A Comparative Study on Persian and American Proverbs Including Double Main Perception Verbs

Abstract

The investigation delves into the essence of both Persian and American proverbs. Examining embodiment proverbs from Persian and American cultures, this study aimed to focus on verbs associated with five main perception senses. The objective of this study was to find embodiment-related proverbs from both cultural perspectives, striving to present a comparative analysis. The data were sourced from the Persian Dictionary of Proverbs, authored by Jamshidipour (1968), and the Dictionary of American Proverbs, authored by Wolfgang Mieder (1992). The data were analyzed to ascertain the prevalence, speech  function, grammatical construction, and conceptual framing of these proverbs. Upon analyzing the collected data, Persian proverbs were framed within both ‘loss-framing’ and ‘gain-framing’. However, American proverbs predominantly featured ‘loss-framing’ and ‘avoidance-framing’. While the most grammatical construction of Persian proverbs is declarative sentences, the grammatical construction of American proverbs has more variety. In terms of speech function, both Persian and American proverbs primarily served as statements and indirect advice. Finally, the study concluded that the verbs ‘see’ and ‘hear’ held the highest frequency of usage among perception verbs within Persian and American proverbs.