A primary research activity involving proverbs is detailed and recommended for use in writing classrooms to promote higher-order thinking and analytical skills closely tied to effective academic writing. It is argued that the interrogation of proverbs cultivates among less-experienced writers some analytical and linguistic skills that correspond with academic writing demands. It is also argued that the examination of such popular forms of expression further allows such writers to experience the convergence of their vernacular and academic discourses. The directed examination of popularized linguistic expressions is further postulated as having the added benefit of impressing upon less-experienced writers that language—far from being a uniform, reliable, and static means of communication—is actually an evolving system of signification that to various degrees reveals meaning to be contextually bound and socially relative.
This entry provides an overview of the study of proverbs as a creative form of linguistic expression. It establishes that paremiology, the field of study devoted to proverbs, and sociocognitive theory have revealed the complex relationship between proverbs as linguistic artifacts, as social tools, and as conceptual vehicles that enable linguistic communication in succinct and engaging ways. The sources referenced convey how the creative dimensions of proverbs are explained on the basis of universal cognitive phenomena and on the basis of particular sociocultural uses.
This article argues that errors in audio data processing should be (re)examined to explore and expose the underlying components that enable linguistic communication and cross-cultural understanding. Examples of errors in the transcription of a Mexican social network’s conversations are analyzed to demonstrate the potential of such data in the development of sociocognitive language-processing theories (those that combine formal and pragmatic approaches). It is suggested that researchers working with audio-recorded data should expand the scope of what is considered useful data for the sake of both methodological reflexivity and identifying the underlying cognitive processes enabling linguistic understanding.
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