Proverbs

[Wallace Chafe]

We seem to have strayed pretty far from Bernd's question. Just a couple 
more miscellaneous remarks.

A long long time ago I started to write a grammar of Armenian in 
collaboration with Hasmig Seropian. For various reasons we never finished 
it, but I remember that we were in fact going to include a chapter on 
proverbs, with which Armenian is rife. I seem to remember that others had 
written about Armenian proverbs, but my memory could be faulty.

Marianne is certainly right about the prevalence of metaphor in Iroquois 
languages. One I especially like captures the idea of being amused or 
entertained, which is expressed as "stirring one's mind." Often it's in the 
context of telling stories.

Reference to "crying wolf" reminded me of coyote stories, but I don't know 
that coyote is ever cited as a model for how one should behave. Sometimes 
he wins and sometimes he loses, so imitating him could get one into big 
trouble.

Nobody mentioned puns, in which I have a special interest because of my 
broader interest in humor. If you're interested yourself, look at 
Polysynthetic Puns in UCPL 131 (1998).

Wally