Snowy Girl: PROVERB & METONYMY

A. PROVERB

What is proverb? Proverb is a simple sentence or short sentence that is usually used to suppose something or the real truth, that have meaning and aims to educate. Proverb is also known as the wise words.

How can we use proverbs to learn English? It is good to know the really common English proverbs because we often hear them come up in conversation all the time. Sometimes people say the entire proverb to give advice to a friend. Learning proverbs can also help us to understand the way that people in English-speaking cultures think about the world. Proverbs can also give us good example sentences which us can memorize and use as models for building our own sentences.

Role of Proverbs in Society

1. Most common role that a proverb plays is to educate. Most often tossed around as expert advice in conversation, the innate role to educate people on what might happen if they do something.

2. English and American proverbs are almost second nature when delivered. The origins are quite often little known, yet the expressions are popular. Ethnic proverbs, on the other hand, may be a little deeper to digest, and require non-natives of the proverb’s country of origin, to think about the meaning in order to better understand how it applies to their lives.

There are six categories of proverb, namely :

1. Proverbs expressing a general attitude towards life and the laws that govern life.

2. Ethical proverbs recommending certain virtues and condemning certain vices.

3. Proverbs expressing a system of values.

4. Proverbs expressing general truths and observations about life and human nature.

5. Humorous proverbs.

6. Miscellaneous proverbs (typically expressive of specific realities to a certain area).

Example proverb in Indonesia :

- Diam itu emas.

- Lebih baik terlambat daripada tidak sama sekali.

- Bersatu kita teguh, bercerai kita runtuh.

Example of Proverb

B. METONYMY

What is metonymy? Metonymy is derived from the Greek phrase metōnymía meaning “a change of name.” So, metonymy is a word or phrase that is used to express other thing and have relationship. Sometimes a metonymy is chosen because it is a well-known characteristic of the word.

Why should we learn metonymy? Because associative and referential thinking are so natural and automatic to us, metonymies can be found and understood frequently in everyday language, literature, and pop culture. Metonymies allow for brevity by replacing lists with an associated category. They summarize complicated processes or programs with shortened phrases. Finally, they emphasize the most important and defining characteristics of a subject.

Metonymy has several types such as :

1. SEBAGIAN mewakili KESELURUHAN

We don’t hire longhairs.

2. PEMBUAT mewakili KARYANYA

He bought a Ford.

3. BENDA mewakili PENGGUNANYA

The sax has the flu today

4. PENGAWAS mewakili YANG DIAWASI (PELAKU)

Nixon bombed Hanoi.

5. INSTITUSI mewakili PENANGGUNG JAWAB

Exxon has raised its prices again

6. TEMPAT mewakili INSTITUSI