Proverbium - Yearbook

Preface

Melita Aleksa Varga — 2023-07-16

CORPORA ISSUES IN PROTOPROVERBIALS AND POSTPROVERBIALS OF YORUBA CULTURE

Rasaq Atanda Ajadi — 2023-07-16

Paroemia has been established as residual knowledge bequeathed by culture and tradition. However, the fact that society is always in a state of flux has made the exploration of corpora on postproverbials expedient. This study explores the problem of corpora in postproverbial studies. Primarily, it used the desk research method to examine methodological issues in corpora studies of postproverbials to advance a data-driven approach to the study of postproverbials. It is observed that samples of ‘postproverbials’ are too minute to be considered significantly threatening to the proto-texts; more postproverbials would emerge while the existing protoproverbials will continue to feature and maintain influence on modern culture; the emerging postproverbials corpora would not constitute a significant threat or impediment to the proto-text as is sometimes feared. The study concludes that postproverbials are ephemeral or transient phenomena; while they may exist side-by-side with the protoproverbials for a while, they often vanish while new forms are minted from time to time. However, protoproverbials are permanently etched on communal consciousness. It is recommended that to maintain the integrity of postproverbial data and validate related arguments, the data gathering process and parameters for the classification of samples should be made more empirical.

EXPLORING YORUBA FIRE CULTURES THROUGH PROVERBS

Adeniyi Asiyanbi — 2023-07-16

This article argues that Yoruba proverbs are an essential source of popular wisdom on socio-environmental practices accessible through creative reconstruction and interpretation of their historical contexts. Learning from the everyday knowledge and accumulated wisdom of ordinary people holds significant promise at a time of unprecedented socio-environmental crisis and widespread calls for transformative change across scales. Drawing on the collection of Yoruba proverbs by Oyekan Owomoyela, broader Yoruba oral literature, Yoruba popular culture and a cross-disciplinary selection of academic literature, this article curates and reimagines nine Yoruba proverbs on the theme of fire, using these as an entry point to interrogate aspects of ecology and local understanding and practices of living with fires among the Yoruba people.

ADDENDUM TO G. B. BRYAN'S “THE PROVERBIAL SHERLOCK HOLMES”

Luis J. Tosina Fernández — 2023-07-16

The purpose of this paper is to reassess the use of proverbs in the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, taking as a starting point the article previously published by G. B. Bryan on this same topic in Proverbium in 1996. In it, Bryan came to the conclusion that proverbs did not abound in the series. For this reason, the collection of stories and the four novels published have been surveyed for their use of paremias in order to establish their frequency of appearance and how they are used by the author. Once a rather extensive catalog of sentences susceptible to being considered as proverbs had been gathered, they were individually checked against dictionaries to establish whether they could be labeled as such. After a detailed examination of the materials obtained, this paper contradicts the thesis presented by Bryan and demonstrates that Conan Doyle uses proverbs in his detective stories quite often, most frequently through the character of Holmes.

PROVERBIALITY IN THE REFORMATION CHRONICLE BY JOHANNES SALAT (1498–1561)

Stephan Frech — 2023-07-16

The chronicle of the Lucerne court clerk Johannes Salat describes the beginnings of the Swiss Reformation from a Catholic perspective. Through the wisdom attributed to proverbs, Salat places the events in a pre-structured interpretive context and remains impartial as
a chronicler. The study aims to show the use of proverbs in their concrete manifestations: Mostly they are integrated into the text as proverbial sayings or phrasemes and therefore require syntactic adaptation. In order to adapt
them to the context, their content is modified and often supplemented. Examples such as the Wolf im Schafspelz will be used to illustrate the linguistic tropes, in which proverbs and phrasemes can be recognised, with which the chronicler warns of the dangers that emanate from the teachings of Luther and Zwingli from an Old Faith perspective: Temptation, destruction and chaos.

THE DISCOURSE OF POWER/THE POWER OF DISCOURSE

Munejah Khan — 2023-07-16

The Valley of Kashmir has a rich Folklore and folk literature is an integral part of Kashmiri Culture. Folkloristics maintains that the message conveyed through folklore may appear simple but it is intertwined with complexities. This paper attempts to study the folklore of Kashmir through an analysis of Kashmiri proverbs to uncover the simple/complex message transmitted through proverbs. The endeavour is to highlight how folklore is informed by Power relations and how the conception of Power interlaces the content, milieu and purpose of folklore. Michel Foucault traces the role of discourse underlying seemingly neutral context of speech, representation and knowledge. Along with Foucault’s concept of discourse, insights from feminist theory have also been employed to expose the discourse of patriarchy, religion and authority in Kashmiri folk literature. The study investigates the power structure inherent in the proverbs of Kashmir and attempts to unravel how discourse constructs unequal power relations. The attempt is to illustrate how power abuse is enacted, reproduced and legitimized.

“TO USE BUFFALO STRENGTH”

Sewanou Martial Jupiter Lanmadousselo — 2023-07-16

An animal metaphor is spoken of when animal characteristics, among other things, are transferred to humans and their behaviour. In order to illustrate the peculiarity and character of the Fon language, 37 Fon (Benin) expressions are selected as examples in this study. The focus is entirely on animal metaphors. The selected Fon idioms are, on the one hand, transcribed and translated into German, and on the other hand, contextually annotated in order to highlight their semantic meanings. The latter is illustrated by example.

CONCEPTUALIZATION OF MONEY IN ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN PROVERBS

Polina Oleneva — 2023-07-16

The present article is an attempt to investigate the metaphorical dimension in English and Russian money proverbs. A sample of English and Russian proverbs have been selected from various sources such as dictionaries, previous research, and the internet. The analysis was within the framework of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory as suggested by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), and the force money system by Kövecses (2018). The analysis showed that the money concept in English and Russian proverbs can constitute both the source domain and target domain. Also, it was found that both languages mostly exhibit similarities in the conceptual metaphors that trigger off money proverbs. Nevertheless, In English proverbs, money as a source domain was slightly higher than it is in the Russian proverbs of money. On the contrary, Russian money proverbs showed that money constituted a target domain roughly more than it did in the English proverbs of money. This was an endeavour to explore conceptual metaphors in money proverbs in proverbs in two distinct languages. It is recommended to investigate the metaphors in further areas of proverbs such as health and human relationships between English and Russian.

„ANDERE LÄNDER, ANDERE SITTEN“

Aditya Rikfanto — 2023-07-16

Apart from their status as a cultural heritage that remains relevant at all times, some German proverbs also have comparable messages to Indonesian proverbs. Therefore, this study aims to compare some German and Indonesian proverbs in terms of pragmatics and semantics with the thematic delineation of customs and cultural norms. Baseline data for this study comes from the online corpus of the OWID Leibniz Institute and a concise German-Indonesian proverb dictionary. In addition, this research also applies the Google Scholar search function to determine how often proverbial texts appear in scientific literature. The results show that German proverbs referring to customs frequently appear in various academic contexts: „Andere Länder, andere Sitten“ (Other countries, other customs). This proverb is also comparable to an Indonesian proverb with the same theme. However, the semantic and pragmatic features of each proverb appeared differently. The German proverb tends to present the denotative statement without metaphorical abstraction, but it appears elliptical. The Indonesian proverb "Di mana Bumi dipijak, di situ langit dijunjung" (Where the Earth is trodden, there the sky is upheld) is somewhat metaphorical. At the same time, the elliptical structure does not appear.

“EACH ONE, TEACH ONE”

Raymond M. Summerville — 2023-07-16

Septima Poinsette Clark (1898-1987) is one of the masterminds behind the Civil Rights Movement (1954-1968). Clark frequently employed proverbs, and proverbial expressions as she worked diligently behind the scenes teaching literacy to the poor and disenfranchised so that they would be able to register themselves to vote and take part in political decision-making processes that impacted their lives daily. Clark’s autobiographies, interviews, and other biographical materials largely illustrate that proverbial language helped Clark to connect to people. Proverbial language also helped Clark to communicate important values, beliefs, and pedagogical philosophy. The adult literacy programs that Clark developed fueled the voting registration drives of several important organizations including: Highlander Folk School, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). This essay highlights some of the proverbial language that Clark used as she helped to shape the Civil Rights Movement.

A CONTEXTUAL-ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF NZEMA PROVERBS RELATED TO SOME ‘MEDICAL CONDITIONS’

Mohammed Yakub — 2023-07-16

Proverbs are terse but ‘condensed’ expressions which contain moral lessons. In every culture, proverbs form part of the nuggets of popular wisdom, expressed in the form of wise sayings (Maledo 2015). Among the Nzema of Ghana, proverbs permeate almost all communicative encounters. They are ‘injected’ into discourses to motivate people to behave well, and to repudiate vices in the society. This paper discusses the didactics and communicative values of Nzema proverbs related to health conditions (and impairments) such as blindness, deafness, leprosy, hunchback, goitre, hernia, rickets and migraine. Using primary data recorded during arbitration proceedings among the Nzema, the paper examines the advisory role of the proverbs. The findings demonstrate that many virtues are concealed in Nzema proverbs that incorporate certain medical conditions, which paradoxically are not about the mere experiences of such conditions; rather, the deeper meanings highlight the essence of hospitality, contentment, patience, hard-work, and genuine love among others. The paper has also shown that the Nzema employ such proverbs in appropriate discourse contexts to rebuke deviants, and to redirect the paths of members of the society. It is argued that the advisory messages entrenched in this category of proverbs largely promote ethical standards and help maintain social equilibrium and solidarity. The paper engages Hymes’ Ethnography of Communication model in the data analysis.

Shirley L. Arora (3 June 1930 - 23 March 2021)

Wolfgang Mieder — 2023-07-16

INTERNATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF NEW AND REPRINTED PROVERB COLLECTIONS

Wolfgang Mieder — 2023-07-16

INTERNATIONAL PROVERB SCHOLARSHIP: AN UPDATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Wolfgang Mieder — 2023-07-16

ON MODERN ANGLO-AMERICAN PROVERBS

Polina Oleneva — 2023-07-16

TWO BOOKS ON CARIBBEAN PROVERBS AND A SHORT ADDENDUM TO THE TOPIC OF CARIBBEAN AND AFRICAN PROVERBS

Peter Unseth — 2023-07-16