Speaker
Description
The project aims to show the high range of diversity of proverbs vocabulary in their multiple linguistic versions, and simultaneously, detect few proverbs which apply uniform vocabulary in the studied languages (Europe, Mediterranean and beyond). The study is not exhaustive, just the opposite, it is at a very initial, preliminary stage, but has the potential to grow into a broader and systematic paremiological project. Proverbs are very dynamic and also very conservative folk creations, they belong to the verbal/spoken speech, that is why in their majority proverbs are very ancient pieces of folk literature dating back to pre-scriptural ages of human history. In their metaphorical semantics and short and rhythmic structure, proverbs enable the conveyance of complex ideas in a concise and clear form. That is why they are found in all registers ranging from folk tales and to philosophical tractates.
Methodology: The initial task was to choose a Spanish proverb from the site: refranero.cvc.cervantes.es and find its equivalents in other languages, such as English, German, French, Italian, and other languages from the Central and Eastern Europe, Mediterranean and Central Asia regions, depending on student own native language(s). Thus we obtained the multiple linguistic versions of some 12 proverbs. Next, students had to analyze their literal and metaphoric meanings and compare the vocabulary and morpho-syntactic structures applied in the different languages.
Results: Two Types of proverbs emerged: those which are characterized with high degree of lexical diversity in their multilinguistic equivalents (Type I) and those characterized by the absence of diversity, i.e. they are uniform both in terms of vocabulary and grammatical structures in all their multilinguistic equivalents.
In particular, Type I (diverse) proverbs have different agents who perform diverse actions rendering the same meaning/ wisdom, for instance: the donkey who goes to Mekka returns the same donkey and the monkey who gets dress in silk, remains the same monkey. In turn Type II (uniform) proverbs preserve the same vocabulary and semantics in all their cross-linguistic versions, for instance: Better late than never / Más vale tarde que nunca, etc. applies the same structure all over European and Asian languages.
Type I proverbs have the following syntactic and semantic structure: Agent + verb+ object(s);
Type II proverbs have the following syntactic and semantic structure: verb+ adverb(s).
Hypothesis: Proverbs syntactic structure determines their multilinguistic lexical diversity or uniformity.
Further studies: Further studies are needed to confirm, rule out and precise the emerging hypothesis which requires the expansion of the proverbial corpus and finding their multilinguistic equivalents in the optimum scenario in consultation with native speakers and further grouping into Type I or Type II based on their semantic and syntactic analysis.
