The effect of the changing society on the Turkish proverbs

Abstract

Proverbs, the product of oral literature,
 establish strong links between past and future, ensuring the continuity of
 culture. However, changes in societies have caused a contradiction between the
 daily culture and traditional proverbs; therefore, proverbs go through a
 process of transformation, mostly in a humorous way.  Individuals who do not find the appropriate
 proverbs for the new experiences have adapted the existing proverbs to the new
 life by changing the content and wisdom of proverbs through addicting,
 replacing or distracting the lexis. In other words, the transformed proverbs,
 which are then called as anti-proverbs, are created by changing the meaning and
 the structure of traditional proverbs in order to express new wisdom and
 innovations or to draw attention to the old and new. The development of
 technology, the increase within using social media, the exchange of traditional
 values ​​in society, the rise of notions such as individualism, self-interest
 and the economic problems are some of the factors that play a significant role
 in the changing of proverbs. In this study, 1368 anti-proverbs collected from
 various sources such as books, newspapers, advertisement, television, social
 media, songs have been evaluated; however, 39 anti-proverbs derived from 28
 proverbs have been analyzed based on each factor indicated in the study. The
 Turkish anti-proverbs reveal that there have been changes in the value of some
 notions such as knowledge, intellectuality, the sense of belonging, honesty,
 kindness and facts such as the increase in the events of violence, financial
 problems, the power and effect of social media, which have an immediate effect
 on the mentality and behavioral ethics of Turkish society.