On English proverb variation from the perspective of linguistic creativity

Abstract

Proverbs are usually regarded as structurally fixed expressions. However, in daily communication, language users often change them to suit their communicative purposes in many ways, resulting in proverb variations. Using the data from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA corpus), this study attempts to present varieties of the English proverb “There are two sides to every coin” and explain the variations from the perspective of linguistic creativity. This study also explores the variations of this proverb in EFL learners' use via the data from Chinese EFL learners' corpus TECCL. The study shows that, first proverb use can roughly be divided into two types: canonical and non-canonical uses, each having three ways of alteration, i.e., addition of modifiers, substitution of content words, and reduction. Second, Chinese EFL learners tend to use the proverb in a mechanical way with little variation, which shows their inflexible use of proverbs. Finally, proverb variation by nature is the creative manipulation of language use to fit the context, which is a form of linguistic creativity that reflects the cognitive creativity of human beings.