"Kazakhstan, like other former Soviet states, seeks national self-definition. For Kazakhs, proverbs are the traditional resource for defining problems, making moral judgments, and suggesting remedies. As a result, the Kazakhstani government mandates instruction in Kazakh proverbs to shape the nation. How can anthropological and folkloristic tools be implemented to assess the language ideologies brought into play in this situation without crossing the line into conjecture? Research into "national traits" using proverbs has validity issues since it relies on small proverb sets, fails to acknowledge the multi-voiced nature of language ideologies, and projects values onto the societies in question. More recent research utilizes larger proverb sets, surveys, and participant observation thus providing examples for addressing these shortcomings. In my own research, I have incorporated these proverb research methods while also addressing the shortcomings of the "national traits" research by setting three delimitations of my research concerning language ideologies expressed by means of Kazakh proverbs. First, I focus on youth, the societal group most likely to change linguistically in an environment of language revitalization. Second, I only explore language ideologies concerning "community". Third, I have worked with a speech community rather than attempting nationwide analysis. My field research was completed at Kazakh National Technical University in Almaty, Kazakhstan. I surveyed students concerning Kazakh proverbs addressing "community". Students reenacted the most familiar proverbs from the set, thereby narrativizing their language ideologies concerning "community". I analyzed the data using an adaptation of Goffman's frame analysis. The language ideology showing the most tension was individualism-collectivism. This cultural theme is best understood as a continuum going from individual to the extended family / friends, and finally to the nation. In their narratives, students grappled with the paradigm of strength in numbers and "elders" in the skits repeatedly opposed individualism. In the reenactments, students' agency received its clearest expression in terms of proverbs about extended family / friends. Thus the language ideologies concerning "community" showed the following frame issues (boundaries): 1. Tension over where the speech community should position itself along the individualism-collectivism continuum; 2. Scripts against individualism; 3. Preponderance of adaptations for smaller-scale collectives."

The question for my project is: In an environment of mandatory proverb instruction for youth, what do youth express as significant by means of these same proverbs? I will explore how Kazakh-speaking college students use Kazakh proverbs to narrativize “community”. I will do this be evaluating their knowledge and use of Kazakh proverbs addressing such issues as nationalism/patriotism, unity, family, and ethnic identity.

Past attempts at using proverbs for cultural analysis have provided questionable results. There has been an overreliance on comparable proverbs from other cultures (Mieder 1981) or the search for “underlying” static cultural traits (Bartlotti 2000). The current paper explores the potential of using frame analysis (Goffman 1974; Johnston 2002; Snow 1986) and circulation studies (Spitulnik 2001) as methods better suited to explicating societal change. The two methods are complementary: circulation studies aiding understanding of the process of proverb use; frame analysis allowing for insight on the meaning of familiar proverbs. Rather than explore perspectives of the culture in general, I selected college students in Almaty, Kazakhstan as the group to be investigated. The current generation of students in Kazakhstan is unique, since they have only known an independent and Post-Soviet fatherland. As they have grown up, the country has been in the throes of redefining itself as a society. Part of this process has been reestablishing Kazakh as the national language. Field research was carried out among university students at the Kazakh National Technical University in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Surveys provided information about the most familiar proverbs out of the proverb set concerning “community”. Analysis of the survey results showed that the population functions using proverbs as a speech community, a group able to communicate with each other effectively. Surveys and proverb encounter reenactments will provide the type of data necessary for circulation studies and frame analysis to establish a baseline concerning proverbial perspectives concerning “community” among Kazakh-speaking college students.

Though of the same genre, two comparable proverbs from a given culture can operate in two distinct communicative spheres. Using an approach called discourse ecology, I explore the intertextual dynamics, semantics, and usage of two Kazakh proverbial calls to action. I consider the meaning and cultural background for each proverb. Based on searches of social media and a Kazakh corpus of news articles, I argue that one proverb operates in mass-media whereas the other is limited to use in interpersonal conversation and online chat forums. I conclude with considerations of the contrasting roles that the two comparable proverbs play in terms of representative and frame-aligning discourse for contemporary Kazakhs.

As collections of thoughts and ideas, proverbs are stated in short figurative phrases and sentences. The last twenty years have witnessed an increasing interest in studies on proverbs (paremiology) from various perspectives including the description, comprehension, and comparison of L1-L2 proverbs most of which have centered on structural, lexical and verbal processes analysis in the total negligence of any cultural focus. To bridge this gap, this paper aims to present Cultural Linguistics as an investigative framework to unveil the cultural elements in proverbs. To do so, first the previous linguistic models and tools to study proverbs are presented and examined thoroughly to highlight lack of a culturally-oriented linguistic analysis in paremiology. Then, Cultural Linguistics is introduced as a framework to reveal the cultural content of proverbs using the three elements of cultural schema, cultural category and cultural metaphor, collectively known as cultural conceptualization (Sharifian, 2015). To substantiate the issue, proverbs from different languages are analyzed using the framework. It is argued that such analysis can assist paremiologists to deepen their understanding of proverbs especially when comparing proverbs of different languages with distinct cultural backgrounds.

It is obvious that proverbs have their roots in the cultures of any society. Russian proverbs and sayings show a foreigner the traditions, customs, and way of thinking of the Russian people. In the current study, by monitoring posts on social networks and using passive observations of the speech process of native speakers, the communicative situations in which paremias were regularly resorted to were identified. The authors provide a review of the existing research in this area and conclude that it is necessary to conduct an additional experiment in order to obtain the most objective results. The choice of primary material for the questionnaire is explained, and preliminary results of a comparison of various sources of paremias are presented. Examples of formulations of questions proposed to informants are given that make it possible to identify not only the fact of recognition of paremias, but also their understanding. Eventually, further ways of research development are presented....

The present article contains the results of an analysis of Russian proverbs reflecting some of the most popular traits of character stereotypically attributed to Russian people. The research methodology includes several stages: a selection of 400 Russian proverbs and sayings illustrating different aspects of a Russian national character, a quantitative analysis of data collected, and thematic grouping of 30 proverbs most explicitly pointing to popular stereotypes about Russian people. The theoretical part of the article comprises the definitions of such key concepts as ‘nation’, ‘nationality’, ‘ethnicity’, ‘national, civil and ethnic identity’, which have been analyzed with reference to other researchers working in this field. The research results have shown that the most popular human qualities of Russian people are religiousness, patience and firmness, diligence and talent, a love for freedom, a will-power and courage, hospitality, generosity and breadth of soul.

Proverbs are considered as part of folklore or public literature and one of important cultural treasures. Hence, discussing and studying proverbs can make us familiar with cultural aspects, value and norms of the owners of those proverbs. In this study Kurdish and Farsi proverbs are investigated based on cultural components and its species are presented and classified based on the same components. The present study shows that Kurdish and Farsi proverbs have spoken of two categories of values and norms, and anti-values and abnormalities, first, positive values and norms such as encouraging to truthfulness, effort, patience and tolerance, pragmatic, wise, etc; and second, negative values and in other words anti-values and abnormal action that they have been blame such as lying, avarice, cruelty, etc; also based on Malinowski’s theory, the three individual, social and combined functions are conceivable Keywords: Culture, Value, Norm, Anti-Value, Kurdish proverbs, Farsi proverbs, etc.