately bound up with their language (Alagbe, 2007).
This means that language being the medium for communicating thoughts, emotions and exaltations, that is for effecting an understanding among men, has a role to play in preserving the charm, attractiveness, sanctity and building nature of cultural heritage in our society. In as much as culture binds people together, language binds people more closely together. This shows that culture cannot be effectively displayed without the instrumentality of language.
UNESCO (1983) in Odunsi (1994) notes that there is no foreign language that can adequately and effectively take the place of the indigenous language and to disregard the indigenous language will tantamount to jeopardizing the mental development of the child. It is noted that the government has given serious attention to the language issues in Nigeria. The stand of the government is hinged on the fact that it realizes the role of indigenous languages in national integration and the promotion and preservation of culture. This is the reason why in Europe, North America, Russia, Japan, China and other developed countries, education of the child is done through the indigenous language for primary, secondary and university education (Fafunwa 1983). Those nations recognize the importance of culture in teaching, as discussed by UNESCO (1951) thus:
It is axiomatic that the best medium of teaching a child is his mother tongue. Psychologically, it is the system of meaningful sign that his mind work automatically for expression and understanding. Educationally, he learns more quickly through it that through an unfamiliar linguistic medium.
In spite of government efforts at promoting the indigenous languages in Nigerian, most of the students in the secondary school appear not interested in learning the languages (Awoniyi 1978 cited on Makinde 1999).
It is clear that some emotions and exaltations can only be evoked through the traditional language; otherwise such expressions would lose all its meanings when imparted in a foreign tongue. The truth is that nothing tends to broaden the mental out look of a man more than his understanding of his / her language and ability to express his / her cultures through it. For a better understanding of the Yoruba cultural values and her people in their environment, we shall adopt Grice (1975) cooperative principle to investigate the kinds of language used and how meaningful they are culturally.
Grice’s Co-operative principles
The co-operatives principle (CP) popularized by Grice (1975) is said to be one of the famous theories of linguistic pragmatics. It is otherwise referred to as conversational implicatures. The principles subsume a number of maxims, which specify the conventions which participants in a conversation should ordinarily obey.
These four maxims are as follows:
1. Maxim of Quality: It has to do with the amount of information given by a speaker. That is,
a. Make your contribution as informative as is required
b. Do not make your contribution more informative than required.
2. Maxim of Quality: it has to do with giving a valuable information .That is,
a. Do not say what you believe is false.
b. Do not say that, of which you lack adequate evidence
3. Maxim of Relation: It has to do with making useful information to the people. That is, to be relevant.
4. Maxim of Manner: This maxim has an overall instruction of being perspicuous.
It is subdivided into the following.
a. Avoid ambiguity (more than one meaning)
b. Avoid obscurity (meaning less statement)
c. Being orderly.
In conclusion nothing tends to broaden the mental outlook of a man more than knowing his language and through it, understands the culture it represents.
The idea of struggling to preserve and cultivate the Yoruba language by the Yoruba’s is simply because the language has an emotional and a spiritual value for them, and by giving it up they would be sacrificing part of their birthright.
a. Material cultural values
b. Non- material cultural values
Material cultural values include all that the people of a particular society have created or developed for their own use and comfort and which they can be identified with. These include the acts and patterns of building houses, the fabrication of local tools or implements for farming, fishing, hunting and even excavation, the arts and crafts of the Benin, Yoruba, Hausa- Fulani, Igbo and Kanuri people and finally the different patterns of dressing amongst the people.
The Non- material cultural values predominantly include language, attitudinal values and beliefs, philosophy, literature and festival of the people.
Also, according to Aghaulu (1996:80), the non-material cultural refer to those aspects of human activities that are transmitted from generation through process of socialization. These have given rise to the old cultural values of modesty, integrity probity and highly prized scholarstic attainments (Abamba, 2005:22) high respect for constituted authorities and elders as well as human life, and respect for human dignity and integrity rather than money. There is a dire need to re-orientate our educational system towards the blending of creativity and pragmatism.
There are four ways by which cultural values are formed.
1. Environmental Adaptations
2. Historical factors
3. Social and economic evolution
4. Contact with other cultural values
In the Nigerian aspects, there are seven aspects of traditional education among the Yoruba people including development of later physical skills, respect for elders and peers, intellectual development, vocational development, community participation, development of ethical character and promotion of cultural heritage (Fafunwa, 1983).
The concept of culture can be linked to the customs and beliefs, art, music, literature, way of life and social organization of a particular group of people. In other words, it is associated with the beliefs and attitudes about something that people in a particular group or organization share, which are to a large extent preserved in and transmitted through the language they interact with. Thus, the way of life of the people is intimately bound up with their language (Alagbe, 2007).
This means that language being the medium for communicating thoughts, emotions and exaltations, that is for effecting an understanding among men, has a role to play in preserving the charm, attractiveness, sanctity and building nature of cultural heritage in our society. In as much as culture binds people together, language binds people more closely together. This shows that culture cannot be effectively displayed without the instrumentality of language.
UNESCO (1983) in Odunsi (1994) notes that there is no foreign language that can adequately and effectively take the place of the indigenous language and to disregard the indigenous language will tantamount to jeopardizing the mental development of the child. It is noted that the government has given serious attention to the language issues in Nigeria. The stand of the government is hinged on the fact that it realizes the role of indigenous languages in national integration and the promotion and preservation of culture. This is the reason why in Europe, North America, Russia, Japan, China and other developed countries, education of the child is done through the indigenous language for primary, secondary and university education (Fafunwa 1983). Those nations recognize the importance of culture in teaching, as discussed by UNESCO (1951) thus:
It is axiomatic that the best medium of teaching a child is his mother tongue. Psychologically, it is the system of meaningful sign that his mind work automatically for expression and understanding. Educationally, he learns more quickly through it that through an unfamiliar linguistic medium.
In spite of government efforts at promoting the indigenous languages in Nigerian, most of the students in the secondary school appear not interested in learning the languages (Awoniyi 1978 cited on Makinde 1999).
It is clear that some emotions and exaltations can only be evoked through the traditional language; otherwise such expressions would lose all its meanings when imparted in a foreign tongue. The truth is that nothing tends to broaden the mental out look of a man more than his understanding of his / her language and ability to express his / her cultures through it. For a better understanding of the Yoruba cultural values and her people in their environment, we shall adopt Grice (1975) cooperative principle to investigate the kinds of language used and how meaningful they are culturally.
Grice’s Co-operative principles
The co-operatives principle (CP) popularized by Grice (1975) is said to be one of the famous theories of linguistic pragmatics. It is otherwise referred to as conversational implicatures. The principles subsume a number of maxims, which specify the conventions which participants in a conversation should ordinarily obey.
These four maxims are as follows:
1. Maxim of Quality: It has to do with the amount of information given by a speaker. That is,
a. Make your contribution as informative as is required
b. Do not make your contribution more informative than required.
2. Maxim of Quality: it has to do with giving a valuable information .That is,
a. Do not say what you believe is false.
b. Do not say that, of which you lack adequate evidence
3. Maxim of Relation: It has to do with making useful information to the people. That is, to be relevant.
4. Maxim of Manner: This maxim has an overall instruction of being perspicuous.
It is subdivided into the following.
a. Avoid ambiguity (more than one meaning)
b. Avoid obscurity (meaning less statement)
c. Being orderly.
In conclusion nothing tends to broaden the mental outlook of a man more than knowing his language and through it, understands the culture it represents.
The idea of struggling to preserve and cultivate the Yoruba language by the Yoruba’s is simply because the language has an emotional and a spiritual value for them, and by giving it up they would be sacrificing part of their birthright.
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