A Semantic Analysis of Rhetorical Figures in Jordanian Proverbs

Abstract

To the best of the researchers’ knowledge, no study thus, far has attempted to identify nor classify the standard types of rhetorical figures (tropes). Arabic proverbs commonly contain, not to mention Jordanian proverbs. This gap is what triggered the researchers to conduct the present study with the hope that it would motivate further research, and ultimately fill such a gap in the literature of Arabic paremiology. The present study attempts to provide a semantic analysis of the rhetorical figures found in Jordanian proverbs. The sample of the study consists of 345 proverbs (all with themes relating to women) retrieved from two large national proverb compendia, namely, al-Uzayzi’s (2012). The Jordan Heritage Encyclopedia, and al-Amad’s (2008) Jordanian Popular Proverbs. Norrick’s (1985) framework has been applied in the analysis of rhetorical figures, as well as in finding a correlation between the proverbs’ literal and figurative meanings vis á vis their standard proverbial interpretation (SPI). The results of the study reveal that of all the rhetorical figures found in the Arabic language, Jordanian proverbs seem to employ only a relatively limited number. Jordanian proverbs exhibit figures, such as, synecdoche, metaphor, metonymy, hyperbole, paradox and allusion; however, species-genus synecdoche turns out to be the most frequently used figure in Jordanian proverbs. The study also concludes that figuration (or metaphoricity) renders proverbs more generic, allowing them to be applicable to a wide variety of situations.