Proverbs Research Articles

Online Machine Translation Efficiency in Translating Fixed Expressions Between English and Arabic (Proverbs as a Case-in-Point)

Doubtless, Machine Translation has affected translation as a process and a product. This study tests MT's effectiveness in translating proverbs between English and Arabic. It investigates one important CAT tool device. It aims to attest which MT will be more communicative, semantic or literal giving target equivalent and clarifying the error type the MT would make. To achieve these aims, thirty proverbs, half Arabic and half English, have been randomly selected, taken from The Dictionary of Common English Proverbs Translated and Explained written by Attia (2004) and then translated using five different online MTs: Google, Reverso, Yandex, Systran, and Bing. As Alabbasi (2015) suggested, the researcher adopted Newmark's (1988) Taxonomy of translation methods, selecting three major divisions that include the other types in one way or another viz. Literal, Semantic and Communicative. Analyzing data, Kruskal-Wallis Test and Chi-square were used as well as descriptive statistics. It is found that the most translation method MT produced when faced with a proverb is the literal, semantic and communicative respectively. Bing is the most effective MT providing communicative proverbial equivalents. Bing and Google, in the same rank, provide semantic equivalents. Furthermore, the least effective MT among the five is Yandex. MT errors diverge between missing the implied meaning, weakly structured translations, wrong synonyms and meaning distorting.

Moving towards malaria elimination with safer treatment for children with G6PD deficiency

“An elephant which kills a rat is not a hero.” This African proverb highlights the necessity of moving towards malaria elimination, but not in a way that risks harm to people with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency.

영어 속담의 구조적 및 인지적 해석과 영한 대조 분석

The goal of this paper is to address the characteristics of syntactic and semantic structures of English proverbs and the contrastive analysis of English and Korean proverbs from a cognitive perspective. In English proverbs, linking verbs, deictic verbs, causative verbs, possessive verbs, imperative sentences, and antithesis·parallelism are found as characteristics of syntactic structures. From examining semantic structures, the words used in English proverbs are ambiguous, symbolic, non-compositional, and metaphoric. Moreover, personification is abundantly developed due to the non-human subject transitive verb constructions. As a result of comparing English and Korean proverbs, English shows the aspect of a result-precedence word order, whereas Korean has a cause-precedence word order.

Walking Together Indicator (WTI): Understanding and Measuring World Inequality

Socio-economic inequality may be addressed at a different scale. Its impact at a micro and macro level on very many social issues is well-known, as well as its effects on global development being extensively reported in literature, where inequality is often seen as a clear barrier on the path to a sustainable development. That becomes extremely critical in light of major global challenges, such as climate change. The quantification of inequality in the different contexts, its interpretation, as well as its impact on society at a different level are object of major interest and discussion within the scientific community. Inspired by the famous African proverb “if you want to go fast go alone; If you want to go far go together”, we propose an indicator—Walking Together Indicator (WTI), based on a simple model to foster transparency and broad communication. It relies on the statistical standard deviation to facilitate the measurement of inequality looking at single metrics (e.g., GDP) as well as considering broad categories (e.g., Economy) composed of multiple indicators. Despite evident limitations, simplifications (context-less comparison among countries) and approximations (significant lack of data), the study conducted on well-known macro indicators presents a fundamental coherence in the result. Indeed, it shows a reducing inequality in the main trends. On the other side, the performed computations also point out a relevant exception for the main economic indicator, which is characterised, overall, by an increasing inequality among the considered countries. Such a contrasting trend is partially explainable looking at the simplifications in the model, which neither considers dependencies among indicators nor assumes weighting. The indicator provides a very encouraging and optimistic figure. However, the recent pandemic has shown a world running at different speeds. It advises a more conservative interpretation of the indicator as the exception related to economy is relevant.

African Proverbs, Riddles, and Narratives as Pedagogy: African Deep Thought in Africana Studies

Critical thinking is foundational in American higher education, and yet the approaches are largely grounded in European and Euro-American thought. It behooves Africana Studies, then, to develop an African-centered approach to critical thinking and related pedagogical approaches. This article argues for employing African proverbs (wise sayings), riddles (verbal puzzles), and narratives (stories) as culturally grounded and relevant pedagogical practices that promote African Deep Thought which is an African-centered approach to critical thinking. The objective of this article is to advance African proverbs, riddles, and narratives as viable African-centered approaches to critical thinking. Secondly, it enhances African proverbs, riddles, and narratives as culturally relevant pedagogy for grounding students of Africana studies in African cultural values. Lastly, the article contributes to the existing literature on decentering European and Euro-American centered approaches to education by diversifying basic assumptions, core concepts, and pedagogical approaches in higher education. The article presents observations and reflections on student responses to African proverbs, riddles, and narratives in two Africana Studies courses.

Protective Community Norms and Mental Health Risks for Severe Physical Abuse: Lessons From a Nationally Representative Study of Ghana.

Although it has become axiomatic to quote an African proverb in discussions of child well-being, attempts to draw concrete and positive lessons from how African communities respond to and mitigate child maltreatment are comparatively few. This study tested the hypothesis that the collective value of Abiriwatia in Ghana, which supports legitimate norms of community obligations to care for children, could be protective against physical abuse. It also examined the claim that knowledge of the familial situation of community members, generated through Abiriwatia, may help them to act to mitigate the risk of caregiver's borderline personality disorder (BPD) features. We obtained a nationally representative sample of 1,100 female caregivers from 22 Ghanaian settlements and tested the hypotheses using multilevel models. Controlling for community-level physical abuse, living in a community with high levels of Abiriwatia childcare and community authority values is associated with lower levels of very severe physical abuse, and Abiriwatia childcare may mitigate risk from the caregiver's BPD features. Within Ghana, encouraging positive and protective aspects of traditional Ghanaian values and working to reinstate respect for these values may have positive outcomes for children. Interventions to reduce child maltreatment should be developed with reference to Abiriwatia childcare values.

A cross-cultural linguistic analysis of the gendered representations of “Wife” in Egyptian Arabic and American English Proverbs

This study investigates how language, gender, and culture are intertwined in two purpose-built corpora of Egyptian Arabic and American English proverbs. It discusses the ideological representations of the potentially gendered term “wife” in such proverbs, as well as the cultural affinities and discrepancies around them. The study has methodically operated at three stages, drawing on theoretical insights from feminist critical discourse analysis and conceptual metaphor theory: (1) determining the frequency of Arabic and English proverbs that represent the social actor “wife” in terms of the various socio-cultural roles assigned to them; (2) demarcating and comparing the principal themes and ideologies associated with the proverbial usage of the lexical term “wife” in Egyptian and American cultures; and (3) describing the underlying source domains that conceptually underpin and discursively legitimatize such themes and ideologies. Results revealed that, firstly, not all of the social functions associated with “wife” are covered in the American-English corpus due to cultural differences regarding the concept of the extended family. Second, the Egyptian-Arabic corpus often portrays the social actor “wife” negatively. Thirdly, to control the public mind regarding gender power dynamics, both corpora shared certain source domains. The wife’s negative portrayals are also used to justify gender hegemony and keep women suppressed, marginalized, and stigmatized.

LINGUOCULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ENGLISH AND UZBEK PROVERBS

Today, while intensive research is being carried out on Proverbs, the study of all aspects of Proverbs is one of the main tasks of the field of paremiology. We cannot help but dwell on their linguocultural aspects in the study of comparative aspects of Proverbs. Through it, we try to show similar and different sides of proverbs in the languages we are researching, the culture and specific mentality of the people who own that language. In this article, we will try to describe the relationship of language and culture in the analysis of the linguocultural aspects of Uzbek and English proverbs, consider the similarities of proverbs in Uzbek and English in terms of subject matter and take a deeper approach to such issues as the mentality in them and the expression of the national character.

The Legitimization of Gender Bias in Selected English Proverbs

The study of language and gender reveals how language works as a symbolic tool to construct and preserve personal, social, and cultural aspects and identities, going beyond merely documenting the distinctions between men's and women's linguistic patterns. Thus, it is better to tackle proverbs as data for being loaded with important themes, mainly, gender inequality and prejudiced views.The paper is achieved from the thesis of Ideologies behind Gender Bias in Selected English and Arabic Proverbs: A Pragma-Critical Discourse Analysis, as a requirement to be proposed to the Examining Committee.The study attempts to examine sexist proverbs pragmatically to prove the legitimation of the ideological aspects of gender bias in terms of speech act. This leads to a major aim the study sets in advance, which is to refute the concept of gender neutrality.The research hypothesizes: 1. Proverbs are performative speech acts. Proverbial speech acts both constitute and instigate gender discrimination. 2. Gender bias is legitimized in the proverbial discourse that blocks the way towards gender neutrality.The analysis concludes: (1) Proverbs provide insight into gender dynamics in terms of locutions and lexical triggers (father, mother, etc.). Proverbs are discriminatory speech acts in which hate, and discrimination are promoted and instigated by the social and traditional authorities. (2) Gender bias and the ideologies behind it are legitimized in proverbs by the social authority like, the personal and model authority of father; and the traditionality where it is generally not opposed.

"A CONTRASTIVE APPROACH TO ENGLISH AND ITALIAN PROVERBS ON BODY PARTS (TEACHING ACTIVITIES)"

The richness and frequency of Italian and English proverbs containing terms as head - testa, capo, eye - occhio, forehead - fronte , nose - naso, mouth - bocca, hand - mano, arm - braccio leg/foot piede, etc. all referring to different parts of the body, are well known. The aim of the present paper is to make a detailed contrastive analysis of the proverbs containing these terms as a dominant term in the two languages, based on their semantic classification. Moreover, the second part of the paper makes some useful suggestions for teaching and learning such proverbs.

New Models of Azerbaijani, Turkish and English Proverbs

"There are now many works on this subject in academic journals around the world. The reason is very simple: there are enough intelligent people who bow and kneel before the depth, wisdom, power, intelligence and reason of the untold wealth of the peopleʼs history called folklore. This study examines several new models of proverbs and their structural-semantic analysis, not found either in reality or in academic folklore archives. It is noted that these models and terms are used in the literature for the first time by the author of these lines. These are the following: 1) dildonmez (unrelenting) proverbs – here the consonants “l” and “r” are not used, causing the tongue to turn in the mouth; in other words, the language in such works should remain in a stable state and not change its state during the performance; 2) evvel-akhir (beginning-end) proverbs – (literally “beginning-end”, i.e. the same sound at the beginning and at the end of the line); 3) chokhyarpag (multi-leaved) proverbs – literally “multi-leaf”; where the text is built on cross rhymes and named according to the number of cross lines: ikiyarpag/goshayarpag (two-leaved/double leaved), uchyarpag (three-leaved), dordyarpag (four-leaved), beshyarpag (five-leaved), etc. The results of the study show that the internal semantics of proverbs hides an inexhaustible stylistic richness, as well as reveal the possibility of creating images of languages. It is noted that, from the point of view of the modern system of thinking, the new models of approach of Azerbaijani, Turkish and English proverbs “dildonmez”, “evvel-akhir” and “chokhyarpag” require their systematic study, as well as their transmission to the younger generations. Because today the world needs more intellectual weapons, and this is the need of the hour. Keywords: Azerbaijani folklore, Turkish folklore, English folklore, “dildonmez” proverbs, “evvel-akhir” proverbs, “chokhyarpag” proverbs, structural-semantic analysis."

How the Saudi EFL Students at Undergraduate Level Translate English Proverbs into Arabic: Problems, Strategies and Solutions

How the Saudi EFL Students at Undergraduate Level Translate English Proverbs into Arabic: Problems, Strategies and Solutions

THE REPETITION OF ENGLISH PROVERBS

Repetition is one of the main linguistic tools that could be used in so many different ways to communicate ideas without stating that the repeated word is the importance. The repeated is significant to the addressee since they hear it and process twice or more. This paper has conveyed that proverbs in English can carry out different level of meanings. Repetition appears in so many forms. The researcher has showed the semantic and the phonological levels of repletion since they are the most noticeable ones in language. The researcher then took example of English proverbs and explain the various repetition forms and function. Therefore, the researcher has concluded that repetition is used in different forms that could semantic, formal or full.

CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR IN ENGLISH PROVERBS

This article highlights the conceptual metaphors in English proverbs.

Made in Africa: Understanding Indigenous African approaches to democracy, human rights, and governance evaluation through the study of proverbs

AbstractThe African Evaluation Association (AfrEA) plays a unique role as the pan‐Africa umbrella organization of African Voluntary Organizations for Professional Development (VOPEs). This chapter is in a self‐interview format with the former Chief of AfrEA Secretariat and discusses an AfrEA initiative called Made in Africa Evaluation (MAE). Part of MAE considers how Indigenous African proverbs contribute to improved evaluation practices in the African context. This interview discusses the approach to the use of proverbs with reference to democracy assistance, human rights, and governance programs (DRG).

The Problem of Cross-Cultural Studies in English Proverbs

Proverbs are important part of culture in many different ethnos.Proverbs are cultural will and ancient heritage of every nation. Language is peoples’ treasure, which reveals national history, worldvision and way of living.Proverbs reveal all spheres of the nation’s such as work, belief, science etc.While exploring phrasal expressions the concept of culture is core item showing material or social reality of the nation. The concept of culture  measures national activities when language reveals the national way of thinking.

Kyriarchy and the Ever-Consuming Proverbial “Kraal of the Heart”? Casting a Bosadi Gaze on South Africa, Post-Independence

The Northern Sotho proverb, lešaka la pelo, ga le tlale—literally, “the kraal of a (human) heart does not get full”—has the tenor that foregrounds the human tendency to be greedy and self-serving. In a nutshell, the more material goods one acquires, the more one would like to have. Taking my cue from the honoree, Dr. Mercy Amba Oduyoye, who taught us that African proverbs with androcentric undertones may be used to resist and challenge patriarchy (read: kyriarchy in the present text), this essay is an attempt to sketch a brief herstory of the situation of African-South African women in apartheid South Africa, and the role (albeit, relatively speaking, not always celebrated) which they played in the struggle against the policy of apartheid. Specifically, if one casts a bosadi (womanhood-redefined) gaze at women’s situation in the post-apartheid era (28 years later), an era that has been characterized by among other things, self-serving, greedy, and corrupt leaders, it becomes evident that these women, basically, continue to receive the short end of the stick. Yet the God who was proclaimed by black theologians and liberationist biblical scholars in apartheid South Africa, One that was proclaimed by the Circle of Concern African Women Theologians, including Oduyoye, takes sides with the oppressed. There is, accordingly, a call for justice-seeking leaders to dismantle kyriarchy by defeating the temptation to fill the ever-consuming proverbial kraal of the heart, thus humanizing South Africa again.

A corpus-based empirical analysis of pragmatics of English proverbs with graduonymy

Nowadays, pragmatic features of proverbs are of great interest to linguists as proverbs are often used in conversations to polish speech stylistically, semantically and, at the same time, pragmatically. Paradigms such as synonymy, antonymy and polysemy were investigated as lexical-semantic relations in proverbial content in recent works. This research is devoted to analysing another lexical-semantic relation in proverbial content: graduonymic relations and their types, which are frequently seen in proverbial content, and their role in the pragmatic peculiarities of proverbs in particular contexts. The empiric corpus-based analysis of proverbs containing graduonyms in the chosen text fragments that were created by native speakers of the English language served to disclose the pragmatics of proverbs such as graduonyms function as various types of deixis, emphasise the speech act steps of the proverb and increase the pragmatic potential of the proverb. The results of the paper are discussed in the context of theoretical and pragmatic perspectives.
 Keywords: Deixis, graduonymy, pragmatics, proverb, speech act;

English proverbs as a reflection of social stereotypes

Social stereotypes are extremely generalized and simplified views about various subjects and social phenomena that have evolved in the course of society development. Proverbs are also generalized statements that have been formulated by people throughout the history. The aim of our research is to prove that the proverbs are actually the reflection of social stereotypes that have long been affecting social relations. Using the method of continuous sampling we have selected the English proverbs that contain the main categories of existing stereotypes: gender, age, ethnic and professional stereotypes. We have studied the most wide-spread stereotypes about men and women, elderly people, popular occupations as well as some stereotyped notions of the British about themselves and have chosen the proverbs illustrating these generalized beliefs. We have shown that the laconic, metaphoric and memorable form of proverbs facilitates their rooting in the peoples consciousness and passing them on practically unchanged from generation to generation. Statistical and comparative analysis made it possible to group the proverbs on the basis of stereotype categories and to find out their percentage ratio. The proverbs containing gender stereotypes appear to be most numerous with the prevailing number of sayings about women. Age stereotypes reflected in the proverbs are mostly related to elderly people. Professional stereotypes embrace a small number of occupations and those few are most often of negative character. Ethnic stereotypes encountered in the proverbs represent the British most favorably. The relevance of the paper lies in the fact that the study of stereotypes as reflected in the proverbs would contribute to making people give up stereotyped thinking in favour of acquiring their own attitudes and viewpoints.

River City Drumbeat

River City Drumbeat