The present chapter explores various aspects of application of proverbs in the English language media texts which is predetermined by the specifics… [631265]

Anna Konstantinova
13 Proverbs in Mass Media
13.1 Introduction
The present chapter explores various aspects of application of proverbs in the English
language media texts which is predetermined by the specifics of the mass media dis –
course. In modern mass media the proverb proves to be a tool of choice for conveying different attitudes and views. The primary resource data include English and Ameri-can newspapers and magazines, an American TV series, and popular English lan-guage songs.
13.2 Proverbs in the Media Discourse: General Remarks
The importance of the mass media in the modern societies is indisputable. For many people they serve as the firsthand source of information and, thus, understand –
ing of the world. Their influence is so overwhelming, it is next to impossible to stay unaffected.
The mass media aimed at reaching a wide audience by mass communication
encompass a range of broadcast (TV , radio, cinema, recorded music), print (news –
papers and magazines), digital (Internet), and outdoor (billboards, placards etc.) vehicles. Thus, media discourse is a multidisciplinary field dealing with a number of overlapping discourses. The mass media include both technical means of trans –
mitting information and people involved in the process (Константинова, 2008: 23). As scholars point out, the key features of the verbal language of human interaction converge and alter in their particular way in the language of mass communication (Володина, 2004: 11).
The task of any author conveying some piece of information through a mass
medium is to affect a vast audience. In this respect all the media, print press in the
first place, rely heavily on the language used for the stated purpose. Beyond doubt,
information delivered to their recipients must not only be of interest and some use to them but also be presented in some special manner as to make it appealing and noticed. The success of a print piece, be it a newspaper editorial or a magazine inter –
view, is in many ways predetermined by the effective choice of linguistic means. It is a bit different case with broadcast media, for they mainly employ visual and/or audio channels of communication. This, however, does not diminish the importance of the language content. The authors of media texts use language freely, creatively, even boldly sometimes. It comes as no surprise that in modern media discourse proverbs
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are one of the preferred tools for conveying a myriad of attitudes, opinions, beliefs,
and such.
Apart from influencing the audience, media authors are challenged to transmit
substantial pieces of information as succinctly as possible. As tokens of culture and
miniature theories (Honeck, 1997: 103) paremias are capable of successfully handling the task. Proverbs serve as contextual cues in discourse, and, therefore, can affect the meaning of the message and its perception. Studies show that application of proverbs is a significant feature of modern mass media discourse (Константинова, 2008). No wonder this field has presented some scholarly interest to paremiologists
around the world. It is not our task to review these many researches: Prof. Wolfgang
Mieder’s most comprehensive bibliography will give an idea of what has been done in the realm of application of proverbs in the media discourse in different European languages (Mieder, 2009).
Let it be once again stressed that modern media texts are permeated with prov –
erbs. Both old proverbs and modern ones, i.e. those with no reference earlier than 1990 (Mieder, 2012: 138), make their frequent appearance in media discourse. Mieder, an outstanding proverb scholar based in Vermont, USA, stated it as a must for paremi-
ologists to “look at which traditional proverbs survive today and which have actually
been coined in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries”. Media texts can serve as a plentiful and fruitful material for this kind of research (Mieder, 2004: 150). Here are a couple of examples of modern proverbs employed in media texts:
Meredith: You’re operating?
Richard: I am. A Whipple.Meredith: That’s big.Richard: I say, go big… or go home. (“I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked” 6-12/ “Grey’s Anatomy”)
Oprah Winfrey: During the campaign, how did you handle all the jokes about your husband
being “not very smart”? Did it hurt?Laura Bush: It made me mad, actually–though I didn’t hear that many of the jokes because we were campaigning every day. <…>Oprah: But did the jokes hurt?Laura: Yes. Coming to terms with the jokes doesn’t mean that your feelings aren’t hurt or that you aren’t miffed, but you learn to take it with a grain of salt.Oprah: I don’t know if you take it with a grain of salt, or with a whole box of salt!Laura: It does make you feel like things are unfair. But you just know that happens. As they say, if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. (interview with Laura Bush/ O, The Oprah
magazine)
Such media discourses as television, popular music, cinematography, and advertis –
ing, which is part and parcel of modern mass media, are distinguished as having
originated and started the circulation of many modern paremias, as: Diamonds are
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a girl’s best friends (the Broadway musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes) 161, We’re not in
Kansas anymore (the movie The Wizard of Oz) 162, Knowing is half the battle (G. I. Joe
cartoon TV series) 163, Diamonds are forever (the DeBeers advertising catchphrase) 164.
As for the film discourse, certain proverbs (in some cases modified) have even become
a kind of hallmark for some motion pictures. Here are just to name a few: A boy’s best friend is his mother (< A dog is a man’s best friend) (Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins)/ Psycho) 165, Carpe diem. Seize the day (John Keating (Robin Williams)/ Dead Poets
Society
166, Life will find a way (< Love will find a way) (Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum)/
The Lost world: Jurassic Park) 167, After all, tomorrow is another day! (Scarlett O’Hara
(Vivien Leigh)/ Gone with the Wind) 168.
13.3 Traditional Proverbs in Mass Media
Proverbs belong to the realm of linguistic and cultural knowledge shared by a nation (or nations, in case of internationally disseminated paremias). In this respect, the employment of proverbs in discourse can be treated as quotation, calling upon for authority and traditional views of the majority. Standard proverbs in their dictionary form do appear in modern media texts, though not as frequently as their transformed
variations . Proverbs are autonomous utterances having no bonds with the originating
context (i.e. context of the very first use) and no known (or, rather, generally known)
author. Proverbs are, metaphorically speaking, in the custody of the people; there-fore, by employing one in discourse we can be said to be quoting folk speech. So, one of the issues concerning the standard use of proverbs in the mass media is the way these folklore utterances are placed in discourse. Numerous scholars are engaged in the study of introductory proverb formulas (see Yankah, 1986). In some languages these are set phrases obligatorily used in discourse as a reference to folk culture and tradition. Such introductory formulas frequently occur in the Anglo-American mass media, as well. Their use, however, is not predetermined by cultural tradition but
rather pragmatic factors, i.e. the goals and intentions of the author.
In some mass media texts, proverbs are employed as solid statements of appar –
ent truth with no commentary from the author. Such application is consistent with O.
161 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentlemen_Prefer_Blondes_(musical)
162  http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/m/muppets-wizard-of-oz-script.html163  http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/a2/gi-joe-rise-of-cobra-script.html
164  http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/a-diamond-is-forever.html
165 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054215/quotes?ref_=tt_ql_3166  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097165/quotes?ref_=tt_ql_3
167 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119567 /quotes
168  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031381/quotes?ref_=tt_ql_3
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Arewa and A. Dundes’s theory according to which a person using a proverb is but “the
instrument through which the proverb speaks to the audience” (Arewa & Dundes,
1964: 70). Here is an example from the O. Winfrey’s interview with the American R’n’B
singer Mary J. Blige:
Oprah: Has your transformation compelled you toward a greater responsibility in your artistry
and lyrics? <…>Mary: <…> After the “No More Drama” album, people came up to me and said, “You saved me. You talked me out of an abusive relationship”. <…> A lot of people hate me for this. People say things like “Mary, I liked it better when you were singing them sad songs. <…> You need to pick up a pack of cigarettes and come back down with us”. It blows my mind – then again, not really. They just want someone to waddle with them in their environment.Oprah: Misery loves company. People identify with the rawness and pain in your music. <…>
They have an expectation about you based upon themselves. (interview with Mary J. Blige/ O, The Oprah magazine)
Such cases of bare proverbs are scarce in media texts, which is, in my opinion, a tes –
timony to the fact that application of proverbs in the language of the mass media is a
highly innovative and creative process, a sort of exercise in quotation (Yankah, 1986). In general, referring to someone else’s words in discourse presupposes a certain attitude (agreement or disagreement) to what is being stated. In a small number of
cases media authors, however, introduce a proverb as an epitome of some situation,
presenting it as a conventional opinion, and, thereby, remain impartial to what is being said:
Great minds, it is said, think alike. Which must make the Observer’s Andrew Rawnsley and the
Sunday Telegraph’s Matthew d’ Ancona the wisest of the wise. (The Sunday Columnists / The
Guardian 19/01/2004)
In other cases, the traditional folk view expressed in a proverb is either supported by
the speakers and, thus, sounds as their own:
Oprah: I’ve read that you no longer want people to dress like you. What do you mean by that?
Madonna: I mean just that. In the beginning of my career, I was consumed with fashion and the way I looked.Oprah: Aren’t you still?Madonna: I think about clothes all the time – you see the boots and pants I’m wearing. But who cares? You know as well as I do that clothes don’t make the woman. <…> (interview with Madonna/
O, The Oprah magazine),
or is claimed to be shared with the audience:
We all know that death is a great leveler and that Princess Diana and Fred West are dead, but that
is the only connection between them as far as I am aware. (More than a laughing matter / The
Guardian 8/06/2000)
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Proverbs are indeed handy vehicles to address the audience. By applying these folk –
lore dicta, media authors can feel safe as they rely on common knowledge and share
the same ground with the intended recipients. Thus, the sense of belonging and inti-macy can be easily achieved. Consider the following examples:
Sorry, but it’s true – no pain, no gain. If you want to get fit and lose weight, you need to sweat. (Just
for kicks / The Guardian 4/10/2003);
In America, the Beg, Borrow or Steal website is a runaway hit, with women signing up for as little
as £12 a month to hire goodies by the likes of Prada, Fendi and Burberry <…> Although more than 700 bags are available on the US site, many are the more basic offerings from the heavyweight fashion houses. But beggars can’t be choosers, girls, and if you can’t afford to live out the Carrie Bradshaw Fendi bag dream (i.e. owning the real thing), at least you could soon have the option to rent. (Snippets / The Guardian 30/07 /2004).
In the majority of cases media authors distinctly express their attitude to proverb
wisdom. By commenting on it, they either support it:
Home is where the heart is, to be sure. But home may also be where the money is these days, as
Americans put away their dancing shoes and come back home again. At least, that is what pub –
lishers of the elite home-design magazines are betting on. (Elite Magazines Compete for a Place
at Home / The New York Times 5/11/1990);
or contest it:
Opening voice-over: In general, people can be categorized in one of two ways. Those who love surprises and those who don’t. I don’t. I’ve never met a surgeon that enjoys a surprise, because as surgeons, we like to be in the know. <…> My point is this: whoever said “What you don’t know can’t hurt you”, was a complete and total moron. Because for most people I know, not knowing is the worst feeling in the world <…> (Into You Like a Train 2-6/ Grey’s Anatomy);
First things first. Look before you leap. A stitch in time saves nine. Don’t put the cart before the
horse. Worthy mottoes, all of them, brimming with wisdom. But sometimes such thinking can suck
the life out of a project before you even get started”. (“Parlor Doors, Outdoors”/ “The New York Times” 21/08/2005);or contradict it:They say death is a great leveler. They’re wrong. Inequality pursues us after life too. Consider
Ground Zero. While international attention has shifted to Afghanistan, the vast project of body-part retrieval in Lower Manhattan is probably the most exorbitant expenditure on the dead in our lifetime, and yet remains almost entirely exempt from criticism or debate. (The Hierarchy of Death / The Guardian 28/11/2001)
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13.4 Modification of Proverbs in Mass Media
Along with standard proverbs encapsulating pieces of folk wisdom, media authors
increasingly resort to creative use of these cultural and linguistic gems, which pro –
duces sometimes remarkable modifications offering fresh views and different interpretations.
The need for alterations and the quest for something new are perhaps in the
human nature. The phenomenon of proverb modification has been observed and attended to by scholars for quite a while now. Recent decades have proved it to gain momentum both in English and Russian mass media. Likewise, the process is widely studied in many other major European languages.
As for Anglo-American media discourse, it can be stated that creative use of prov –
erbs yielding all sorts of nonce modifications is far more predominant than their stan-dard use. Traditional proverbs do occur in the media, but the scale of the modification
phenomenon is so extensive that it can be considered a universal method of affect –
ing the audience. Constant changes in life lead to changes in opinions, ideologies,
and morals. This inevitably and naturally reflects in the paremiological lore of the language.
The dynamic development which the mass media has gone through at the turn of
the twenty-first century has dramatically triggered the aforementioned phenomenon of proverb modification. The modern media can virtually reach vast audiences in all corners of the world, in no time, with messages intended to communicate new cogni-tive content and, thus, encapsulating new, i.e. non-standard, approaches and views.
On the whole, such creative transformations broaden the linguistic boundaries of a
given culture, demonstrate novel ways of thinking, and, more importantly, introduce new directions for action. Proverbs can be adapted to any socio-cultural context , and,
therefore, frequently modified, immediately come in view of broad audiences with the help of any of the existent mass media.
According to my study the process of proverb modification is predetermined by
cognitive and pragmatic factors. These transformations occur due to the necessity to name the yet unnamed, to convey new (or in some cases renewed) cognitive content. The creative use of proverbs enables authors to fulfill the following pragmatic tasks, all of which are indispensible to the principal goal of affecting the mass audience:
1) attention grabbing;
2) expressing evaluations/attitudes;3) creating stylistic effect, i.e. enhancing expressiveness and emotionality (Константинова, 2008: 87).
Of all the wealth of proverb transformations in the mass media, it is possible to distin-
guish four groups on the principle of stylistic and aesthetic effects achieved thereby:
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1. Hapaxes, or nonce proverbs (Greek hápax eirēménon – (something) said (only) once).
This group is composed of modified proverbs that are (1) context bound, i.e. to inter –
pret them you need originating context, and/or (2) often lack imagery and, therefore,
have little aesthetic value and impact potential. Consider the following examples:
Macho man decides: don’t get even – get mad (headline)
Tony Blair is evidently upset by the leaking of a memo in which he appeared to demand help at question time.So yesterday we met the new prime minister, Mr. Mucho Macho Man. When asked the formula question – what his engagements were for the day – he snarled like a home football fan trapped in the visitors’ enclosure. “This morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others,” he barked. “You got a problem with that?” (Naturally he didn’t say the last bit. But he sounded as if he should. William Hague can count himself lucky that his ear lobes are still intact). (< Don’t get mad, get even) (The Guardian 18/05/2000)
Home ain’t where his heart is anymore
He may hang his hat behind our bedroom doorBut he don’t lay his head down to love me like beforeHome ain’t where his heart is anymore. (< Home is where the heart is) (“Home Ain’t Where His Heart Is”/ Shania Twain) 169.
Izzie: Um, I feel like we should say stuff. Denny, do you want to say stuff?
Denny: Kiss me. Right here. (they kiss) Izzie, that kiss was worth a 1,000 words.
Izzie: A picture. A picture is worth a 1,000 word. (17 seconds 2-25/ Grey’s Anatomy).
2. Authorial expressions created on the basis of standard proverbs existing in the lan –
guage. Such modifications can be seen as the signs of authors’ ingenuity and great
literary potential. A deeper look at these expressions reveals the way both linguistic and extra-linguistic factors work together in the process of applying proverbs. The worldview of the author, i.e. his/her ideas, opinions, judgments receive such linguis –
tic embodiment which being built from the elements of preformed linguistic mate-rial (standard proverbs) appears so creative, original and novel! Here are several examples:
It’s like being tired but you just can’t sleep
Your bed is obsoleteIt’s like finding out the best things in life are freeAfter you already paid. (< The best things in life are free) (Don’t look back / Mxpx) 170;
Patient: Oh, I’m not his wife. What’s that saying — uh, they won’t buy the cow if you give ‘em the
milk for free? Yeah, we’re working on eight years of free milk” (< Why buy a cow when you can get milk for free) (Tainted Obligation 6-4/ Grey’s Anatomy);
169 http://www.metrolyrics.com/home-aint-where-his-heart-is-anymore-lyrics-shania-twain.html
170   http://www.metrolyrics.com/dont-look-back-lyrics-mxpx.html
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(3) We must call the political tune…
…even if that means paying the piper (headline) (< He who pays the piper calls the tune) (The Observer 3/02/2002).
The third and the fourth group of modifications are made up of anti-proverbs and
pseudo-proverbs, which are amazing instances of creativity and succinctly formu –
lated modern wisdom. They frequently occur in the English language media and, thus, constitute a salient feature of the mass media discourse.
3. Anti-proverbs – that are in fact new proverbs per se created on the basis of tra-
ditional ones – are profusely and successfully studied all around the world, major
European languages being considered. Anti-proverbs use the elements of traditional paremias but express some different idea. Their meaning is clear irrespective of the originating context . Should you visit Forbes magazine website, for instance, and you
will learn a succinctly put strategy of efficient career making, which also happens to be an anti-proverb teaching modern prudence: Snooze, you lose; schmooze, you win
(< If you snooze, you lose). In his song Second mouse the American country singer
Tim O’Brien resorts to one more astute observation: “It’s the early bird that catches
the worm, but it’s the second mouse that gets the cheese” (< The early bird catches
the worm). Film directors and screen writers frequently share their life philosophy through the characters they create. In W. Allen’s comedy drama The Purple Rose of
Cairo (1985) this is also done with the help of a somewhat careless anti-proverb Life’s
too short to spend time thinking about life (< Life’s short). These are just few of the
innumerable examples found in modern Anglo-American media!
4. Pseudo-proverbs. The phenomenon of creating proverb-like formations is quite
spread in contemporary English language media. Although these formations are not
proverbs, they are built on the basis of paremic structural-semantic models typically with traditional stylistic markers, and express some general ideas often similar to those conveyed by real proverbs. Let us consider some examples:
You can kill the protestor, but you can’t kill the protest ◄ You can take the boy out of the
country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy (song title/ Anti-flag);
Every song has its play ◄ Every dog has his day (album title/ Gilbert O’Sullivan);Hand fits giving, so do it ◄ If the cap fits, wear it (Sky Fits Heaven/ Madonna);
Sleep with a snake, you get bit ◄ If you lie down with dogs, you’ll get up with fleas
(Grey’s Anatomy).
Another aspect of creative application of proverbs in the mass media worthy of
attention is their multiple use. The phenomenon goes back to the Middle Ages and is tightly connected with iconographic art. In his significant textbook on proverbs Prof. W. Mieder distinguishes a group of poems written wholly in pro –
verbial language, featuring, for instance, Carl Sanberg’s famous Good Morning,
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284    Proverbs in Mass Media
America (Mieder, 2004: 225). An anthology of English proverb poetry came out in
2005, which included lyric poems and song lyrics composed by such outstanding authors as R. Frost, E. Dickinson, A. Bierce, B. Dylan, P . McCartney (15
th – 21st cen –
turies) (Mieder & Sobieski, 2005). The same tendency of bringing multiple prov –
erbs together in one small stretch of text is discussed in the articles by A. L. Macfie
and F. Macfie on Turkish poetry (13th – 20th centuries) ( Macfie & Macfie, 1989;
Macfie & Macfie, 2001 ). The phenomenon has not yet been thoroughly studied. It
is possible, however, to distinguish two types of multiple use of proverbs in the mass media, proverb clusters and proverb collages.
Proverb clustering consists in insertion of two or more proverbs (standard or
modified) into a non-proverb context . Thus, a blend of proverb and non-proverb
texts emerges, as in the song
Innocent by Clan of Xymox 171:
And it’s cold in here when you’re all in tears
Your vision is in black and white, you feel so afraidYou fail to show your better half, it’s such a shameTomorrow’s dream never comes, it remains in shadesRemains in shades
Sticks and stones break my bones and it hurts too much
Easy come and easy go, in love and war all seems fairBut it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at allNow I am holding groundNow I am safe and sound
But it’s the last straw that breaks my back and life’s too short
Handsome is as handsome does and there’s so much moreA change is good as rest they say and all that glitters is not goldNow I am holding groundNow I am safe and sound
No way I found love sane and sound
And it’s cold in here when you’re all in tearsThose endless nights of intrigues make it all too clearIn this dark world and wide I am innocentI am innocent. (Сf. Tomorrow never comes; Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me; Easy come, easy go; All is fair in love and war; It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all; It’s the last straw that breaks the camel’s back; Handsome is as handsome does; A change is as good as a rest; All that glitters is not gold).
Other remarkable examples of proverb clustering can be found in a whole set of maga-
zine feature interviews conducted by Oprah Winfrey. The media mogul and experi-enced interviewer winds up her every interview with some high-profile respondent
171 http://www.lyricstime.com/clan-of-xymox-innocent-lyrics.html)
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with one and the same question What do you know for sure? It is noteworthy that in
every interview the respondents use proverbs in their reply, and occasionally build
proverb chains to formulate their thoughts, as does the famous American actress Bette Midler:
That laughter feels really good. That there’s a lot of conscious, tangible evil afoot in the world.
That the planet will always go on. That you can find peace in nature. That music has great charm and is a great communicator. That dancing is good for the soul. That beauty is very healing and great for the spirit. That you gotta eat a little dirt before you die. That payback is a bitch. And that no matter who you are, there is no free lunch. (< You have to eat a peck of dirt before you die; Payback is a bitch; There is no such a thing as a free lunch).
Proverb clustering is a favorite tool in the American ABC medical drama Grey’s
Anatomy as well. Opening and closing voice-over narrations frequently play with
proverb clusters. Here is one such example of grouping thematic proverbs that help to present the dilemma the main characters are facing in the episode:
Opening voice-over: As doctors, we’re trained to be skeptical, because our patients lie to us all
the time. The rule is, every patient is a liar until proven honest. Lying is bad. Or so we are told, constantly from birth – honesty is the best policy, the truth shall set you free, I chopped down the
cherry tree, whatever. The fact is, lying is a necessity. We lie to ourselves because the truth, the truth freaking hurts. (< Honesty is the best policy; The truth shall set you free; The truth hurts). (Tell Me Sweet Little Lies 2-14/ Grey’s Anatomy)
Proverb collages are entire texts or their structural parts composed of proverbs (stan-
dard or modified) and/or sometimes other easily recognized elements, like familiar quotations, proper names, phraseologisms. Stretches of narrator’s speech can be occasionally inserted as well. In this type of multiple use of proverbs paremias serve as ready-made material for constructing discourse. Proverb collages are typically
found in popular song discourse related to poetic discourse known for this phenom-
enon since the Middle Ages. Consider the song My Best Was Never Good Enough 172 by
the famous American songwriter and performer Bruce Springsteen:
Every cloud has a silver lining, every dog has his day
She said, ‘Now don’t say nothin’if you don’t have something nice to say’.The tough, now they get going, when the going gets toughBut for you my best was never good enough
‘Now don’t try for a home run, baby
If you can get the job done with a hit’
172 http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/b/bruce_springsteen/my_best_was_never_good_enough.html
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Remember, ‘A quitter never wins and a winner never quits’
‘The sun don’t shine on a sleepin’ dog’s ass’And all the rest of that stuffBut for you my best was never good enough
‘If God gives you nothin’ but lemons, then you make some lemonade’
‘The early bird catches the fuckin’ worm,Rome wasn’t built in a day’
‘Now life’s like a box of chocolates,
You never know what you’re going to get’‘Stupid is as stupid does and all the rest of that shit’Come’on pretty baby, call my bluff‘Cause for you my best was never good enough.(< Every cloud has a silver lining; Every dog has his day; The tough get going when the going gets tough; A quitter never wins, a winner never quits; The sun doesn’t shine on a sleeping dog’s ass; If life gives you lemons, make lemonade; The early bird catches the worm; Rome wasn’t built in a day; Life is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re going to get; Stupid is as stupid does).
Another brilliant proverb collage was created by a female reader of The New York
Times as her response to an earlier article, and constitutes her letter-to-the editor with the allusive title The Futile Pursuit of Happiness 173:
What? Is Daniel Gilbert saying money can’t buy happiness; time heals all wounds; it’s the little
things that count; look before you leap; act in haste, regret at leisure (Jon Gertner, Sept. 7)? Good
lord, what will psychologists think of next? A stitch in time saves nine? (The New York Times
September 21, 2003).
13.5 The Role of Proverbs on the Structural Level of Media Texts
Proverbs are syntactically complete sentences laden with semantic value, so another important aspect of applying paremias in media texts is their performance on the structural and semantic levels. Of special significance is the role proverbs play in the structuring of texts, be it a newspaper or a magazine article, a TV show episode or a popular song. First, I shall look at their role on the structural level of different media
texts.
One of the strong positions of a text is its title. It is a well-established tradition to
use proverbs as titles of media texts. Paremias appear in the titles of motion pictures
173 This earlier article by the same title presented the results of a series of experiments conducted
by the Harvard Psychology professor Daniel Gilbert and team, who studied how we predict what will make us happy or unhappy and also how we feel after the actual experience. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/07 /magazine/the-futile-pursuit-of-happiness.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm.
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(Silver Linings Playbook (2012) (< Every cloud has a silver lining), Fools Rush In (1997)
(< Fools rush in where angels fear to tread), All’s Faire in Love (2011) (< All is fair in love
and war), Money Talks (1997) and TV series (There Is No ‘I’ in a Team / Grey’s Anatomy,
Necessity Is a Mother / Beverly Hills (< Necessity is the mother of invention), Out of
Mind, Out of Sight / Buffy the Vampire Slayer (< Out of sight, out of mind), All Roads
Lead to Fitz / Scandal (< All roads lead to Rome)). Countless examples of proverb titles
are found in print press Who pays the piper? (< Who pays the piper, calls the tune) (The
Guardian August 37 , 2001), A Cultural Reluctance to Spare the Rod; Newcomers Say
Americans Spoil Children (< Spare the rod and spoil the child) (The New York Times
February 29, 2006), Power corrupts, and how! (< Power corrupts) (The Observer May 1, 2005) and popular songs : You Only Live Twice (Nancy Sinatra) (< You only live once),
What Goes Around Comes Around (Justin Timberlake), Practice Makes Perfect (Billie Holiday).
Proverbs prove to be efficient tools for fulfilling the main tasks of the title. Apart
from the general function of identifying a work of art, they brilliantly help arouse curiosity of the audience, convey meaning, and provide a summary of the whole text (Gill, 2008: 22-23).
Of all the media discourses considered here popular music is unsurpassed in the
scope of the application of proverbs in titles. In some song titles proverbs appear in their standard form, as, for instance, in Elton John’s Like Father Like Son, B. B. King’s Tomorrow Is Another Day, or Garbage’s Silence Is Golden. Applying a non-modified paremia in the title of a song makes it indefinite and, thus, addressed at virtually unlimited number of listeners. In such cases proverb titles depend on other recurrent elements of the song, mainly refrains, to serve as interpretative clues for the audi-ence. More often than not, though, proverbs undergo changes in song titles, which is a natural phenomenon predetermined by the contents peculiarities and composi-
tional characteristics of the song. The most frequently employed modification devices
are truncation (
When in Rome (< When in Rome, do as the Romans do)/ Billy Joel,
None But the Brave (< None but the brave deserve the fair)/ Bruce Springsteen, If
Wishes Were Horses (< If wishes were horses, beggars would ride)/ Bryan Adams)
and application of proverb imagery ( Eye of the Beholder (< Beauty lies in the eye of
the beholder) / Metallica, Spilt Milk (< There is no use crying over the spilt milk)/ Public
Announcement, Thorn and a Wild Rose (< Every rose has a thorn) / The Allman Brothers
Band). More intricate cases include different instances of allusions All My Roads (< All
roads lead to Rome) / Collin Raye, When the Piper Calls (< Who pays the piper, calls the
tune) / China Crisis, word play Jack of All Parades (< Jack of all trades, master of none)/
Elvis Costello, Bitter They Are, Harder They Fall (< The bigger they come, the harder
they fall) / Elvis Presley, and anti-proverbs You Are What You Love (< You are what you
eat) / Jenny Lewis, Men Will Be Boys (< Boys will be boys) / Guy Clark, Someday Never
Comes (< Tomorrow never comes) / Brandie Carlile.
For the illustration of the role proverbs play in the structuring of the TV series dis –
course I shall consider the afore mentioned ABC medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, the
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first seasons of which are especially marked by profuse application of proverbs that
appear on the local structural level (within the framework of a single episode) and the global structural level (within the framework of a narrative arc). The local discursive elements featuring paremias include episode titles, opening and closing voice-overs, characters’ dialogues.
Of considerable interest is the way proverbs function in voice-over narrations.
Being an audio-visual system, the film frequently relies on the use of voice-over tech-nique which serves as a unique way of conveying meaning and establishing special relations with the viewers. Therefore, the voice-over narration is not only a signifi-cant structural element of the TV series discourse but it also contributes to building its cognitive and content planes. What is being voiced by the invisible narrator in each Grey’s Anatomy episode is laden with interpretational value. These opening and
closing narrations are perhaps the most crucial parts of the whole episode. When proverbs are employed in them, they help focus the attention of the audience on the information necessary to interpret the meaning of the events and, thus, deduce the message. The episode entitled The Heart of the Matter (4-4) explores the problem of forgiveness or, rather, the ability to forgive. The opening narration contains allusions to two popular proverbs Nothing is certain but death and taxes and To err is human / People make mistakes that help establish the theme of the episode:
Opening voice-over: In life, only one thing is certain, apart from death and taxes. No matter how
hard you try, no matter how good your intentions, you are going to make mistakes. You’re going to hurt people. You’re going to get hurt. And if you ever want to recover… there’s really only one thing you can say.
Character’s voice: I forgive you.
The closing voice-over narration summarizes all the events by opposing the tradi-
tional proverb providing a seemingly useful piece of advice – Forgive and forget. As the invisible narrator proceeds, it becomes clear that it is sometimes impossible in real life to forgive the ones who hurt us:
Closing voice-over: Forgive and forget. That’s what they say. It’s good advice, but it’s not very
practical. When someone hurts us, we want to hurt them back. When someone wrongs us, we want to be right. Without forgiveness, old scores are never settled… old wounds never heal. And the most we can hope for, is that one day we’ll be lucky enough to forget.
In the dialogues of the Grey’s Anatomy characters proverbs serve as eloquent means
of expressing attitudes, i.e. emotional perception of people and events, as in a conver –
sation between two rivaling interns fresh out of med school:
Karev: 4B’s got post-op pneumonia. Let’s start antibiotics.
Nurse: Are you sure that’s the right diagnosis?
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Karev: Well I don’t know, I’m only an intern. Here’s an idea, why don’t you go spend four years
in med school and let me know if it’s the right diagnosis. She’s short of breath, she’s got fever, she’s post-op. Start the antibiotics. (walks over to Meredith) God I hate nurses. I’m Alex. I’m with Jeremy, you’re with the Nazi, right?Meredith: She may not have pneumonia, you know. She could be splinting, or have a PE.Karev: Like I said, I hate nurses.Meredith: What did you just say? Did you just call me a nurse?Karev: Well, if the white cap fits… (A Hard Day’s Night 1-1/ Grey’s Anatomy)
Interviewing is considered today as an entertainment rather than information vehicle
(Altheide, 2001: 411). This transformation is believed to be caused by “the media logic
that has developed since the early days of print journalism”. The main thesis behind
this assumption is that a major reason for interviewing being so relevant nowadays is its shift “from an information orientation to an impact orientation that is more char –
acteristic of our media culture” (Altheide, 2001:411). As ubiquitous as proverbs are they play a special role in the structural organization of the interview discourse. I shall start my analysis of the role Anglo-American proverbs play in the interview dis –
course structural organization with looking at their functioning in adjacency pairs. In a conventional interview communicants orient to the strict question-answer format. In Oprah Winfrey interviews I studied proverbs are used both as questions:
Oprah: Do you think all people are created equal?
Jamie Foxx: No. If that were true, there’d be no poverty, no shortcomings… We’re all energy. Some people are stronger forces than others. (< All men are created equal) (interview with Jamie Foxx/
O, The Oprah magazine);
and answers:
Julia Roberts: <…> I’ve had people call me with numbers, and I say, “I can’t even tell by the tone of your voice whether this is good or bad news”. You just have to let it go.Oprah: And you have?Julia Roberts: Whatever happens is going to happen, whether you’re sitting by the phone anxious and worried about it or not. (< What’s going to happen will happen/ Whatever happens, happens)
(interview with Julia Roberts/ O, The Oprah magazine)
In several of Oprah’s interviews, proverbs are used in prefaced questions, which help
prepare both the interviewee and the audience for the next question, to herald new topics for discussion, thus providing their smooth switch:
Oprah: <…> You’ve been quoted as saying that fame and money are great, but they don’t bring you
happiness. What does?
Venus: My family. Laughter. Being able to decide what I want to do. My health. (< Money can’t buy
happiness) (interview with Venus Williams/ O, The Oprah magazine)
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Celebrity profile interviews as compared with canonical news interviews are notable
for the use of continuers, i.e. utterances complementing the question-answer pair and situating “their producer as the intended, and attentive, primary recipient of the talk being produced by an interlocutor” (Hutchby, 2005: 214). In each particular case they fulfill different pragmatic functions, e.g. passing judgments, or evaluating what is
being said, as in the conversation with Salma Hayek:
Oprah: <…>So you didn’t question whether you could or couldn’t – it just was?
Salma: I wanted to do films, and at that time in Mexico, a film industry didn’t really exist. So where do you go to do movies? You go to the mecca. I also was afraid I was a very bad actress, because I’d become famous very fast and was making money for people. <…> I never wanted to be a famous bad actress! I had a panic that people would think, She’s good only because everyone knows her.Oprah: Girl, that’s deep! Many would’ve settled for being a big fish in a not-so-small pond. (< Better
a big fish in a little pond than a little fish in a big pond) (interview with Salma Hayek/ O, The Oprah magazine)
13.6 The Role of Proverbs on the Semantic Level of Media Texts
It would not be an overestimation to say that newspaper journalists are keen on
applying proverbs in their writings. The topics of their articles are indeed multifari-ous. Political and financial reviews along with sport reports or life and style stories feature all possible proverbs – old and modern, standard and modified. In Oprah Winfrey’s magazine interviews, for instance, proverbs support the topics discussed
by the famous journalist and her respondents. They include the 9/11 tragedy, personal
growth and success stories, life lessons, women’s problems, just to name a few. Here is an allusive use of the caution-giving proverb Beware of a silent dog and silent water in the talk with Madleine Albright:
Oprah: Could we have protected ourselves against the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks?
Madeleine: I don’t know the answer to that. What most Americans don’t know is that we have prevented a lot of terrorist incidents before this one. There’s always the dog that doesn’t bark that you don’t know about. We need to be very careful not to get so into the blame game that we forget those who died. The challenge is to draw lessons from the past and move forward without spen-ding time finger-pointing. (interview with Madleine Albright/ O, The Oprah magazine)
As for popular music discourse, proverbs play a significant role in disclosing the
themes of songs. These include love songs and songs addressing social issues. Profuse application of proverbs in both is tightly linked with the task to entertain and affect the listeners’ feelings and emotions. Consider the following examples:
“And I believe in helping everybody,
But when it comes to all them foreign loans,
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I think we oughta remember that charity begins at home.
Yes it starts right now in (America, America) <…>” (America, I Believe in You/ Charlie Daniels)174;
“Just look him in the eye and simply shout:Enough is enoughI can’t go on, I can’t go on no more noEnough is enoughI want him out, I want him out that door nowEnough is enoughEnough is enoughThat’s enough”.
175 (No More Tears/Enough is Enough/ Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer)
Some media reveal how widespread in real communication proverbs are. Print inter –
views, magazine and newspaper articles are live, i.e. non-fictitious, speech. As some
of the examples reveal, playful application of proverbs proves to be not only a tool of choice in professional media writing but also in everyday speech that happens to appear or to be quoted in the mass media. This fact is indicative of the universality of
the phenomenon and the critical approach to proverb wisdom giving way to reconsid –
eration of old notions and expounding fresh ones.
Media texts serve as a wonderful platform for conveying opinions and judgments
with the help of proverbs and about proverbs themselves. Journalists, screen writers,
interviewees share their views on the role proverbs play in life. Broadly speaking, these reflections are a mere evidence of how (and to what effect) proverb pragmatic forces are applied in actuality. In the exemplary article Cutting hospital corners (The Guard –
ian Septermber 29, 1999) the author dwells on the problem of contradictory proverbs adding his layman’s everyday observations to a great many scholarly studies:
Many proverbs are less axiomatic than they sound. People who murmur sagely that many hands
make light work will, when it suits them, announce with equal certainty that too many cooks spoil the broth. He who hesitates is lost, and yet fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
Here’s a typical example of how the swindle works. The project to rebuild University College
Hospital, London, will “save” £160m in capital costs by using PFI, but for the next 30 years the hospital trust will have to shell out almost £30m a year to the developers. In other words, the taxpayer is obliged to pay nearly £900m for something that would otherwise have cost £160m. And, at the end of those 30 years, the hospital will belong to the private consortium. As I have suggested before, it’s like taking out a mortgage from a loan shark to buy a house which you already own – and then discovering, 25 years down the line, that the property has been repos –
sessed by the lender anyway.
The end of the article is permeated with proverbial allusions, too:
174  http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/c/charlie_daniels/america_i_believe_in_you.html
175 http://www.songlyrics.com/barbra-streisand/no-more-tears-enough-is-enough-with-donna-
summer-lyrics/
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Perhaps such analogies don’t mean much to Gordon Brown, who has two handsome residences
– 11 Downing Street and Dorneywood – provided free of charge. So let us put it in the sort of lan-guage which this connoisseur of proverbs ought to understand: when the PFI goes a-borrowing,
our children go a-sorrowing. Or, if you prefer, there’s no such thing as the never-never – merely a delayed day of reckoning. (< He who goes a-borrowing, goes a-sorrowing; There is no such thing
as a free lunch).
Another article from the Guardian discusses the way proverb authority is exploited in
the society:
Most people are brought up by parents who hope to waylay our inherent shallowness with plati-
tudes such as “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, “A cat may look at a king” and other unlikely bollocks. Given the option, and whatever the circumstances, the majority of us will elect to boff a gorgeous person over a wart-covered hog. <…> But I will concede that, once one knows a person well, it is easier and quite correct that we see beyond their physical appearance. (All the men I’ve never slept with / The Guardian December 20, 2003)
Here is one more brilliant example of applying several synonymous proverbs to
express philosophical reflections that constitute the message of a Grey’s Anatomy episode. The starting point for these ideas in the opening voice-over narration is the popular dictum Never leave that ‘til tomorrow, which you can do today also serving as a leitmotif for all the happenings in the episode:
A couple hundred years ago Benjamin Franklin shared with the world the secret of his success.
Never leave that ‘til tomorrow, which you can do today. This is the man who discovered electricity; you’d think we’d pay more attention to what he had to say. I don’t know why we put things off, but if I had to guess it has a lot to do with fear. Fear of failure, fear of pain, fear of rejection. Sometimes the fear of just making a decision. Because… What if you’re wrong? What if you make a mistake you can’t undo? <…>
At the end of the episode the narrator reveals her interpretation of the popular proverb
informed by her practical observations. We-narration is used in this case proving this understanding to be shared by many people, the viewers included:
“The early bird catches the worm”. “A stitch in time saves nine”. “He who hesitates is lost”. We
can’t pretend we haven’t been told. We’ve all heard the proverbs, heard the philosophers, heard our grandparents warning us about wasted time; heard the damn poets urging us to seize the day. Still, sometimes we have to see for ourselves. We have to make our own mistakes. We have to learn our own lessons. We have to sweep today’s possibility under tomorrow’s rug until we can’t anymore. Until we finally understand for ourselves what Benjamin Franklin meant. That knowing is better than wondering. That waking is better than sleeping. And that even the biggest failure, even the worst most intractable mistake, beats the hell out of not trying. (< Time wasted
is time lost) (If Tomorrow Never Comes 1-6/ Grey’s Anatomy)
Thus, closing the present chapter, I can conclude that the mass media discourse
proves to be a really fascinating realm for proverb scholars. Paremias categorize reality by capturing some typical, i.e. recurrent, situations and, therefore, are unique
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ready-made linguistic vehicles for representing similar ones. By doing so, they
describe, interpret the world and help express various attitudes. The abundance of
these folklore dictums, especially their creative transformations, in media texts testi-fies to their ubiquity and inexhaustible potential in handling all sorts of pragmatic tasks serving the goal of influencing the mass audience. Much is yet to be explored in this paremilogical field, and it is my hope that the approaches and results offered here can be of help in new scholarly endeavors.
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