| Previous researches of proverbs are concerned with cognitive psychology,cultural values, the similarities and differences between English proverbs and Chineseproverbs and their translations, and the studies are fruitful. There are few researchesinto the ways of replication and transmission of proverbs. This thesis mainly usesmemetics which is put forward by Richard Dawkins as the framework and adoptsboth quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze and research English proverbs.The data are taken from the book Bilingual English Proverbs (Enlarged andClassified Edition)(2003). This thesis discusses the types of language memes inEnglish proverbs as well as the replication and the transmission of proverb memes,and explains the linguistic and nonlinguistic causes of the wide transmission oflanguage memes in English proverbs.Memetics is a discipline that explains how memes come into being, replicate andreproduce. The relationship between language and memes is complementary.Language is regarded as the carrier of the transmission of memes and memes canpromote the development of language. This thesis just makes use of memetics toexplain and analyze the replication and transmission of language memes in Englishproverbs. As the number of English proverbs is large and the range is wide, the datafor the present study are chosen from the book Bilingual English Proverbs. Theauthor selects200proverbs randomly to analyze the replication and transmission oflanguage memes in English proverbs.The language memes in English proverbs occur on three linguistic levels: theword level, the phrasal level and the sentential level. In terms of ability to replicate,the language memes in English proverbs can be divided into strong proverb memesand weak proverb memes. The transmission of language memes in English proverbscompletes by reiteration and analogy, i.e. the reiteration in the same proverb and theanalogy in different proverbs. The linguistic causes of the replication and transmissionof proverb memes are the simplicity, novelty, fecundity and practicality of proverb memes have. The nonlinguistic causes of the replication and transmission of proverbmemes include cognitive and social factors, such as the development of technologywhich provides an expansive platform and the influence of religious and socialtraditions.It is hoped that the present study will deepen the understanding of memetics andenrich the study of English proverbs, so that proverbs can be better used in linguisticcommunication. |
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