Folklore 4.2

The study of proverbs

1) positive use "time heals all wounds"
2) negative use "time waits for no one. if it is not used constructively, it passes you by"

-the syntactic structure is the same
-characteristic of MLK's style of speaking as well as sermon style
-used in different context
-proverb is heighten aesthetically and lifted out of context by the shattering of the previous lines' structure

ex. "so long"
"we've been pushed around so long; we've seen the victims of lynching mobs so long; we've been the victims of economic injustice so long--still the last hired and the first fired all over this nation (this shattered the previous 3 lines' structure/pattern).

-short and witty
-element of play
-poetic structure
-traditional expression that arises as part of everyday discourse (in literature, education, judicial settings, etc.)
-can deformalize the situation to make the situation seem more like an everyday discourse.
-self-sufficient: needing nothing more than an event of communication to bring it into play.
-powerful, strategic interactional devices
-tools for projecting social identities of the speaker and the audience: (wisdom, moral values, challenge to authority, blaison populaire/insult to another group---project all these onto another group to draw lines).
-fixed phrase

-Proverbs have distinct 2-part structure:
1) topic
2) comment
ex. "bird and a feather flock together"
-Must have a minimum of 2 words
-Semantic relationship between the 2 parts (topic and comment): you are asking people to think of the words in relation to one another.

1) Equational (positive equivalence) A=A
2) Oppositional (negative equivalence)
3) Causational/sequential (positive)

1)Identity: "enough is enough" "boys will be boys"
2)Equation of distinct elements: "time is money"

"the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak"

Positive:
-"A stitch in time saves nine"
-"a penny saved is a penny earned"

Negative:
-"two wrongs don't make a right"

1) Wellerism
2) Tom Swiftys
3) Anti-Proverbs
4) Shaggy Dog Stories Containing perverted proverbs

subtype of proverb
-"____" said the ___as he ____(conditional)___.

ex. "I see, said the blind man, as he picks up his hammer and saw"
"Business before pleasure, says the man before he kisses his neighbor's wife."

subtype of proverbs
-puns
-"I dropped the toothpaste!, said Tom crestfallen"
"I might as well be dead!, Tom croaked"

subtype of proverbs
-you have to know the original proverb to get it.
-2 texts: original and the one comment on that proverb.
"early to bed, early to rise, and makes a man wise/make a bachelor"

"love is blind....
Anti-proverb= "love is blind, but not catatonic" "love is blind, but marriage is an eye opener"

"He who last laughs...thinks the slowest"
"Old physicians never dies, (then anti proverb follows) they just lose their patients"

-long winded, containing entirely irrelevant details.
-usually performed around the campfire.
-need to know the proverb to get it.

-Gestural: show that proverbs (folklore in general) can be deeply woven into daily life (thumb up in Iran =american's middle finger, and "okay" in brazil means asshole)

-Texture (poetic structure divided in 2 parts by a comma "a stitch in time, saves nine" / Grammatical parallelism: line up the syntax/semantic in aesthetic way/ sets of stressed syllables/ Alliteration "look before you leap")

-Context (emic definition of proverbs and performance)