[Lingtyp] Metaphorical subject-object order in proverbs with parallel sentences

[Jesse P. Gates]

Dear Ian,

Here is an example from Hebrew poetry. This example has parallelism, but not exactly as tight parallelism as your Korean and Mongolian examples:

Psalm 133:1

How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! 
It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, 
running down on Aaron's beard, down upon the collar of his robes.
It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion.

Target domain ("metaphorical subject”):

How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! 

Source domain  ("metaphorical object”):

It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, 
running down on Aaron's beard, down upon the collar of his robes.
It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion.

There are more of these in Hebrew parallelism, but I think the vast majority are source domain first, then target domain following. 


Best regards,

Jesse P. Gates, PhD
Nankai University, School of Literature 南开大学文学院
https://nankai.academia.edu/JesseGates
https://jessegates.academia.edu




> On Jun 18, 2021, at 12:08 AM, JOO, Ian [Student] <ian.joo at connect.polyu.hk> wrote:
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> in Korean proverbs consisting of two parallel sentences, the metaphorical object precedes the metaphorical subject:
> 호랑이는 죽어서 가죽을 남기고, 사람은 죽어서 이름을 남긴다. A tiger leaves its hide when it dies, and a person leaves their name when they die.
> 열 길 물 속은 알아도 한 길 사람 속은 모른다. You can see through ten feet deep water, but you cannot see through a one foot deep heart.
> In these proverbs, the metaphorical objects (tiger, water) precede the metaphorical subjects (person, heart).
> I have been assuming that this is the “natural” way of making a parallel comparison, until I came across Mongolian proverbs today that have the opposite structure:  
> Хүн ёс дагана, нохой яс дагана. A person follows traditions, and a dog follows bones.
> Уур биеийг зовоодог, уул морийг зовоодог. The anger torments the body, and the mountain torments the horse.
> I assume here that the person and the body are being compared to the dog and the horse (and not the other way around).
> Is this metaphorical subject - metaphorical object order common in proverbs of other languages as well?
> 
> From Hong Kong,
> Ian
> 
> 
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