Proverbs

[Louis Wei-lun Lu]

I agree with Matthew's observation that there exists variation in  
terms of the frequency and importance of proverbs. And I can't help  
but suspect that genre may also play a role in the usage variation of  
proverbs: Proverbs in Mandarin Chinese seem to me more frequent in  
written language but less so in conversation. Now back to Bernd's  
question, if my above hunch turns out correct, then the fact that most  
reference grammars (for lgs with a writing tradition) are based on  
written lg should partially explain why proverbs are left out.

Louis Wei-lun Lu




引述 Matthew Dryer <dryer at buffalo.edu>:

> 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 Idstr"om 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;?in'e [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 Ash'eninka Peren'e 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
>>
>>
>
>



-- 
Louis Wei-lun Lu (呂維倫)
Graduate Institute of Linguistics
National Taiwan University