Proverb

Proverb

Proverb is a brief, simple and popular saying, or a phrase that gives advice and effectively embodies a commonplace truth based on practical experience or common sense. A proverb may have an allegorical message behind its odd appearance. The reason of popularity is due to its usage in spoken language as well as in the folk literature. Some authors twist and bend proverbs and create anti-proverbs to add literary effects to their works. However, in poetry, poets use proverbs strategically by employing some parts of them in poems’ titles such as Lord Kennet has written a poem, A Bird in the Bush, which is a popular proverb. Some poems contain multiple proverbs like Paul Muldoon’s poem Symposium.

Use of Popular Proverbs in Everyday Speech

• Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
• Laugh and the world laughs with you, weep and you weep alone.
• Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
• All that glitters is not gold.
• An army of sheep led by a lion would defeat an army of lions led by a sheep.
• The old horse in the stable still yearns to run

Examples of Proverbs from Literature

From William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet:

“The weakest goes to the wall.”

The weak people are never favored.

“He that is strucken blind cannot forget

The precious treasure of his eyesight lost.”

A man who loses his eyesight can never forget the importance of lost eyesight.

“One fire burns out another’s burning,

One pain is lessen’d by another’s anguish.”

You can burn new fire from lightening another fire, similarly a new pain could mitigate your old pain.

From Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory

“And when we love our sin then we are damned indeed.”

When do not repent our sins and instead loving them, and then we are damned.

“Nothing in life was as ugly as death.”

Death is the most horrible experience in life.

“There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in…We should be thankful we cannot see the horrors and degradations lying around our childhood, in cupboards and bookshelves, everywhere.”

Childhood is a blessing for us, as we do not face horrible experiences like humiliation and degradation from people.

Function of Proverb

Proverbs play very important roles in different types of literary works. The most important function of proverbs is to teach and educate the audience. They often contain an expert advice with a role for educating the readers on what they may face if they would do something. Hence, proverbs play a didactic role, as they play a universal role in teaching wisdom and sagacity to the common people. Since proverbs are usually metaphorical and indirect; therefore, they allow writers to express their message in a less harsh way.

Source:

http://literarydevices.net/proverb/

Read More

Idiom

Idiom

An idiom is a word or phrase that is not taken literally, like “bought the farm” has nothing to do with purchasing real estate, but refers to dying. Idiom also refers to a dialect or jargon of a group of people, either in a certain region or a group with common interests, like in science, music, art, or business. Idioms exist in every language.

Some idioms are used by most people that speak English; others are used by a more select group.

Common idioms that refer to people include:

• A chip on your shoulder - means you are holding a grudge
• High as a kite - means you are drunk or on drugs
• Sick as a dog - means you are very ill

Idioms that refer to your actions would be:

• Rub someone the wrong way - meaning to annoy or bother
• Jump the gun - would mean to be doing something early
• Pay the piper - means you need to face the consequences of your actions

Some idioms use color words to convey other meanings. For example, there are several that use the word “blue:”

• “The blues” can refer to both a style of music and feeling sad.
• If something occurs rarely, it is said to happen “once in a blue moon”, because a blue moon is two full moons in one month, which doesn’t happen often.
• “Out of the blue” means something happens that was unexpected.  

Learning a Language with Idioms

Because of idioms, learning a language can be complicated. After you can conjugate verbs, and know a lot of words, you may still have difficulty speaking the language with native users.

This is partly due to the use of idioms and would also depend of which region of a country you were in. Idiom usage is not just regional, but also varies according to people’s interests and social groups.

The best way to pick up on the meaning of certain idioms would be to converse with people and ask them for a clarification of the idiom if you are not clear about the idiom they used. There are also sites on the Internet which will help explain the meaning of idioms.  

Idioms Around the Globe

There are certain things that happen in every culture and there are idioms to deal with them.

• In Norwegian and Czech, “walking around hot porridge” refers to beating around the bush, which is also an idiom meaning not getting to the point.
• If you are in Italy or Turkey and you say you are “as hungry as a wolf” then you are starving.

If it is raining in large amounts, most cultures have an interesting way of saying that:

• In English, it would be “raining cats and dogs”
• In Africa, they might say “it's raining old women with clubs”

• Many languages refer to heavy rain as coming in buckets or as rain coming out of a bucket.

• In Norway they say “it's raining female trolls”
• The Irish say “it's throwing cobblers knives”

Comparing idioms between countries can also be interesting:

• In Finnish, “with long teeth” means you are doing something that you really don’t want to do
• In French, “to have long teeth” means you are ambitious.

The key to understanding the local idioms is to listen carefully and to ask questions of local speakers.

Idioms In the Arts

There are many idioms in the field of music.

• If you “fine tune” something, you make small improvements to it.
• “Changing your tune” means changing your mind.
• If you are “whistling Dixie” or “whistling in the dark” you are overly positive about something.
• If you try and make a decision too early without knowing all the facts, people may tell you that “it’s not over ‘till the fat lady sings.”

Drama and dance have idioms, too, like:

• “Break a leg” means good luck.
• If you are a “ham” you overact.
• If you say, “it takes two to tango” you mean that more than one person is at fault or involved.
• If you “tap dance” your way out of a sticky situation, then that implies that you get out of it in a clever way.
• Being “in the spotlight” means you are the center of attention.

Remember, a group of people with shared interests such as the arts or business will have their own idioms. As with all idioms it will be easier to understand the idioms if you concentrate on what is being said and ask questions about the meanings of the idioms.

Source:

http://examples.yourdictionary.com/idiom.html

Read More

Homonymy, Homophone, and Homographs

Homonyms

Homonyms, or multiple meaning words, are words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings. For example, bear.

• A bear (the animal) can bear (tolerate) very cold temperatures.
• The driver turned left (opposite of right) and left (departed from) the main road.

Homophone

Homophone is a word that has the same sound as another word but is spelled differently and has a different meaning. Some examples of homographs are:

·         to, too, and two

·         they're and their

·         bee and be; sun and son

·         which and witch

·         and plain and plane

 

Homophones, also known as sound-alike words, are words that are pronounced identically although they have different meanings and often have different spellings as well. These words are a very common source of confusion when writing. Common examples of sets of homophones include: to, too, and two; they're and their; bee and be; sun and son; which and witch; and plain and plane. VocabularySpellingCity is a particularly useful tool for learning to correctly use and spell the soundalike words.

Homographs

Homographs are words that are spelled the same, but have different meanings and are often pronounced differently as well. Some examples of homographs are:

• bass as in fish vs bass as in music
• bow as in arrow vs bow as in bending or taking a bow at the end of a performance
• close as in next to vs close as in shut the door
• desert as in dry climate vs desert as in leaving alone.

Currently, VocabularySpellingCity cannot distinguish between homographs, as we are unable to have two pronounciations for the exact same word. We are looking for possibilities in the future.

Heteronyms or Heterophones

Same Spelling, Different Pronunciations, Different Meanings. All heteronyms are homographs, but not all homographs are heteronyms. See why this concept can be so confusing to learn?

• Wind: I need to wind the alarm clock so I can fly my kite in the early morning gusty wind.
• Record: Please record the program when they try to beat the world record for word nerdiness.
• Excuse: Please excuse this poor excuse for art.

Capitonyms

Capitonyms are different words spelled the same except for the capitalization. Sometimes they are pronounced the same, sometimes they are not.

• Turkey: I like to visit the country of Turkey and eat that American bird, turkey.
• Mobile: My mobile phone ironically did not work in Mobile, Alabama.
• May: In May, when spring is almost over, I may pack away my winter clothes.
• March: On the Ides of March, we will march in the parade.
• Polish: The Polish refugee said nothing but went straight to work putting polish on the silver.

Source:

https://www.spellingcity.com/homophones-and-homonyms.html

Read More