Proverbs

[Matthew Dryer]

My impression based on examples involving proverbs in grammars is that 
there are clear geographical patterns in the frequency or importance of 
proverbs.In particular, they seem far more common in Africa than 
elsewhere in the world, though I recall seeing examples in languages of 
southeast Asia.

With regard to metaphor, I might point out the following recent volume

*Endangered Metaphors*

*Edited by Anna Idström and Elisabeth Piirainen*

University of Helsinki / Steinfurt, Germany

*In cooperation with Tiber F.M. Falzett*

[Cognitive Linguistic Studies in Cultural Contexts 
<http://benjamins.com/#catalog/books/clscc>, 2]  2012.  vi, 376 pp.

contains the following chapters dealing with languages of the Americas:

"Our language is very literal": Figurative expression in Dene Su;?iné 
[Athapaskan] <http://benjamins.com/#catalog/books/clscc.2.03ric>

/Sally Rice/

	

21 -- 76

"My heart falls out": Conceptualizations of body parts and emotion 
expressions in Beaver Athabascan 
<http://benjamins.com/#catalog/books/clscc.2.04pas>

/Carolina Pasamonik/

	

77 -- 102

Walking like a porcupine, talking like a raven: Figurative language in 
Upper Tanana Athabascan <http://benjamins.com/#catalog/books/clscc.2.05lov>

/Olga Lovick/

	

103 -- 122

Are Nahuatl riddles endangered conceptualizations? 
<http://benjamins.com/#catalog/books/clscc.2.06mon>

/Mercedes Montes de Oca Vega/

	

123 -- 144

Bodily-based conceptual metaphors in Ashéninka Perené myths and folk 
stories <http://benjamins.com/#catalog/books/clscc.2.07mih>

/Elena Mihas/

	

145 -- 160

	

Matthew

On 11/13/12 12:31 AM, Bernd Heine wrote:
> Looking through a range of grammars of languages across the world I am 
> surprised that proverbs are largely or entirely ignored in grammatical 
> descriptions. They appear occasionally in the exemplification of 
> structures but are essentially never discussed, e.g., as a discourse 
> type, or as illustrating a special kind of morphosyntactic structure 
> or relationship between form and meaning.
> To be sure, I could think of a number of reasons for that, but I find 
> none of them entirely convincing. Why should proverbs not have a place 
> in a (comprehensive) reference grammar? After all, they appear to 
> occur in all languages that have been appropriately documented, and 
> they are part of the knowledge speakers have about their language. 
> Please advise.
> Bernd
>
>