مجلة روافد للدراسات و الأبحاث العلمية في العلوم الاجتماعية والإنسانية

Convergence And Divergence In Arabic And English Proverbs: A Cross-cultural Analysis Of Conceptual Metaphors And Cultural Values

Auteurs : Koriche Hassiba .

Résumé

The present study explores the relationship between Arabic and English proverbs through a qualitative comparative analysis at two levels: syntactic/rhetorical structure and conceptual metaphorical organisation. The analysis of a corpus of twelve pairs of proverbs reveals a relationship of productive tension between convergence and divergence: convergence at the level of underlying conceptual metaphors and divergence at the level of culturally specific source-domain imagery. Two conclusions can be drawn. First, Arabic and English proverbs share the same speech-act functions (warning, advising, admonishing) and underlying conceptual metaphors rooted in universal embodied and social cognition. The difference between the two traditions is not in the illocutionary function but in the rhetorical and syntactic means used to realise that function. Second, the source-domain imagery in these shared metaphors is systematically conditioned by the natural environment, material culture, and value hierarchies of each community, confirming the co-occurrence of cognitive universality and cultural particularity in proverbial meaning. The results also contribute to paremiology, cognitive linguistics and intercultural communication by further bridging the gap between universalist and culturalist accounts of proverbial cognition.

Mots clés

Paremiology ; Conceptual Metaphor Theory ; Arabic-English proverbs ; Cognitive linguistics ; Intercultural communication