Cover not available
Part of
Proverbs within Cognitive Linguistics: State of the art
Edited by Sadia Belkhir
[Cognitive Linguistic Studies in Cultural Contexts 16] 2024
► pp. 112–131

Chapter 5
Proverbs of Latin and French origin in the history of English

A socio-cognitive analysis

| University of Basel , Switzerland

The present study deals with proverbs of Latin and French origin adopted into English throughout its history. Dictionaries such as the Oxford English Dictionary Online (OED Online) serve as valuable sources to identify the different lexical units. The treatment of proverbs in lexicographical resources is compared to their current usage as reflected by a multitude of recent newspaper articles. This raises the question of how the uses of the various proverbs as described in dictionaries such as the OED differ from those in recent newspapers. A socio-cognitive perspective is paramount in order to determine the variety of emotionally-affective forces which may account for English speakers’ motivations for using the borrowed proverb instead of a native translation equivalent.

Keywords: borrowed proverbs, socio-cognitive approach, Latin, French, English
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data and methodology
  • 3.Latin and French proverbs in the history of English
    • 3.1The distribution, development, and contextual usage of Latin and French proverbs over the centuries
    • 3.2Motivations for the use of proverbs including socio-cognitive valuations and attitudes
  • 4.Summary and conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Online dictionaries and corpora
Published online: 30 May 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/clscc.16.05lan
References
Abrahams, R. D.
(1975) A sociolinguistic approach to proverbs. Midwestern Journal of Language and Folklore, 1, 60–4.Google Scholar
Barley, N.
(1972) A structural approach to the proverb and maxim with special reference to the Anglo-Saxon corpus. Proverbium, 20, 737–50.Google Scholar
Buja, E.
(2018) Proverb as a means of crossing cultural borders. Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica, 10, 85–97. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carstensen, B., & Galinsky, H.
(1975) Amerikanismen in der deutschen Gegenwartssprache. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
Croft, W. A.
(2009) Toward a social cognitive linguistics. In V. Evans, & S. Pourcel (Eds.), New directions in cognitive linguistics (pp. 395–420). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dirven, R., Goossens L., Putsey, Y., & Vorlat E.
(1982) The scene of linguistic action and its perspectivization by SPEAK, TALK, SAY, and TELL. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Divjak, D., & Gries S. Th.
(2006) Ways of trying in Russian: Clustering behavioral profiles. Journal of Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, 2, 23–60. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Durkin, P.
(1999) Root and Branch: Revising the etymological component of the OED. Transactions of the Philological Society, 97, 1–49. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Finnegan, R.
(2006) Proverbs in Africa. In W. Mieder, & A. Dundes (Eds.): Wisdom of manny: essays on the proverb (pp. 10–42). Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Geeraerts, D., Grondelaers, S., & Bakema, P.
(1994) The structure of lexical variation. Meaning, naming, and context. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Geeraerts, D., Kristiansen, G., & Peirsman, Y.
(2010) Advances in Cognitive Sociolinguistics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Glynn, D.
(2010) Synonymy, lexical fields, and grammatical constructions. A study in usage-based cognitive semantics. In H. Schmid, & S. Handl (Eds.): Cognitive foundations of linguistic usage patterns. Empirical studies (pp. 89–117). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grondelaers, S., Speelman D., & Geeraerts, D.
(2007) A case for a cognitive corpus linguistics. In M. Gonzalez-Marquez, I. Mittelberg, S. Coulson, & M. Spivey (Eds.), Methods in cognitive linguistics. (pp. 149–70). Amsterdam & Philadelpha: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hellmuth, T.
(2020) Frankreich im 19. Jahrhundert. Eine Kulturgeschichte. Wien: Böhlau Verlag. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hock, H., & Joseph, B.
(2019) Language history, language change, and language relationship. An introduction to historical and comparative linguistics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Holbek, B.
(1970) Proverb style. Proverbium, 15, 54–6.Google Scholar
Iyalla-Amadi, P. E.
(2014) Translational techniques as a teaching tool using culture-specific units: the case of French-English proverbs. Sino-US English Teaching, 11, 111–8.Google Scholar
Kristiansen, G., & Dirven, R.
(Eds.) (2008) Cognitive sociolinguistics. Language variation, cultural models, social systems. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lehrer, A.
(1982) Wine and conversation. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Newman, J., & Rice, S.
(2004a) Patterns of usage for English SIT, STAND, and LIE: A cognitively-inspired exploration in corpus linguistics. Cognitive Linguistics, 15, 351–96. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2004b) Aspect in the making: A corpus analysis of English aspect-marking prepositions. In S. Kemmer, & M. Achard (Eds.): Language, culture and mind (pp. 313–27). Stanford, CA: CSLI.Google Scholar
Norrick, N. R.
(1985) How proverbs mean. Semantic studies in English proverbs. Berlin: Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Orgel, S.
(2021) Wit’s treasury. Renaissance England and the classics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rudzka-Ostyn, B.
(1995) Metaphor, schema, invariance: the case of verbs of answering. In L. Goossens, P. Pauwels, B. Rudzka-Ostyn, A. Simon-Vandenbergen, & J. Vanparys (Eds.): By word of mouth, metaphor, metonymy and linguistic action in a cognitive perspective (pp. 205–44). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schmid, H.
(1993) Cottage, idea, start: Die Kategorisierung als Grundprinzip einer differenzierten Bedeutungsbeschreibung. Tübingen: Niemeyer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Smith, A.
(2011) Exploring cultural identity through proverbs and idioms in English, French and Spanish. Revista de Lenguas Modernas, 15, 261–72.Google Scholar
Speake, J.
(2015) Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Speelman, D., & Geeraerts, D.
(2009) Causes for causatives. The case of Dutch doen and laten. In T. Sanders, & E. Sweetser (Eds.): Causal categories in discourse and cognition (pp. 173–204). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tomasello, M.
(2003) Constructing a language. A usage-based theory of language acquisition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Zenner, E., Backus, A., & Winter-Froemel, E.
(Eds.) (2019) Cognitive contact linguistics. Placing usage, meaning and mind at the core of contact-induced variation and change. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar

Online dictionaries and corpora

LDOCE = Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Compiled by Pearson (Harlow); available online at [URL] (last accessed 30 August 2021)
Nexis Uni
Compiled by Lexis Nexis GmbH, Dusseldorf, Germany; available online at [URL] (last accessed 30 August 2021)
OALD = Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
Compiled by Oxford University Press; available online at [URL] (last accessed 30 August 2021)
OED = Oxford English Dictionary Online
. Murray, J., Bradley, H., Craigie, W., & Onions, Charles T. (Eds.) (1884–1933) The Oxford English Dictionary; Supplement (1972–86), ed. by R. Burchfield; Second ed. (1989), ed. by J. Simpson, & E. Weiner; Additions Series (1993–1997), ed. by J. Simpson, E. Weiner, & M. Proffitt; Third ed. (in progress) OED Online (March 2000), ed. by J. Simpson. Oxford. OED Online searchable at: <[URL]> (last accessed 30 August 2021).