A Comparison of English and Japanese Proverbs Using Natural Semantic Metalanguage

Abstract

This investigation examines the meaning of semantically similar English and Japanese proverbs. It uses textual data sourced from online corpora to highlight and compare the different cultural and conceptual elements embedded within these proverbs. The findings of this investigation demonstrate that matching proverbs from different languages is a potentially problematic exercise, both in dictionaries and in the second-language classroom.

Keywords

• culture
• Japanese language education
• linguistics
• language
• metaphor
• Natural Semantic Metalanguage
• proverb