Projects / Programmes
Contemporary usage of the Slovenian proverbial expressions: the corpus and the lexicographic view
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 6.05.00 |
Humanities |
Linguistics |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| H350 |
Humanities |
Linguistics |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 6.02 |
Humanities |
Languages and Literature |
linguistics, heritage, phraseology, language corpora, paremiology, proverb, saying, contemporary usage, lexicography
Researchers (1)
| no. |
Code |
Name and surname |
Research area |
Role |
Period |
No. of publicationsNo. of publications |
| 1. |
38080 |
PhD Matej Meterc |
Linguistics |
Head |
2018 - 2020 |
126 |
Organisations (1)
Abstract
The goal of the project is to reflect the contemporary usage as well as the semantical and formal characteristics of the proverbial stock of the Slovenian language with linguistic approaches. The project is also based on the author’s previous research of the core of the most well-known and most frequent proverbial expressions in the Slovenian language or the so called proverbial optimum which he presented in the monograph. The project will investigate the following gaps in the linguistic knowledge of less known and frequent proverbs and similar expressions: 1. the information about their contemporary usage; 2. the information about their meaning; 3. the information about their formal aspect (mostly about their variants). One of the main results of the proposed project will be the publication of a growing proverbial dictionary of the Slovenian language which will consist out of the units with proven contemporary usage and a possibility to describe their meaning in a methodologically proper way. We describe three researches of the Slovenian paremiology which are modern and took into account a wide sample of speakers and/or texts and describe the state of the art in paremiology incorporated in Slovenian dictionaries and collections. We also present two (Czech and American) dictionaries which are among the most progressive lexicographic works in the paremiological field worldwide. The biggest problem of the so far published Slovenian proverbial collections is that they include proverbial material from random sources – in most cases copied from older collections from the beginning of the 20th century – without the basic linguistic information about it. In addition to all that, in the only monolingual phraseological dictionary of the Slovenian language to date by Janez Keber, the proverbial expressions are included in a very small degree since it focused on the non-sentential phrasemes. The problem of the obsolete and rarely used part of the proverbial stock is connected with the difficulty of determining the meaning of the proverbial expressions. The question we have to ask ourselves is how many and what kind of examples of usage do we need in order to say something certain about the meaning of a single proverbial unit, because it can express a wide variety of opinions and describe a variety of situations. Three researches will be conducted during the project. In the first research we will set the criteria for the quality of the linguistic data, because in the project we will focus primarily on the proverbial units with low frequency and low level of familiarity among the language users. The second research will consist out of two different approaches in order to search for proverbial units in the language corpora. The first search will be based on the frequent proverbial patterns or the so called constructional formulas such as There is no X without X, Like X like Y or X is the best Y. The second will be based on one word and multiword introductory formulas as for example “proverb”, “principle”, “you know what they say”, and “according to old wisdom”. In the third research we will gain information about the proverbial material with the help of the specialized questionnaires and crowdsourcing on social networks. With the help pf the three mentioned researches we will gain basic linguistic data about the first set of the proverbial units published in the first edition of the growing dictionary of the Slovenian proverbial expressions.
Significance for science
Systematic checking and searching for new proverbial material with the help of the language corpora has never been done in such big scale in the world linguistics. At the moment there is no holistic collection or dictionary of Slovenian phrasemes based on the criteria of the contemporary usage available. The growing proverbial (paremiological) dictionary we are planning will be unique in a worldwide context because it would combine corpus-based and sociolinguistic evaluation of the units and it will allow a new addition of the units and lexicographic information about them each year. It will include traditional and newly emerged proverbial expressions and at the same time a broad spectre from the most well-known and frequent units to those which are very rare and known to a little number of speakers but are not obsolete and their meaning can still be described properly. The project will also provide information on the obsoleteness of the units in the collections which are available at the moment. The expected results are not only significant because they will represent the first systematically gained basic linguistic data about the Slovenian stock of proverbial expressions, but also because of the relevance of the developed methods in the international context. New specialized ways of using the corpus-based and sociolinguistic tools will be presented. The development of the described methods will be useful for the development of analogical methods in the linguistic field, for example for the research of the non-proverbial phrasemes or for the analysis of the syntactic patterns. The project is of utmost importance for translators, because they do not have any such tool as the planned dictionary would be and the data about the proverbial units in the so far published collections are unsystematic, poor, or gathered in a way which is not professional enough from the point of view of the modern linguistics. The proverbial units of one language differ a lot from the units in other language and even though languages share a considerable part of paremiology, when translating them we are often confronted with the problem of finding the right equivalent and there is always the danger of using the expressions with seemingly the same meaning or obsolete expressions when translating. Because of that, the planned dictionary is also a very important tool for second language learning and teaching. It is also a good basis to compare Slovenian paremiology with paremiology in other languages. Due to the fact that the proverbial expressions are minimal texts which reflect social stereotypes along with cultural and historical influences, the results of the research will also be useful for the anthropological, culturological, and historical research. The project will offer the first modern and holistic linguistic analysis of an important part of the Slovenian and European cultural heritage.
Significance for the country
Systematic checking and searching for new proverbial material with the help of the language corpora has never been done in such big scale in the world linguistics. At the moment there is no holistic collection or dictionary of Slovenian phrasemes based on the criteria of the contemporary usage available. The growing proverbial (paremiological) dictionary we are planning will be unique in a worldwide context because it would combine corpus-based and sociolinguistic evaluation of the units and it will allow a new addition of the units and lexicographic information about them each year. It will include traditional and newly emerged proverbial expressions and at the same time a broad spectre from the most well-known and frequent units to those which are very rare and known to a little number of speakers but are not obsolete and their meaning can still be described properly. The project will also provide information on the obsoleteness of the units in the collections which are available at the moment. The expected results are not only significant because they will represent the first systematically gained basic linguistic data about the Slovenian stock of proverbial expressions, but also because of the relevance of the developed methods in the international context. New specialized ways of using the corpus-based and sociolinguistic tools will be presented. The development of the described methods will be useful for the development of analogical methods in the linguistic field, for example for the research of the non-proverbial phrasemes or for the analysis of the syntactic patterns. The project is of utmost importance for translators, because they do not have any such tool as the planned dictionary would be and the data about the proverbial units in the so far published collections are unsystematic, poor, or gathered in a way which is not professional enough from the point of view of the modern linguistics. The proverbial units of one language differ a lot from the units in other language and even though languages share a considerable part of paremiology, when translating them we are often confronted with the problem of finding the right equivalent and there is always the danger of using the expressions with seemingly the same meaning or obsolete expressions when translating. Because of that, the planned dictionary is also a very important tool for second language learning and teaching. It is also a good basis to compare Slovenian paremiology with paremiology in other languages. Due to the fact that the proverbial expressions are minimal texts which reflect social stereotypes along with cultural and historical influences, the results of the research will also be useful for the anthropological, culturological, and historical research. The project will offer the first modern and holistic linguistic analysis of an important part of the Slovenian and European cultural heritage.
Most important scientific results
Final report
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Final report
