The only good snowclone is a dead snowclone: A cognitive-linguistic exploration of the frayed ends of proverbiality

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Abstract

This paper proposes that some snowclones display some degree of proverbiality to the extent that it can be argued that they occupy a grey zone between proverbs proper and semi-schematic idioms. Drawing on theoretical insights from construction grammar and cognitive-semantic approaches to socio-cultural cognition, this paper also presents three case-studies of such snowclones which are based on corpus-data and corpus-linguistic methodology. More specifically, this paper studies patterns of use, such as productivity, epistemic status marking, and co-occurrence with co-textual topics, of the only good X is a dead X, one does not simply X into Y and in X, no one can hear you Y so as to address their potential proverbial nature.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProverbs within Cognitive Linguistics : State of the art
EditorsSadia Belkhir
Place of PublicationAmsterdam
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company
Publication date2024
Pages260-297
Chapter10
ISBN (Print)9789027246882
Publication statusPublished - 2024

Keywords

  • Faculty of Humanities
  • Construction Grammar
  • Snowclones
  • Cultural Literacy
  • Epistemic Status
  • Proverbs
  • Productivity Profiles
  • Socio-cultural Cognition
  • Hate Speech
  • Corpus Linguistics

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