Proverbs

Mike Morgan mwmbombay at gmail.com
Tue Nov 13 06:25:34 UTC 2012


Bernd,

I totally agree. Should but aren't.

Like you I too can think of a number of reasons for that, but I too am
not entirely convinced. But I will make the reasons I can think of
explicit

1) The fact that even where Reference Grammars do discuss discourse at
all (which is probably a minority of the time), they rarely do it
deeply enough to discuss different TYPEs of discourse (i.e. genres).
Reference Grammars with appended text samples SOMETIMES contain a
variety of genres, but not always, and rarely are there comments
anywhere in the grammar which addresses any of the difference between
the genres.

2) The feeling that proverbs contain 'irregular" and "incomplete"
grammar ... proverbs like "Once Bitten, twice shy", "Neither borrower
nor lender be", etc. Poetry is also excluded for a similar reason.
And, of course, some theoretical traditions are more inclined to
ignore (sweep under the rug with an *?) anything they see as abnormal.

3) Proverbs often contain elements of diachronicity, and we have ALL
been taught not to confuse synchronic language description with
historical linguistics, and the best way to do that is by excluding
anything that smacks (or might smack) of a languages history.

Proverbs are used all the time in L2 instruction, and most language
learners LOVE them. Language learners are usually just as interested
in the cultures and in the languages, and proverbs supposedly give us
great insight into cultures. Maybe that leads to a (4)th reason:
Proverbs and such are felt to be MORE a part of culture than anything
else (and hence extra-linguistic)

And, to the category of neglected genres which SHOULD be considered
for  I will add : RIDDLES. Analysis and discssion of these might be
less abnormal (i.e. interesting) structurally, but certainly would
contribute a lot to any treatment of of semantics.



-- 
mwm || *U*C> || mike || माईक || мика || マイク (aka Dr Michael W Morgan)
sign language linguist / linguistic typologist
academic adviser, Nepal Sign Language Training and Research
NDFN, Kathmandu, Nepal



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