Proverbial universality and topics: an incursion into rhetoric and paremiology

• Grant number: 17/22690-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2018
• End date: March 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics
• Principal Investigator: Maria Flávia de Figueiredo Pereira
• Grantee: Ticiano Jardim Pimenta
• Host Institution: Pró-Reitoria Adjunta de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação. Universidade de Franca (UNIFRAN). Franca , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Proverbs condense reflections and knowledge about different themes of human existence. They are most often used in oral discourse for the purpose of conveying a general truth, a cultural legacy, or popular wisdom. Among their specific characteristics, we can emphasize impersonality (they are not a discourse elaborated by those who speak them, but rather by the accumulated knowledge of their people) and timelessness (they are present since the beginning of civilization). Universality is another important characteristic of proverbs; concerns its use by several peoples in different geographical regions, often presenting analogous structures in different languages. Thus, the present study seeks to identify whether this latter characteristic, universality, can also be applied to the argumentative character of proverbs. Guided by this objective, we will make a rhetorical qualitative analysis of ten proverbs that have corresponding semantic themes in Portuguese and English, in order to verify whether the argumentative strategies contained in them are analogous. The rhetorical analysis will be based on propositions that are used to strengthen the adhesion of an auditorium to specific values, known as topics. This concept was first described by Aristotle for the purpose of developing a theory that sought to encompass all possible arguments in fundamental groups. (AU)