The Function Of Proverbs In Discourse
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The Function of Proverbs in Discourse
Author: Elías Domínguez Barajas
language: en
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Release Date: 2010
Grounded primarily in the ethnography of communication and aligned with the multidisciplinarity of discourse analysis, the book examines the use of proverbs in the daily life of a social network of Mexican-origin transnational families in Chicago and Michoacán, Mexico. Various and detailed analyses of actual proverb use reveal that proverbs in this particular population function as a highly contextualized communicative strategy that serves four discrete social functions: to argue, to advise, to establish rapport, and to entertain. Proposing that the social and cognitive aspects of language use must be combined for a complete understanding of how such genres of language are actually used by regular people in daily life, the author shows how ordinary people use sophisticated cognitive processes to interpret the socially-relevant meanings of proverbs in everyday conversation. The book provides an unusual mix of contextualized discourse analysis that is ethnographic, linguistic, and cognitive, yielding much needed insight into a segment of the Mexican-origin population of the Midwestern U.S., a population whose increasing importance and size is often mentioned, but about which precious few linguistic studies have been conducted. The volume not only helps to fill this void but it is also one of the few studies that focuses on the impact of transnationalism on linguistic practices, regardless of cultural group. Departing from the conventional approach of ignoring the role of everyday-language use in order to focus exclusively on culture, economics, or migrant patterns, the book makes linguistic practice the central issue, and thus affirms that it is language that weaves together the two distant sites of transnational communities, providing a fertile area for understanding the perspectives of the transmigrants themselves.
The Proverb in the Context of Akan Rhetoric
Attracting renewed attention by a new generation of scholars, the book presents a comprehensive ethnography of proverb communication in an African culture and achieves a significant breakthrough in proverb studies. The author critically reviews the dynamics of the proverb, one verbal genre that embodies the high point of rhetoric in traditional and contemporary Africa, and explores in rich details the proverb's creative potential, authorship and effectiveness in crisis management. Yankah elevates the documentation of the African proverb beyond decontextualized compilations, and portrays the proverb as a dynamic communicative strategy in which form, meaning and logic are in constant flux. The study, which focuses on the Akan of Ghana, situates the proverb in the heart of real life discourse interactions and monitors its rhetorical efficacy on the basis of indigenous aesthetics. The book should be of value to folklorists, sociolinguists, anthropologists, literary scholars and students of African studies and communications.
Deconstructing Masculinity: Interrogating the Role of Symbolism in Gender Performativity
Progress towards gender parity is hindered by unconscious ways that hypermasculinity is valorized at a symbolic level. By deconstructing how social and textual phenomena as well as social structures contribute to gender performativity, we can elucidate hard-to-discern patterns that perpetuate hegemonic masculinity. The subliminal elevation of symbols of hypermasculinity excludes both women and non-gender conforming men. By delving into these symbolic meanings that operate subliminally, we can more effectively debunk beliefs that “real men” fall within narrow parameters of masculinity. There remains much to explore in terms of hidden pressures for men to constrain their expression of emotions, project an appearance of hardness, and equate violence with power, to name just a few persistent facets of toxic masculinity. While abstract forms of inculcating hypermasculinity are difficult to identify, interrogating their role in masculine performativity will result in a more comprehensive understanding of impediments to gender equality.