Presentation Title
Quantifying proverb dynamics in books, news articles, and tweets
Abstract
Proverbs represent an important component of language and culture. Proverbs often serve to convey distilled essences of cultural codes that may be moral, cautionary, or observational. Here, we quantitatively compare temporal dynamics of proverb use within three disparate corpora: Literature, traditional news media, and social media. For each corpus, we determine and track the specific proverbs that are most widely used. We also explore the emergence of modern proverbs, providing quantitative support for previous scholarship. Far from fading into disuse in contemporary language and media, we find that proverbs are popular on Twitter, offering statistical evidence that `a good maxim is never out of season’.
Primary Faculty Mentor Name
Chris Danforth
Secondary Mentor Name
Peter Dodds
Faculty/Staff Collaborators
Advisors: Peter Dodds, Chris Danforth, Wolfgang Mieder
Status
Graduate
Student College
Graduate College
Program/Major
Complex Systems
Primary Research Category
Arts & Humanities
Quantifying proverb dynamics in books, news articles, and tweets
Proverbs represent an important component of language and culture. Proverbs often serve to convey distilled essences of cultural codes that may be moral, cautionary, or observational. Here, we quantitatively compare temporal dynamics of proverb use within three disparate corpora: Literature, traditional news media, and social media. For each corpus, we determine and track the specific proverbs that are most widely used. We also explore the emergence of modern proverbs, providing quantitative support for previous scholarship. Far from fading into disuse in contemporary language and media, we find that proverbs are popular on Twitter, offering statistical evidence that `a good maxim is never out of season’.