CONCEPTUALISATIONS OF HONESTY VS DISHONESTY
IN ROMANIAN AND ENGLISH PROVERBS
Diana
Alexandra Avram (Șandru) 
1 Decembrie 1918 University of Alba Iulia, Romania
Abstract
Human qualities and defects have long been a preponderant focus of interest, not only among paremiologists, linguists, and ethnologists, but also among the general public. The contradictory nature of values such as honesty and dishonesty reflects the path of enduring concern. This study examines proverbs as significant linguistic and cultural instruments for expressing contrasting human traits, particularly honesty and dishonesty. Although proverbs are typically acknowledged for their brevity and function in conveying traditional wisdom, this paper investigates their deeper conceptual and cultural meanings within English and Romanian contexts.
This research investigates how the concepts of honesty and dishonesty are used and conceptualised in English and Romanian proverbs. It focuses on identifying metaphorical and semantic representations of these traits, analysing structural similarities between proverbs in both languages, and examining cases where different structures convey equivalent meanings. The analysis combines quantitative and qualitative approaches, particularly to metaphorical conceptualisations patterns, syntactic structures, and cultural interpretations.
Keywords: Paremiology; Conceptual metaphor; Romanian and English proverbs; conceptualisation of honesty vs dishonesty; translation equivalence.
References
Charteris-Black, J. (2004). Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. New York : Palgrave Macmillan.
Duduleanu, M. M. (Ed.). (1978). Proverbele lumii despre calități și defecte. București: Editura Albatros.
Flonta, T. (2001). A Dictionary of English and Romanian: Equivalent Proverbs. Romania: De Proverbio.
Hrisztova-Gotthardt, H., & Aleksa Varga, M. (Eds.). (2014). Introduction to Paremiology: A Comprehensive Guide to Proverb Studies. Warsaw/ Berlin: De Gruyter Open Ltd.
Ibáñez Moreno, A. (2005). An analysis of the cognitive dimension of proverbs in English and Spanish: The conceptual power of language reflecting popular beliefs. SKASE Journal of Theoretical Linguistics, 2(1), 42–54.
Lakoff, G. &. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lefter, V. (1978). Dicționar de proverbe român-englez. București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică.
Lefter, V. (1994). Dicționar de proverbe englez-român. București: Editura Albatros.
Lefter, V. (1994). Dicționar de proverbe englez-român. Editura Albatros.
Mieder, W. (1985). Popular views of the proverb. Proverbium: Yearbook of International Proverb Scholarship, 2, 109-143.
Mieder, W. (1993). Proverbs are never out of season: Popular wisdom in the modern age. Oxford University Press.
Mieder, W. (1996). Proverbs. In J. H. Brunvand (Ed.), American folklore: An encyclopedia (pp. 597–601). Garland Publishing.
Mieder, W. (2004). Proverbs: a handbook. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
Norrick, N. R. (1985). How Proverbs Mean. Semantic Studies in English Proverb. Berlin/New York/Amsterdam: Mouton Publishers.
Norrick, N. R. (1985). How Proverbs Mean: Semantic Studies in English Proverbs. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Popescu, T. (2016). ‘time is money’ Metaphor in British and Romanian Business Press. Journal of Linguistic and Intercultural Education–JoLIE, 9(2), 103-120. doi: https://doi.org/10.29302/jolie.2016.9.2.9
Popescu, T. (2021). Conceptualisations of work in Romanian, French, Russian and English proverbs. Journal of Linguistic and Intercultural Education – JoLIE, 14(2), 107-126. doi: https://doi.org/10.29302/jolie.2021.14.2.6
Popescu, T. (2022). Social realities reflected in proverbs: A comparative approach to Romanian and English cognitive metaphors in proverbs. Journal of Linguistic and Intercultural Education – JoLIE, 15(3), 213-239. doi: https://doi.org/10.29302/jolie.2022.15.3.13
Pragglejaz Group. (2007). MIP: A method for identifying metaphorically used words in discourse. Metaphor and Symbol, 22(1), 1-39. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926480709336752
Ruxăndoiu, P. (1966). Aspectul metaforic al proverbelor. Studii de poetică și stilistică. E.P.L, 94-113.
Stanciu, D. (2013). Paremiologia în optica cercetărilor și ideilor contemporane. Diacronia. https://www.diacronia.ro/ro/indexing/details/A1438/pdf
Tăbârcea, C. (1982). Poetica proverbului. Bucureşti: Editura Minerva.
Taylor, A. (1934). Problems in the study of proverbs. Journal of American Folklore, 47, 1-21.
Taylor, A. (1939). The study of proverbs. Modern Language Forum, 24, 57-83.
Wilson, F. C. (2009). A model for translating
metaphors in proverbs (French to English): A cognitive descriptive approach
(Master’s thesis, University of British Columbia). UBC
Theses and Dissertations. https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0067686
How to
cite this paper: Avram
(Șandru), D. A. (2022). Conceptualisations
of honesty vs dishonesty in Romanian and English proverbs. Journal of
Linguistic and Intercultural Education – JoLIE,
15(4), 7–24. https://doi.org/10.29302/jolie.2022.15.4.1
For details
on subscription, go to: http://jolie.uab.ro/index.php?pagina=-&id=19&l=en