MA Dissertation Anass Fourati

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THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM
English Language & Applied Linguistics
Dissertation Submission
Name: .Anass Fourati.......ID: 1396137..............................................................................
MA: TEFL/ELAL/AL/Trans/ACL/CDCC/LL*.
(* delete as appropriate)
Year: 2014/2015
Title: .... The Acquisition of Animal Proverbs by Arabic Speaking Learners of English in the
United Kingdom: A Cognitive Linguistic Approach
Word Count: 14,280…………………………………………………………………………
Name of Supervisor: ........Rosamund Moon..........................

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DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP
I declare:
a. that this Dissertation is my own work;
b. that this is written in my own words; and
c. that all quotations from published or unpublished work are acknowledged
with quotation marks and references to the work in question.
Sign: Anass Fourati Date: 04/09/2015
For Office Use Only
Received:
[Dissertation front cover sheet]

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ABSTRACT
This study is investigating the cognitive processes which take place in the acquisition of
proverbs by Arabic speaking students in Great Britain. Indeed the Arabic speaking
community represents a large proportion of the international student community in British
universities. They mainly come to the United Kingdom to improve their English language
skills. However, it seems that they are not familiar with the English proverbs and may face
problems of understanding in their everyday interactions as a consequence. In addition, the
school curriculum in Arab countries does not put much emphasis on that issue in English as
a Foreign Language teaching and learning.
That is why seven Arabic speaking postgraduate students have been asked to explain the
meaning of English animal proverbs out of context. Their knowledge of proverbs has been
assessed in relation to the morals of Aesop’s Fables. It seems that Aesop’s Fables represent
an effective way of conveying proverbs. I have reached the conclusion that metaphor and
metonymy theory could help non-native speakers of English to improve their understanding
of English animal proverbs.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I praise our Lord for having bestowed upon us His blessings and allowed me to
complete that dissertation.
I would like to thank my parents and relatives who have supported me throughout that
process.
I would also like to thank my supervisor Rosamund Moon for her advice, support and
confidence in helping me to relate my interest in Aesop’s Fables with the fascinated field of
paremiology.
I would thank all the staff of the English Language and Applied Linguistics Department of the
University of Birmingham, and especially Jeannette Littlemore, Olivia Knapton and Nick
Groom who have impacted on my decision to tackle that topic. I also need to mention
Doctor Mounir Triki, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sfax in Tunisia, who has
shared his experience with regards to my project.
Finally, I would like to thank the participants who have contributed to that study and
especially Feras for his beneficial impetus.
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CONTENTS Pages
List of figures 7
List of tables 7
List of abbreviations 7
Chapter 1: Introduction 8
1.1. Research motivation and Purpose 8

1.2. Research Questions and Hypotheses 10
1.3. Structure of the Dissertation 11
Chapter 2: Literature Review 12
2 .1. Proverbs 12
2.1.1. Definition of proverbs 12
2.1.2. Analysability of proverbs 13
2.1.3. The reasons of studying proverbs 14
2.2. Metaphor theory 17
2.2.1. Definition of Conceptual Metaphor 17
2.2.2. Cultural implications of Conceptual Metaphor 18
2.3. Metonymy theory 20
2.3.1. Definition of Conceptual Metonymy 20
2.3.2. Cognitive mechanism of metonymy 22
2.3.3. The relationships between Conceptual Metaphor and Conceptual Metonymy 24
2.4. The cognitive approaches to proverbs 27
2.4.1. Conceptual Metaphor Theory in Second Language Acquisition 27

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2.4.2. Cognitive views on proverbs 28
2.4.3. Conceptual Metaphor Theory in Proverb Understanding 29
2.4.4. Empirical studies on Proverbs Acquisition 32
Chapter 3: Methodology 34
3.1. Procedure 34
3.2. Participants 35
3.3. Materials 35
3.4. Data collection
Chapter 4: Discussion of the findings 37
5.1. Semi-constructed interviews 37
5.2. Reading test 41
5.3. Questionnaire 43
Chapter 5: Conclusion 47
6.1. Synopsis of major findings 47
6.2. Implications for English Language Teaching 48
6.3. Limitations and suggestions for further study 49
Bibliography 50
Appendix A Semi-constructed interviews 53
Appendix B Reading activity 54
Appendix C Sample of Aesop’s fables 55
Appendix D Questionnaire 60
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List of figures
Figure 1: A conceptual representation of the proverb ‘to kill the goose with the golden eggs’
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Figure 2: An idealised cognitive model for ‘bicycle’ 21
Figure 3: Characteristics of the Great Chain 31
List of tables
Table 1: Students’ performance in understanding English animal proverbs out of context 38
Table 2: The fables which the participants knew 42
Table 3: The representations of animals in the participants’ cultures 43
Table 4: The most used proverbs by the participants 45
List of abbreviations
EFL: English as a Foreign Language
ELT: English Language Teaching
L2: Second Language

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The Acquisition of Animal Proverbs by Arabic Speaking Learners of English in the United
Kingdom: A Cognitive Linguistic Approach.
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1. Research Motivation and Purpose
To begin with, proverbs are defined as `familiar, fixed, sentential expressions that
express well-known truths, social norms, or moral concerns’ (Gibbs and Beitel, 1995:
134). We can look at proverbs from two different angles. Firstly, the traditional view
suggests that all idiomatic phrases are proverbs (Norrick, 1985). Secondly, the cognitive
linguistic view considers a proverb as a result of a conceptual metaphor, since Kovecses
(2002: 233) believes that the meaning of a proverb is motivated by à cognitive
mechanism that links domains of knowledge to idiomatic meanings’ (ibid). However, the
teaching of proverbs is better conveyed through their meaning. We shall also highlight
that proverbs are a particular case of idioms. Hence, proverbs are generally used to talk
about a general aspect of life and are strongly attached to specific linguistic and cultural
communities. They may have a value of authority and be taken for granted.
For example, the idiom: ‘when in Rome, do as the Romans do’ is so widely used than it
can be abbreviated simply as ‘when in Rome’ and still understood.
Moreover, people have always used metaphors involving animals to criticise human
behaviour. This is what Aesop and La Fontaine did in their Fables by using animals to
criticise the society of their times. For example, the Aesopic tradition is embedded into
many proverbs in English, such as `to burst with envy; to blow hot and cold and to get
the lion’s share’ (Taylor, 1931: 186). To some extent, it is believed that Aesop’s Fables
were influenced by Kalila wa Dimna of the Arabic writer Ibn Muqaffah, who himself was
inspired by the Indian tradition. That is why fables such as The Hare and the Tortoise and
The Raven and the Fox pertain such a universal significance for many cultures.
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Likewise, proverbs yield a high degree of figurative language and are closely bounded into a
specific language and culture. The problem Arab learners may face when they learn English
proverbs would be the tendency to interpret them literally, if they are not used in a context
specified situation. Similarly, in her recent work on metonymy, Littlemore (2015: 173)
outlines the problems faced by language learners in terms of the understanding and
production of metonymy in relation to metaphors and proverbs.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the cognitive processes that underlie the
acquisition of idioms among Arab students in the United Kingdom. The motivation for
proverb understanding involves conventional knowledge as well as metaphors and
metonymies. Our aim is to explore the motivations of proverb understanding amongst
Arabic speaking learners of English at the light of the theories of metaphor and metonymy.
The empirical study explores the acquisition of proverbs, whereas the discussion
investigates the pedagogical implications of metaphor and metonymy theory that would
help English Language teachers to implement the teaching of proverbs through Aesop’s
Fables for instance.
Furthermore, Arabic speakers use figurative language extensively, since proverbs are often
considered as sayings of wisdom (Taylor, 1931). This is mainly due to the attachment Arabs
owe to their ancestors and their tribes, which are built on a presumption of shared values.
In order to assess Arabic speaking students’ understanding of English animal proverbs,
seven Arabic speakers have shared their impressions on fifteen animal proverbs and
compared them with their Arabic equivalents. These semi-constructed interviews were
followed by a reading task, asking the participants to link excerpts taken from Aesop’s
Fables with their corresponding morals, which are betrayed as proverbs. Finally, they shared
their knowledge on proverbs throughout a questionnaire.
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1.2. Research Questions and Hypotheses
Some research have been accomplished in the cognitive processes that are involved in the
teaching of proverbs, metonymy and metaphor in EFL contexts (Gibbs and Beitel, 1995;
Lakoff and Johnson, 1982; Lakoff and Turner, 1989; Littlemore, 2015). Never the less, little
work has been achieved in relation to the Arabic EFL context. That is why I am addressing
three key research questions:
1) What kind of strategies do Arab speaking learners of English employ in order to

understand animal proverbs in context?
2) How effective is the teaching of English animal proverbs through the morals of
Aesop’s Fables to a public English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners?
3) How can the metaphor and metonymy theories apply to proverb understanding in
order to help EFL students to acquire new English animal proverbs?
Based on these questions, I am planning to explore and test the following hypotheses:
Hypothesis 1: EFL learners grasp the meanings of proverbs more effectively when they
analyse the conceptual metaphors from which they are derived.
Hypothesis 2: Teaching Aesop’s Fables would help effectively English as a Foreign Language
students to learn new English animal proverbs.
Hypothesis 3: A consideration of the pedagogical implications of metaphor theory can

inform teaching and learning approaches that allow EFL learners to bolster their language
capacities.
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1.3. Structure of the Dissertation
The dissertation will be divided into five parts. I have first introduced the objectives in
chapter one. Chapter two will consist of the literature review, which will build on the
definition of proverb, its analysability and a review of empirical studies on proverbs
acquisition. I will follow with metaphor theory by defining conceptual metaphor and its
cognitive mechanisms. The same procedure will be applied to metonymy in order to
compare the two theories. By the same token, I will outline how these can be applied to
the properties of proverbs.
Then, I will explore the cognitive approaches related to the acquisition of proverbs
amongst EFL learners by exploring the applicability of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory
in second language acquisition. I will expand on the cognitive views of proverbs and
conclude the literature review by analysing the importance of Conceptual Metaphor
Theory in understanding proverbs.
The methodology section will appear in chapter four, detailing the procedure,
participants, materials and data collection methods used in the present study. Chapter
five will consist of the discussion of the results at the light of the three hypotheses. I will
conclude in chapter six by summarising the findings, pointing out the limitations of the
study, as well as addressing suggestions for future research.
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Chapter 2: Literature review
2.1. Proverbs
2.1.1. Definition of Proverbs
Etymologically, the term “proverb” comes from the Latin root word “proverbium” which is
formed of the prefix pro- (forward) + verbum (word). Literally, proverbium means `word put
forward’ (Online Etymology Dictionary). It became `proverbe’ in French to indicate a maxim
in the twelfth century, and English adopted the term `proverb’ by the end of the fourteenth
century (ibid). The origins of proverbs in the Western civilisation may refer back to the
Bible’s Book of Proverbs (Taylor, 1931: 4). For instance the proverb `do not look a gift horse
in the mouth’ has been first used by Saint Jerome to point out those who criticised his
writings that he considered to be a present for his followers (Taylor, 1931: 4-5).
However, there is not a cutting edge definition of proverb on which linguists have agreed.
Our study will take the following definitions into consideration:
a) `Proverbs are familiar, fixed, sentential expressions that express well-known truths,
social norms, or moral themes’ (Gibbs, 2001: 168).
b) À proverb is a saying current among the folk’ (Taylor, 1931: 3).
c) `From the view point of folklore studies, proverbs are elements of a code of folk
culture; […] From the point of view of linguistics, proverbs are phrasemes’
(Dobrovol’skij and Piirainen, 2005: 49).
The aforementioned definitions seem to complete each other in the sense that two
intertwined interpretations of proverbs appear to emerge: a cultural aspect and a linguistic
one. Although, these definitions may be broad ranging, they constitute a tremendous basis
for our study. It is also worth mentioning that proverbs belong to a category of idioms, and
hence, all the theories that apply to idioms in general are applicable to proverbs.
As mentioned by Mieder (in Skandera, 2007: 205), proverbs serve the purpose of successful
communication, since they are believed to carry a certain degree of wisdom, which is based
on people’s experiences of life. Therefore, they endeavour general truthfulness, even
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though the literal meanings of some proverbs may imply a contradiction with its
representation of the world. For example, the applicability of the proverb `fish rod from the
head first’ can be questioned. The same observation apply for other sayings, such as
ìgnorance is bliss’, `familiarity breeds contempt’ and `spare the rod and spoil the child’,
which psychologists claim its failure in child education (Lefkowitz et al., 1978, in Gibbs, 1995:
135).
2.1.2. Analysability of Proverbs
Seitel (1969) (in Norrick, 1985: 102-103) posits a model to describe the applicability of a
proverb in real life situations. For instance, the proverb `to kill the goose that laid the golden
eggs’ refers to Aesop’s fable called The Goose with the Golden Eggs. It is used to denounce
greediness, as it is suggested in the moral if the story: `too much greed results in nothing’.
This proverb can be illustrated as in the figure below
Proverbial context
A B
Goose Golden eggs
C D
Stinginess Wealth
Real life situations
Figure 1: A conceptual representation of the proverb `to kill the goose with the golden eggs’.
Adapted from Seitel (1969) (in Norrick, 1985: 102-103).
We can deduce from this figure that the concepts in the proverb are similar to those in real
life situations. The relationship between them can be summed in the relation A: B: C: D. It
should be highlighted though that this model represents only the situational context in
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which the proverb is used. It is especially suitable for proverbs which are based on
conceptual metaphors (ibid).
Gibbs (2001: 168) comments that some proverbs are based on metaphors (e.g. a bird in the
hand is worth two in the bush), others on personification, hyperbole, and paradox. They also
share poetic features, such as meter, rhyme, alliteration, assonance and parallelism (ibid).
Indeed, proverbs are principally used for oral communication and rhetorical purposes,
because they are conceived to endeavour universal principles, which underlie human
behaviour:
`The existence of similar kinds of proverbs in different languages suggests that some
conceptions of intelligence and reasonable behaviour are to some degree universal.’
(Gibbs, 2001: 169).
Although proverbs are generally considered as true sayings of wisdom, their applicability is
highly influenced by the context in which the proverb takes place. For example, the proverb
`you cannot teach an old dog new tricks’ does not hold a verified scientific explanation,
because this depends on the age of the dog and the nature of the trick (Gibbs, 2001: 170).
2.1.3. The reasons of studying proverbs
Norrick (1985: 2-3) states three principal reasons to study proverbs. First, from a purely
linguistic point of view, proverbs represent units of meaning, which are intrinsically part of a
language. Second, proverbs are idioms, which literal meanings do not necessarily follow a
`compositional semantic principle’ (ibid). Accordingly, the figurative meanings of proverbs
heavily draw on the relationships between tropes of language, such as metaphor and
metonymy: à description of the common types of proverbial figures indicates which
synecdochic, metaphoric and metonymic relations are regular in natural language’ (Norrick,
1985: 3). Third, proverbs form a prominent part of our everyday language and are
essentially built on linguistic properties, linking the bridge between the morphologically
complex units of meaning and the grammatical cohesion of the phrase as a whole. In
contrast, proverbs which are based on similes and comparisons, such as `like father, like son’
and `the fairer the paper, the fouler the blot’ are ungrammatical according to Quirk and
Greenbaum (1973) (in Norrick, 1985: 4).
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Among the most important reasons which has caught my interest to study proverbs, were
their pragmatic and didactic dimensions. The didactic dimension deals with the moral stance
that the proverb conveys, whereas the pragmatic dimension refers to the real life situations
in which proverbs are uttered. For instance, the semantic meaning of the proverb ‘slow and
steady wins the race’ is to be patient and persevere. Never the less, when it is used in a
conversation, its pragmatic function is to advice. From a didactic perspective though, the
speaker tells the hearer to be patient. That difference between the pragmatic and didactic
dimensions of proverbs will be crucial to take into account, since they will determine the
contexts in which the proverbs will be employed
Furthermore, Holden and Warshaw (1985) identify four main reasons for teaching proverbs.
Firstly, they help students to familiarise with grammatical patterns, such as the use of
adjectives as nominals e.g. `handsome is as handsome does’ (Holden and Warshaw, 1985:
63). Secondly, they play a tremendous role in conveying the morals of short stories. Thirdly,
they may serve to introduce students to literary figures, such as ellipsis, personification,
metonymy and metaphor. Fourthly, students are able to expand their vocabulary input
through the acquisition of new words, as well as applying extended meanings to common
words, such as `call’ and `strike’:
`He who pays the piper, calls the tune.’
`Strike while the iron is hot.’ (ibid)
Most importantly, proverbs increase understanding, writing skills and inter cultural
awareness. In much that sense, most of English proverbs have an equivalent in Western
European languages, such as French, Spanish, Italian and German. This may be explained by
the shared linguistic, cultural and historical heritage between these countries throughout
the centuries. On the other hand, there are similar proverbs in Asian languages but they
have different formulations. For instance, the Chinese proverb `the wood for the temple
does not come from one tree’ is tantamount to `many roads lead to Rome’ or `there is more
than one way to skin a cat’ (Holden and Warshaw, 1985: 65).
Likewise, from a purely ethnographic point of view, proverbs in different linguistic and
cultural backgrounds may refer to the same concept, but are expressed in different
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manners. For example, the Southern African American saying `do not bite off more with
your mouth than your back can hold’ is just another version of `speech is silver, silence is
golden’ (Holden and Warshaw, 1985: 66). From a psychology view point, Jean Piaget in his
book The Language and Thought of the Child (1955) supposes that the adolescence
constitutes the most appropriate period for teaching proverbs, since teenagers start to
develop their critical thinking skills from that age. In addition, the cross cultural mappings of
metaphors in proverbs may be explored in order to introduce students to new cultures. In a
nutshell, proverbs represent an efficient initiative to improve linguistic abilities, such as
grammar, vocabulary and creative writing.
So far, we have set the scene for the study of the acquisition of animal proverbs amongst
Arabic speaking learners of English by explaining the interpretation of proverbs, a model of
analysing them and the reasons of studying them. However, proverbs are idioms, which are
in turn metaphors. That is why it proves to be essential to ground our study with metaphor
theory in order to fully comprehend the cognitive processes that take place during the
acquisition of proverbs by second language learners.
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2.2. Metaphor Theory
2.2.1. Definition of Conceptual Metaphor
As a starting point, we will keep in mind Lakoff and Johnson’s definition of metaphor: `The
essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of
another’ (1980: 5). In contrast, psychological processes include a metaphorical structure,
since metaphors belong to a personal conceptual system (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 6). For
example, TIME IS MONEY metaphor is expressed through various everyday life expressions,
such as Ì am wasting my time’ or Ì am running out of time’. Time is an incommensurable
concept that human beings value the most, because it constitutes the essence of our lives.
Even Arabic speaking cultures give such a high importance to time that they have two
widespread proverbs to describe it. The first is `time is gold’ which is more expressive than
`time is money’, because gold is the highest level of currency, highlighting thus the
relationship between time and wealth. Indeed, a person who organises his/her time
effectively would reap a successful life. The second is `time is a sword, if you do not cut it, it
will cut you’, which entails that we need to make the most of our times and not spoil it. The
metaphor uses the target domain of WAR to represent the source domain of TIME, which is
culturally specific to Arabs, who were known to be a very belligerent people. In that
instance, we can imagine life as a war against time, which is also betrayed in the common
idiom `time is running’.
Likewise, the Western culture utilises time as a product, since the industrial society has
implemented a system in which the hour constitutes the reference on which people are paid
and services offered. Because of the fact that time has become a commodity, we conceive
time as an object that can be spent or wasted (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 8). This
phenomenon has been accelerated by the globalisation, which construes that the planet is a
village, on which a person A at any point in the globe can communicate instantly with a
person B at the other end of the globe. That acceleration of the communication means and
technology renders the notion of time more materialistic. For instance, the stock market
and the global companies need to take into consideration the time zone differences
between the different markets, for that may have an impact on their trade.
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2.2.1. Cultural implications of conceptual metaphor
It is important to hold certain views on conceptual metaphors in the Quran when we come
to deal with Arabic speaking students, since the Arabic language is highly influenced by its
Islamic heritage. For instance, the Quran says: `God exposes metaphors to Mankind in order
for them to remember’ (Chapter Abraham, 25: v.14). In fact, human beings understand
philosophical concepts better when they are expressed in terms of an image, as Plato’s
allegory of the cave. Therefore, some Arabic proverbs may be related to the Islamic
tradition and vice versa. As a means of illustration, the Prophet Mohammad said:
À woman may be married for four things: her wealth, her lineage, her beauty and her
religious commitment. Seek the one who is religiously-committed, may your hands be
rubbed with dust’ (Bukhari, 4802, http://islamqa.info/en/34170).
As Arabic is a language with a high degree of figurative language, the last part of this
prophetic saying is a figurative idiom, which means `may you succeed’. Etymologically, it
used to be a supplication, which meant `may your hands be stuck in the sand because of the
hardship of poverty’. However, Arabs used it for other purposes, such as praising someone
or to insist on a specific point, and this is the case in that context.
Moreover, the Quran says:
Ànd strike for them a parable of the worldly life: it is like the water which we send down
from the sky, and then the plants of the earth mingle with it. But then they become dry and
broken and are scattered by the winds. And God is capable of all things.’ (The Cavern, 17,
verse 45).
This metaphor which resembles the worldly life to water can be interpreted in four points.
Firstly, as water changes from different states (liquid, gas, solid), so as the life does not stick
to one condition. Secondly, life is not eternal, as the water goes and does not stay to one
place. Thirdly, no one can enter the water without being wet; so as the life, no one is saved
from its trials. Fourthly, water in a sufficient quantity is beneficial, but if it overreaches the
limit, it would be a disaster. The same applies to life, its margin is beneficial and its excess is
disastrous (Imam Qurtubi’s Exegesis of the Quran, 289/13).
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The linguistic power of metaphor serves a rhetorical purpose by challenging us to reflect on

its conceptual mappings. In this example, life is the target domain, whereas water
represents the source domain. Furthermore, water is the basis of life, as it allows plants to
grow and humans and animals to drink:
`Do you not see that Allah sent down rainwater from the sky, then made it to flow in the
earth in the form of springs and fountains and rivers, then He brings forth thereby a variety
of crops of different kinds; then they ripen and wither and you see them turn yellow, and
then, finally, He reduces them to straw? Indeed, there is a lesson in this for the men of
understanding’ (The Groups, v.21).
Similarly, the metonymies are abundant in the Quran, such as in the chapter entitled `The
Cattle’, verse 6: ‘and how we loosed heaven upon them in torrents… ‘(Arberry’s translation
of the Quran). This is the literal translation but the term `heaven’ in this context exposes the
heaviness of rain and a translation in the figurative sense would be: `for whom we poured
out rain from the skies in abundance’. (Yusuf Ali’s translation, 2005) (in Brakhw et al., 2012).
Metonymies are also present in proverbs, such as `two birds in the hand are worth two in
the bush’ and we are going to focus on metonymy theory in the next part.
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2.3. Metonymy theory
2.3.1 Definition of conceptual metonymy
To begin with, we must bear in mind that even though metonymy and metaphor are
confused by some authors, we will make the distinction clear between the two. Littlemore
(2015: 4) defines metonymy as à figure of language and thought in which one entity is used
to refer to […] another entity to which it is somehow related’. For instance, the sentence
Ì am riding my wheel’ infers the specific part of the wheel to speak about the whole bike.
This metonymy endeavours a positive meaning, since the wheels enable the bike to move,
evoking an image of rapidity and fluidity. Never the less, while metonymy exposes some
parts of an object, it thus puts the other parts aside. In addition, metonymy allows us to
focus on an aspect of a concept rather than the whole concept, which might be extricated in
a few words. In that sense, metonymy represents an essential part of our everyday
language, because it is intrinsically part of our thought processes (Littlemore, 2015: 5).
In spite of the fact that metonymy proves to be a very efficient tool of communication,
there must be a shared knowledge of philosophical, political and social beliefs between the
speakers in order for the communication to be successful (Littlemore, 2015: 7). Otherwise,
that might lead to serious misunderstandings.
Furthermore, metonymy can be approached from two different angles. The cognitive
linguistic one highlights the conceptual aspects of metonymy, whereas the linguistic
perspective analyses how metonymy takes place in language (Littlemore, 2015: 9). Both
theories are intertwined despite the fact that metonymy has been widely expanded within
the field of cognitive linguistics. We will therefore adopt Kovecses’s definition of metonymy
from a cognitive stance:
`Metonymy is a cognitive process in which one conceptual element or entity (thing, event,
property), the vehicle, provides mental access to another conceptual entity (thing, event,
property), the target, within the same frame, domain or idealized cognitive model (ICM).’
(Kovecses, 2006: 99)

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In other words, metonymy can be considered as a particular case of metaphor in which the
source domain would be the vehicle, whereas the target domain would be epitomised in the
target. That is why Littlemore (2015: 9) emphasises that the relationship between the
vehicle and the target must be drawn within the same framework of knowledge. This
framework is known as the ‘Idealised Cognitive Model’ (ICM) and reflects people’s cultural
knowledge and perceptions of a concept without necessarily being real (Littlemore, 2015:
10). To illustrate this point, we will take the example of the idealised cognitive model of the
bicycle.
Figure 2: An idealised cognitive model for `bicycle’. Adapted from Littlemore (2015: 11)
A bicycle and its

parts: wheels,
brakes, pedals,
frame, gears
etc.
Other
transportation Brands of bicycles:
means: car, train, Peugeot, Giant,
bus, plane Trek etc. and the
people who ride
them
BICYCLE
Tour de France, Hybrid bicycle,

Lance Armstrong, racing bicycle,
doping, and other mountain bicycle
issues of the etc. and the
cycling world different purposes
for using bicycles.
Second hand
bicycles sold in car
boots and Gumtree.
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Every summer, the most prestigious cycling competition takes place `Le Tour de France’,
which is often described as `la grande boucle’ (great loop) in French. That metonymy infers
the shape of a circle to represent the tour because cyclists travel all over parts of France
during that event. Similarly, in football, we talk about the `cup with the big ears’ to design
the European Champions League, because of the actual shape of the cup. That metonymy
highlights the prestige of the tournament, which is the most renowned European football
championship. The fact that metonymies are extremely used in sports may come from the
fact that they designate prestigious awards with concrete language. Thus, naming
competitions by metonymies may encourage athletes to achieve their goals.
That leads us to consider another crucial implication of metonymy in cognitive linguistics,

which is one of ìmage schema’, which constitutes a mental representation of knowledge
that we expand from childhood (Littlemore, 2015: 13). Image schemas emerge from our
representation of objects as we have first encountered them. They encompass the
CONTAINER schema, the PART-WHOLE schema, the CENTRE-PERIPHERY schema, the MASS-
COUNT schema and the SOURCE-PATH-GOAL schema, all of them endeavouring a specific
relationship between objects (ibid). As such, they play a key role in metonymy
comprehension. Henceforth, metonymy embodies a cognitive process, which is highly
present in our everyday language, as well as in our representation of the world. We will in
the next part focus on the cognitive mechanism of metonymy.
2.3.2. Cognitive Mechanism of metonymy
A lot of research has been conducted in exploring the cognitive processes in metonymy
comprehension. Frisson and Pickering (1999) have found that native speakers process
metonymy in a similar manner to literal meaning of language. Indeed, they take as much
time in understanding metonymies as they encounter literal language. They also take more
time in processing unfamiliar metonymies (e.g. `the Member of Parliament has an issue with
the mansion’) than conventional metonymies (e.g. `the Member of Parliament has an issue
with Downing Street’). The researchers explain that time delay in terms of `sense creation’
process, which differs from the `sense selection’ one (in Littlemore, 2015: 148). The same
findings occurred when participants took longer to process PLACE FOR EVENT metonymies
23
(e.g. Èuropeans protested during Iraq’) than PLACE FOR INSTITUTION metonymies (e.g. `my
uncle went to deal with the embassy). Again, the difference in terms of time delay may be
explained by the fact that participants needed to look for extra information with PLACE FOR
EVENT metonymies. On the contrary, they were more familiar with the PLACE FOR
INSTITUTIONS metonymies, which they determined more rapidly (ibid).
What we can conclude from this study is that there is no difference in terms of accessibility
between the metonymic and literal meaning in the first place, since the hearer expands on
an idealised cognitive model of the unit of meaning and then accommodates with its literal
or metonymic sense according to the context (ibid).
Moreover, from a phraseology point of view, Lowder and Gordon (2013) suppose that
metonymies are easier to understand when they occur in an adjunct phrase (e.g. `the
student criticised the prestige of the university’) than in a direct object (e.g. `the student
criticised the university’). On the one hand, the accent is put on the clause before the
metonymy in the adjunct phrase (i.e. `the prestige’ in the example above), which suggests
that less time will be spent in analysing the metonymy. On the other hand, the scope is less
specific in the direct object sentence, which requires more concentration. They have
deduced that sentence structure influences the ways people understand metonymies. That
is why Littlemore (2015: 150) proposes that a grammar approach would be of a constructive
contribution for psycholinguistic research of metonymy.
From a cognitive perspective, Rapp et al. (2011) discovered that the left middle temporal
gyrus was activated when participants were analysing metonymies. This is the same area of
the brain, which is stimulated in the acquisition of metaphor and semantic transformations
at the sentence level. The reason of this coincidence lays in the fact that the left frontal
gyrus is responsible for the consolidation of isolated ideas into broader pictures (Littlemore,
2015: 50). For instance, the fact that Maastricht was the city where an important European
treaty was implemented has implied Maastricht to stand metonymically for that agreement.
Hence, metonymy performance is believed to be intrinsically related to the general
knowledge.
24
In spite of the fact that the aforementioned studies have considerably contributed to
metonymy investigation, it is worth mentioning that most of the metonymies were
considered at the level of noun. The drawback of that phenomenon is that it may not reflect
the diverse usages of metonymies in real life situations. However, nouns are useful in
identifying entities, whereas verbs are involved in relational processes (Langacker, 1987).
Although grammarians argue that nouns are easier to process and remember than verbs
(Kauschke and Stenneken, 2008), Littlemore (2015: 151) suggests to reiterate these studies
by narrowing the scope of the metonymic expressions on verbs only. One problem that
might pose though is that some metonymic verbs, such as `to eye’ or `to shoulder’ do not
have equivalent verbs, which would make the task of the researchers more complex.
Finally, we have seen that the cognitive mechanisms that involve conceptual metonymies
are intertwined with those of conceptual metaphors. That is why we will explore in the next
section the relationships between conceptual metonymy and conceptual metaphor.
2.3.3. The relationships between conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy.
As a starting point, it seems crucial to draw the line between metaphor and metonymy.
Even though there is no clear cut distinction between the two, Jakobson (1956) perceives
them as different manners to relate information about real life situations. Other linguists
have questioned the interrelation between literal language, metaphor and metonymy,
suggesting that metonymy would represent the dividing line between literal language and
metaphor (Dirven, 2003 in Littlemore, 2015: 14). None the less, Lakoff and Johnson (1980)
explain the difference between metaphor and metonymy as two tropes of language:
`Metaphor is principally a way of conceiving of one thing in terms of another, and its
primarily function is understanding. Metonymy, on the other hand, has primarily a
referential function, that is, it allows us to use one entity to stand for another.’
(Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 36)

25
In much that sense, metonymy fulfils the same goals as metaphors but focuses on more
specific forms of the vehicle. That is why metonymic expressions represent a considerable
part of our everyday life speech. For instance, the metonymy THE PART FOR THE WHOLE,
expressed by THE FACE FOR THE PERSON is commonly widespread:
À lot of new faces have joined us’
`Your face seems familiar to me’.
In addition, metonymic concepts are systematic in the sense that they are part of our
conception of thoughts and behaviour. Therefore they allow us to conceive one entity
through its relationship with another entity. For example, the proper noun of Shakespeare is
used to designate the writer (e.g. William Shakespeare was born in Stratford upon Avon),
but also as a generic word which encompasses all his work (e.g. students have studied
Shakespeare at university). This is what Croft (2002) has identified as the `Domain
Highlighting Model’, suggesting that an entity is driven by a `domain matrix’, which is in turn
embedded into different contexts (in Littlemore, 2015: 14). A domain matrix is defined as
`the range of possible domains to which a lexical item serves as a point of access ’ (Evans,
2007: 63 in Littlemore, 2015: 14). If we apply this concept to the above examples, `William
Shakespeare was born in Stratford upon Avon’ causes `Shakespeare as a human being’
domain matrix, whereas `Students have studied Shakespeare at university’ entails
`Shakespeare as a play writer’ domain matrix (in Littlemore, 2015: 14).
By the same token, Kovecses (2013: 76) follows the idea that metonymies represent the
ground for metaphors (Barcelona, 2000; Lakoff and Johnson, 1980). Even though
`resemblance metaphors’ are not linked with metonymy, `correlation metaphors’ are
believed to derive from metonymy (Koveceses, 2013: 75). However, he ties the bridges
between the two literary devices on the basis of the conceptual system, which he codifies as
à structured organisation of concepts and a set of cognitive operations that are used to
make sense of the world’ (Kovecses, 2013: 76). This process entails metaphoric and
metonymic conceptualisation, which depends on two other cognitive processes:
generalization and specialization (ibid).
26
Likewise, Radden (2002) states four conditions for the derivation of metonymies into
metaphors:
 `correlations in experience’
 `conversational implicature’
 `taxonomic structure of categories’
 `cultural models’
(in Kovecses, 2013: 83)
Never the less, the distinction between metonymy and metaphor may not be so clear cut.
Let us take a current example from the news: Àthens is urging to reach a bailout from
Brussels’. Both Athens and Brussels can be perceived as the technocrats who take decisions
in those cities, or they could be viewed as personification metaphors, giving human
characteristics to Greece’s capital and the capital of the European Union.
After having investigated the theoretical background of metaphor and metonymy, we will
focus on its application in relation to proverbs.
27
2.4. The Cognitive Approach to Proverbs.
2.4.1. Conceptual Metaphor Theory in Second Language Acquisition
Littlemore (2009: 94-95) points out that language learners do not often use figurative
language for two principal reasons. The first one is that they may not have identified the
presence of metaphorical expressions in their own speech. The second is that they may not
feel confident enough to express the metaphorical expressions, which are stored in their
passive memory but have not been yet processed in their active one. She adds that second
language learners need to activate three processes in order to access to metaphor
understanding (Littlemore, 2009: 103). Firstly, they need to understand the lexis of the
metaphor i.e. the linguistic information. Secondly, they must be able to link the conceptual
information to its conceptual metaphor. Thirdly, they shall learn the metaphorical
expressions in the appropriate context, which is retrieved under the pragmatic information.
Although Conceptual Metaphor Theory may contribute to the achievement of these
assumptions, the fact that metaphors are embedded into specific linguistic and cultural
communities may render the task more difficult for language learners. That is why
Littlemore (2009) suggests that they ought to develop their cognitive acquisition skills in
order to make the most of the different meanings between metaphors.
Moreover, Holme (2004: 65) states that proverbs act as sentential metaphors i.e. they are
stretched throughout a sentence, in which the topic is fulfilled by a specified context.
Indeed, proverbs are performed by repetitive metaphors to deliver a universal message. In
that sense, they represent the truth on the ways people experience the world and how that
fits to real life situations. That is why proverbs are often used to conclude conversations,
since they are identified in the active memory to be used in a specific situation (Drew and
Holt, 1995). For instance, à stitch in time saves nine’ is often uttered to avoid
procrastination, but can be used by a mechanic, who repairs a piece of engine in order to
avoid a degradation of other pieces that might be affected by its defect.
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2.4.2. Cognitive views on Proverbs
Kovecses (2002: 233) and Irujo (1993: 217) suppose that the cognitive motivation for
proverbs helps English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students to memorise them more
effectively. Kovecses (2002: 234) even proposes a framework which addresses the
conceptual motivation for proverbs, which is based on four underlying principles. Firstly, the
idiomatic meaning which encompasses the figurative meaning of a proverb. Secondly, the
cognitive mechanisms, which include metaphor, metonymy and domains of knowledge.
Thirdly, the conceptual domains, which may involve different domains of knowledge.
Fourthly, the linguistic forms and their meanings, which impede the `words that comprise
an idiom, their syntactic properties, together with their meanings’ (ibid). Therefore,
Kovecses (2002: 234) strongly believes that the motivation of proverbs emanates from the
interpretation of cognitive mechanisms, which tie the bridge between the literal meanings
and the idiomatic ones.
Lakoff and Johnson have introduced a new theory on conceptual metaphor since the 1980s
in their book Metaphors We Live By (1980). They explain conceptual metaphor in terms of a
set of mappings that link a source domain to a target domain. Gibbs (2001) is interested in
the role that conceptual metaphors play in conveying the motivation of proverbs.
Consequently, generic-level metaphors may explain the meanings of proverbs (Lakoff and
Turner, 1989). Indeed, generic-level metaphor allows to tackle broader issues by narrowing
their scopes. For example, the proverb `the grass is always greener to the other side of the
fence’ implies visual perception as a source domain to express the target domain of thought
through the SEEING IS UNDERSTANDING conceptual metaphor (Gibbs, 2001: 180). The
specific meaning of that idiom is `whatever a person achieves, he/she will always be
discontent and look at what others have’, while its conceptual mapping draws on the
intensity of a problem reflected by the intensity of the colour green. Indeed, the general
meaning of most proverbs is based on the target domain of conceptual metaphors, whereas
their in-depth comprehension follows the conceptual mappings that describe them
(Kovecses, 2002: 247).
29
Furthermore, Kovecses and Szabo (1996) have investigated into the metaphorical
competence of EFL learners and have found that those who learnt proverbs through
conceptual metaphor performed a quarter better in an idiom activity than those who learnt
them without motivation (in Kovecses, 2002: 238-239). That is why Boers and
Lindstromberg (2008) argue that the awareness of conceptual metaphors helps Second
Language (L2) learners to improve their vocabulary input. This claim is also supported by
Gibbs and O’Brien’s study (1990), who find that people’s understanding of idioms is the
result of their understanding of the conceptual metaphors that are related to the idioms:
`We see that the metaphorical mapping of a source domain (for example, heated fluid in a
container) into target domains (for example, the anger emotion) motivates why people have
consistent mental images, and specific knowledge about these images, for different idioms
about anger’ (Gibbs and O’Brien, 1990: 434).
2.4.3. Conceptual Metaphor Theory in Proverb Understanding
Two main theories have aroused to explain the interactions between proverbs and
conceptual metaphor. From a cognitive linguist approach, Lakoff and Turner (1989) are in
favour for the great chain metaphor theory, whereas Honeck and Temple (1996) adopt an
extended conceptual base theory from a psychological view point. The latter evaluate both
theories on the basis of five criteria: `perspective, creativity of proverb use, automaticity of
proverb understanding, pragmatics, and empirical adequacy’ (Honeck and Temple, 1996:
217). They found that their extended conceptual base theory was more appropriate to
address the issues related to proverb understanding. None the less, their approach has been
criticised by Gibbs et al. (1996), who reproach them to have misunderstood the scopes of
the great chain metaphor theory.
The great chain metaphor theory looks at the pitfalls of the interpretation of proverbs
(Gibbs et al., 1996: 208). If we consider the following proverb: `blind blames the ditch’. This
proverb can be understood in terms of its `generic-level schema’ (ibid), which allows to
interpret it at the figurative level. Lakoff and Turner (1989: 163) explain the schema from
the target domain in the following terms:
30
`There is a person with an incapacity.
He encounters a situation in which his incapacity in that situation results in a negative

consequence.
He blames the situation rather than his own incapacity.
He should have held himself responsible, not the situation.’
Furthermore, the `blind blames the ditch’ proverb is construed through a `GENERIC IS
SPECIFIC’ (ibid) metaphor mapping, which is innately acquired in people’s conceptual
systems. It motivates in the same way the coinage of proverbs as well as their meaning
(Gibbs et al., 1996: 209). Lakoff and Turner (1989: 166) found that:
`The distinction between generic-level information and specific-level information is common

in conceptual systems throughout the world and that proverbs are common in the world’s
cultures because of this distinction.’
In much the same way, they assert that proverbs offer people alternatives of understanding
human behaviours through the `Great Chain of Being’ (ibid). They also believe that animals
are driven by their instincts, which are shared by humans (Lakoff and Turner, 1989: 168).
That is why instinct represents a general level schema of animals (ibid). There lies even a
hierarchy between animals with the predators and their preys, such as the cat and the
mouse, which is summed in the proverb `when the cat is away, the mice will play’ with the
dichotomy between the cat being the aggressor and the mice being the victim. The
hierarchy between the properties of the Great Chain are presented in the pyramid below:
31
Humans: moral values, reason, higher order behaviour
Animals: instinctual behaviour
Plants: biological behaviour
Inanimate Objects: structural behaviour
Nature: physical behaviour
Figure 3: The characteristics of the Great Chain. Adapted from Lakoff and Turner (1989:
170-171)
We must bear in mind while analysing this scale that all the characteristics of the lower
categories also belong to the higher ones. In other words, although animals do not
possess a reason like humans, they do have biological, structural and physical
properties. Let us consider the proverb `the mountain that gives birth to a mouse’. It
presents a contrast between two different entities: a physical natural object and an
animal, one driven by its physical behaviour and the other by its instinct. This proverb
derives from Aesop’s story of `the Mountain in Labour’ to describe an event in which so
much hope was put and which ends with a poor result. The dichotomy of the saying is
expressed through the huge difference of size between the mouse and the mountain. In
addition, the mountain is personified through the characteristic of giving birth, which is
proper to human beings and animals. Therefore, the physical behaviour and the
instinctual behaviour of the Great Chain are reversed in that example.
The instance above falls within the scope of the Nature of Things theory, which relates
properties to behaviour and vice versa (ibid). That principle is obviously compatible with
the Great Chain Theory and contribute together to explain how the world operates. That
combined theory is essential to the comprehension of proverbs along with the `GENERIC
32
IS SPECIFIC’ metaphor and the `Maxim of Quantity’ (i.e. to be precise and concise)
(Lakoff and Turner, 1989: 171). Thus, we will call GREAT CHAIN METAPHOR the system
that encompasses the basic Grain Chain, the Nature of Things Theory, the GENERIC IS
SPECIFIC metaphor and the Maxim of Quantity (Lakoff and Turner, 1989: 172). Therefore
it allows to understand human behaviour in terms of animal characteristics, as well as it
reflects human behaviour in animal ones. That theory may explain the reasons why
Aesop decided to portray human behaviour by using the vehicle of animals.
Etymologically, à bird in the hand is worth two in the bush’ illustrates the instinctual
relationships between the predator in the hand (e.g. falcon) and his preys in the bush.
From a human perspective though, it represents a concrete expression full of imagery.
2.4.4. Empirical studies on Proverbs Acquisition
In order to critically evaluate the great chain metaphor theory and the extended conceptual
base theory, Gibbs et al. (1996: 215) suggest that participants may process metaphorical
mappings when they read them online. Katz and Ferretti (2001) have investigated into the
online processing of proverbs by examining the effects the context and texts play in
delivering the meaning of a proverbial expression. They have reached three important
results. Firstly, the context seems to influence the participants in removing the ambiguous
terminologies of proverbs while they read them. Secondly, familiar proverbs seem to be
read quicker than unfamiliar ones. Thirdly, the comprehension of familiar proverbs takes
place more effectively than the comprehension of unfamiliar ones. This experiment is
interesting in the sense that it sheds the light on the role the context plays in the online
processing of idioms.
None the less, one problem that ought to be highlighted with regards to proverbs testing is
that it can be inappropriate to ask participants to explain the meaning of proverbs taken out
of context (Gibbs, 2001: 178). Indeed, it is not because they are not able to explain a
proverb that they do not understand its metaphorical mapping. Conversely, those who can
redefine a proverb may not be able to explain why it has a figurative meaning. That is why
Gibbs (2001) infers that proverbs tests shall be considered carefully.
33
Furthermore, a large amount of literature has tried to analyse proverbs in relation with
conceptual metaphor theory, because proverbs are originally motivated by metaphorical
thought. These conceptual metaphors mirror people’s propensity to think about an abstract
topic (source domain) in terms of a concrete semantic field (target domain) (Gibbs and
Beitel, 1995; Lakoff and Turner, 1989). For instance, the sentence `how far have you come in
your work’ seems to relate the private aspects of life to the stages of a travel through the
LIFE IS A JOURNEY mapping (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980). From that metaphor, we can
imagine life as a journey in which birth constitutes the departure and death is the arrival,
and in which obstacles represent the difficulties a human being encounters. This insight also
applies to the proverb àll the roads lead to Rome’, since the roads symbolise the different
manners a person can adopt to achieve a goal in life.
Research suggests that metaphors play a tremendous role in people’s understanding of

proverbs (Gibbs, 2001: 180). When asked to explain `the grass is always greener on the
other side of the fence’, most of the participants tended to interpret it literally by insisting
on the appearance of the other garden (ibid). Others highlighted the visual aspect by saying
that `things look better with other people’ (ibid). These insights expose how participants use
their conception of SEEING IS UNDERSTANDING metaphor to expound a proverb. That study
shows that people do use their metaphorical knowledge to depict proverbs.
From a cognitive linguistic viewpoint, generic level metaphors may explain the why and how
of a proverb (Honeck and Temple, 1996; Lakoff and Turner, 1989;). The GENERIC IS SPECIFIC
metaphor establishes the knowledge on which generic domains are drawn on specific
domains. It would help us to understand why the greenness of a grass is distinguished to
convey an abstract message. Thus, it allows us to understand the broader meaning of a
proverb in terms of its specificity (Gibbs, 2001: 181). For instance, the proverb `let sleeping
dogs lie’ entails a generic level schema of an inactive animal, which can be aggressive if
provoked. That generic piece of information would apply to a problematic situation if to be
revealed would lead to a worse situation. Therefore, it is preferable to keep the secret.
34
Chapter 3: Methodology
We have provided an account for proverb acquisition in chapter two in relation to the
theory of proverbs, conceptual metaphor, conceptual metonymy, and have developed
on a cognitive model for proverbs understanding. In this chapter, we will investigate the
cognitive approach model of teaching proverbs amongst Arabic speaking learners of
English.
3.1. Procedure
The methodology consists of a three-part study including semi-constructed interviews, a

reading test and a questionnaire
In part one of the study, seven Arabic-speaking students from the University of Birmingham
have been presented a list of fifteen animal proverbs out of context. The proverbs have been
carefully chosen from The Dictionary of Proverbs and their Origins. I have chosen two proverbs
which mention camels, one with chicken, three with horses, three with cats, three with birds
and three with dogs. Indeed, these animals have different representations in various cultures,
since I was interested in relating how my participants’ perceptions of these animals would
affect their interpretations of the proverbs. That is why they have been asked to interpret
their meanings orally because they would give their first insights by speaking, whereas writing
requires a more careful process of thinking, which might not reflect the participants’ first
understanding. Each interview has been recorded on audio. They would first read the
expression and then answer the following three questions:
1) Have you come across this proverb?

2) Can you explain its meaning?
3) Is there an equivalent proverb in Arabic? If yes, what is that?
This procedure has been followed for all fifteen expressions. If participants did not understand
a word, I would explain it in context.
In part two, the same participants have read five short stories extracted from Aesop’s Fables.
They have been given a list of five proverbs and have been asked to link the moral of the
35
fables with their corresponding proverbs. The aim of this task was to assess students’ ability
to work out the meanings of proverbs in context.
In part three, the participants were asked to share their insights on the study, for it has
investigated their usages of English proverbs in their everyday lives.
The whole study can be found in the Appendices.
3.2. Participants
Among the participants, four are Jordanians, one is Palestinian, one is Indonesian and
another one is Tanzanian. They represent a community of three PhD students, three
Master’s students and an undergraduate student who are from broad ranging
disciplines, such as Mechanical Engineering, Law, Computing, Chemistry, Chemical
Engineering, International Management and Medicine. They were from an age range
between 18 and 41 years old. They are all Arabic speakers and are fluent speakers of
English, since they had passed the IELTS before they came to the United Kingdom.
Although two participants come from non-Arabic speaking countries, they are
considered to be Arabic speakers because they are Muslims and can read the Quran. The
choice of participants has been motivated by linguistic and cultural factors, as well as
targeting a wide range of people from different backgrounds, so that the results may not
be biased according to a specific culture.
3.3. Materials
As previously mentioned, the proverbs of the first task have been excerpted from The
Dictionary of Proverbs and their Origins. The short stories of the second activity have
been selected from a children’s book version of Aesop’s Fables. I have also used a
telephone to record the interviews. The study lasted for eight weeks as there were
individual interviews. The reading test and questionnaire were completed just after the
participant had finished the interview, so that the information was still fresh in their
minds.
36
3.4. Data Collection
After having gathered the data, I broadcasted the interviews and reported the results on
Excel sheets. Some information are similar between the participants because of the
proximity of their cultures. Then, I corrected the reading exercises and graded the
results on a table. Finally, I gathered the answers of the questionnaire and compared
them.
37
Chapter 5: Discussion of the findings
The purpose of this chapter is to explain the results of the tests that have been
described in the previous section at the light of the three hypothesis of my piece of
research.
5.1. Semi-constructed interviews
Hypothesis 1: EFL learners grasp the meanings of proverbs more effectively when they
analyse the conceptual metaphors from which they are derived.
Below is a table which reports students’ answers in the interviews.
Proverbs Participants who Participants who do not

understand the understand the proverbs
proverbs
It is the last straw which breaks the 4 3

camel’s back
To pass a camel through the eye of a 6 1

needle
Do not count your chickens before 4 3

they are hatched
A cat has nine lives 6 1
Do not let the cat out of the bag 2 5
when the cat is away the mice will 6 1

play
38
Do not change the horse in mid- 5 2

stream
never look a gift horse in the mouth 2 5
you take a horse to water but you 7 0

cannot make him drink
a bird in the hand is worth two in the 4 3

bush
the early bird catches the worm 4 3
to kill two birds with one stone 6 1
let sleeping dogs lie 1 6
You cannot teach old dogs new 7 0

tricks
A dog’s bark is worse than its bite 2 5
Table 1: Students’ performances in understanding English animal proverbs out of context.
We deduce from this table that eleven proverbs were well understood by the
participants, whereas four were misunderstood, depending of their previous knowledge
of the proverbs. That means that seventy three per cent of the proverbs were
successfully understood. For example, ‘the last straw which breaks the camel’s back’ is
originally an Arabic proverb, which comes from the story ‘The Arab and the camel’. One
of the students mentioned the story in which an Arab used to own a camel on which he
used to put overloaded luggage on his back until he put a straw which made it fall down.
Indeed, it was important to assess students’ understanding of the few English proverbs
using camels because they hold a high significance in the Arabic culture, since they used
to be the most valuable means of transport Arabs would possess. That is why the Quran
gives numerous metaphors using the camel as in chapter 7 entitled ‘The Heights’, verse
40:
39
‘Indeed, those who deny Our verses and are arrogant toward them - the gates of Heaven
will not be opened for them, nor will they enter Paradise until a camel enters into the
eye of a needle. And thus do We recompense the criminals’ (Sahih International, copied
from http://quran.com/7/40).
However, because of its religious connotations, this metaphoric expression will only be
uttered in formal Arabic and in serious circumstances. Only three participants were able
to refer to that verse, whereas another referred to the one which also appears in the
Bible in a different context though:
‘And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person
enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the
eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”’
(Matthew’s Bible, chapter 19, The Rich Young Man, verses 23-24; copied from
http://biblehub.com/esv/matthew/19.htm).
It is worth noticing that the two verses of both the Quran and the Bible use the parable
of the camel passing the eye of a needle in the context of the impossibility of entering
the paradise for the unbelievers. Indeed, they correlate in the sense that generally
speaking, most of the rich people are opposed to the religion, because it exposes their
corruption and compromises their power. Never the less, it does not entail that all rich
people are transgressors, but only those who are arrogant. The point of the parable is to
expose an obvious metaphor that would make people reflect and to highlight the
impossibility of a phenomenon.
Moreover, it was easier for the participants to recognise the English proverbs which had a
literal equivalent in Arabic, such as ‘when the cat is away, the mice will play’ and ‘to kill two
birds with one stone’. Others only differ in the numbers, as Arabs say ‘a cat with seven
souls’ instead of ‘a cat has nine lives’ in English. Likewise, they say ‘a bird in the hand is
worth ten in the bush’, whereas the English version is ‘a bird in the hand is worth two in the
bush’. These small differences may be due to the fact that Arabs represent numbers in an
excessive manner but that does not alter their understanding of the English proverbs.
40
Likewise, the participants were able to understand some proverbs, which have a different
Arabic equivalent. For instance, Jordanians say ‘do not say broad beans until you have
cooked it’ for ‘do not catch your chickens before they are hatched’. Also, the current Arabic
saying for ‘you cannot teach an old dog new tricks’ is ‘learning in the youth is like digging on
the stone’.
Nonetheless, they faced difficulties in understanding some unusual proverbs, such as

‘never look a gift horse in the mouth’, in which they could not see the relationship
between the gift and the horse’, as the origin of the proverb has been covered in the
first chapter. They also failed to guess the meaning the phrase ‘do not let the cat out of
the bag’, even though the standard Arabic equivalent is more explicit: ‘achieve your
plans by being silent.’ In addition, the word ‘lie’ in ‘let’s sleeping dogs lie’ has been taken
confused with the verb ‘to lie’ i.e. ‘to be untruthful’, thus it has resulted to
misunderstandings like ‘do not listen to people’. Similarly, some words such as ‘bite’,
‘bark’, ‘mid-stream’, ‘hatched’ and ‘straw’ were not understood in the first place.
As regards to the formulated hypothesis, the participants would first translate the
English proverb into Arabic and see if there is an equivalent. If they did not find, they
would give a literal interpretation and then try to extract its figurative meaning. Even if
the participant did not understand the proverb, I would encourage him to try to guess its
meaning.
On the one hand, I have realised that inserting the proverbs into context would have
helped more the students to process them. On the other hand, it may have narrowed
their interpretations to the context, since I was expecting them to provide me with
examples from real-life situations. Even psycholinguists disagree on the ways that the
context may affect people’s interpretations of the proverbs. In spite of the fact that the
context may provide a deeper acquaintance of the interpretation of a sentence, it may
also restrict that interpretation to that specific situation and not take into consideration
other situations in which the phrase could be employed (Katz and Ferretti, 2001: 194-
195). In the case of my study, two participants have illustrated the proverb ‘you cannot
teach an old dog new tricks’ in terms of the difficulty to teach new technologies to elder
41
people. The choice of that specific example is not anodyne, since new technologies have
been developing in such a rapid pace, that old people are no longer able to catch with
them.
In order to analyse the participants’ interpretations of English animal proverbs into

context, I have asked them to read a selected sample of Aesop’s Fables, from which they
derived the morals.
5.2. Reading test
Hypothesis 2: Teaching Aesop’s Fables would help English as a Foreign Language

students to learn new English animal proverbs.
I have selected five short stories from a primary school children’s book called The Best of
Aesop’s Fables retold by Margaret Clark. I have chosen that book because of its simple
language and the shortness of the fables, from which I have chosen:
- The Gardener and his Dog
- The Milkmaid and her Pail
- The Fox and the Grapes
- The Goose with the Golden Eggs
- The Farmer and the Nightingale
The choice of these fables is justified by the fact that their morals directly entail
everyday life proverbs from which they are originated, such as:
- A bird in the cage is worth two in the bush
- Any fool can despise what he cannot get
- The greedy who wants more loses all
- Do not count your chickens before they are hatched
- Do not bite the hand that feeds you
42
I have deliberately selected two proverbs which were in the first activity to show their
applicability into context. The other three proverbs have been chosen because they are
direct consequences of the fables.
The participants were asked to read the five fables and link their morals with a list of the
five proverbs mentioned above. Six of them got the right answers except one who got only a
right answer out of five. Thus, the rate of success in that activity is of eighty five per cent.
Event though, they faced some difficulties in understanding ancient words in the excerpts,
they enjoyed reading the fables, since they had known some of them. The table below
illustrates the fables they were the most familiar with.
Aesop’s Fables Number of participants who knew the

fables
The Gardener and his Dog 2
The Milkmaid and her Pail 3
The Fox and the Grapes 2
The Goose with the Golden Eggs 4
The Farmer and the Nightingale 3
Table 2: The Fables which the participants knew
We deduce from that table that ‘the Goose with the Golden Eggs’ was the most known fable
by the participants, followed by ‘the Milkmaid and her Pail’ and ‘the Farmer and the
Nightingale’. It is worth noticing that a few proverbs of the fables were those which the
participants were the most familiar with in the interviews, such as ‘do not count your
chickens before they are hatched’ and ‘a bird in the cage is worth two on a branch’, which
was an older version of ‘a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush’.
Overall, the participants agreed on the fact that reading the fables has helped them to learn
and understand better the proverbs, because of their illustrative purposes. One of the
43
participants said: ‘studying Aesop’s Fables will help Arab learners to acquire English
proverbs more effectively, because it makes the person learn new words, phrases and he
will never forget the beauty of using these words to deliver a special meaning.’ Another
invoked that the usage of animals in the stories helps to convey their messages in an
entertaining manner.
We will explore in the next part how these animals are represented in the Arabic culture
and how that has effected the participants’ interpretations of the proverbs.
5.3. Questionnaire
Hypothesis 3: A consideration of the pedagogical implications of metaphor theory can

inform teaching and learning approaches that allow EFL learners to bolster their language
capacities.
The participants were provided with a post-activity questionnaire, which consisted of

thirteen questions. They were first asked to tell what the animals of the proverbs of the first
activity represented in their culture. The results are presents in the table below.
Animal Its representation in the participants’

cultures
Camel Desert, tolerance, transportation, Arabs,

patience, meat
Dog Impurity, guard, bad, honesty, friendship,

security
Horse Originality, race, rapidity, high motivations,

power, honesty, Loyalty, beauty and honor.
Bird Freedom, beauty, singing, beautiful voice.
Chicken Food, fool, coward, laziness
Cat Domesticity, pet, easy going, speed
Table 3: The representation of animals in the participants’ cultures

44
The interesting fact about that investigation is the representation of the camel in today’s
Arabian urban culture, which is not very different from the nomads’ of the Arabian
Peninsula in the sixth century after Jesus Christ. Besides, the proverb ‘the last straw which
breaks the camel’s back’ seems to underline the patience of the camel, whereas ‘to pass a
camel through the eye of a needle’ showcases the contrast between its impressive size and
that of the needle. More than a cliché, the camel has indeed a high symbolic value amongst
Arabs. Similarly, the horse holds all the qualities of power, loyalty and beauty due to the fact
that Arabs are found of horses, which they use for riding and races.
In much the same way, the bird has been ascribed by its singing properties, but also in its
allegoric representation of freedom, since the dove is the symbol of peace. It is worth
mentioning that the term ‘freedom’ was given by a Palestinian student, for whom the
allegory of the dove pertains an emotional significance.
In contrast, the dog is considered as impure because Islam forbids to domesticate it inside
the house, but does allow to own it as a protector outside. More than that, it has been
valued for its friendship and honesty. Likewise for its ‘declared enemy’, the cat, which
domesticity was emphasised on, since Islam allows to possess it as a pet. As for the chicken,
it connotes a very pejorative representation for its cowardice and laziness.
Furthermore, four students remember to have studied Ibn Muqafah’s fables at school, but
have never studied them in English. Conversely, three participants were unaware about Ibn
Muqafah, but they did recognise a few stories, which were transmitted to them by oral
tradition. Likewise, only a participant claims that he uses English proverbs in his everyday
life, whereas the six others use them rarely. I have also asked them to rate the three top
proverbs that they employ the more often which are classified in the next table.
45
Proverbs Number of participants who often employ

the proverbs
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush 3
A cat has nine lives 3
To kill two birds with one stone 2
To pass a camel through the eye of a 2

needle
It’s raining cats and dogs 1
The fast is not blessed 1
Slow and steady wins the race 1
If you play the monkey, you will not have a 1

rest
Don’t judge a book by its cover 1
Prevention is better than cure 1
When the cat’s away, the mice will play 1
Easy go, easy come 1
Table 4: The most used proverbs by the participants
It seems that the top four animal proverbs used by the participants are:
1) A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

2) A cat has nine lives
3) To kill two birds with one stone
4) To pass a camel through the eye of a needle
46
Notice that these four proverbs have all a word per word equivalent in Arabic, proving the
fact that Arabic speaking students are more comfortable to use an English animal proverb
that has the same equivalent in Arabic. However, these results may be biased, since the
participants may have been influenced by the proverbs they had just encountered in the
activities. Moreover, they highlighted a few difficulties they have faced in the activities,
such as difficult words, interpreting metaphoric expressions literally and analysing the
proverbs out of context.
The third hypothesis has been verified, since the students were generally not able to
interpret the meaning of the proverbs they did not know. Even though, some of them tried
to draw conceptual mappings in their thinking process, it seems that proverbs are better
acquired in concrete examples. For instance, most of them did not perceive the relationship
between the source domain (the cat) and the target domain (the bag) in ‘do not let the cat
out of the bag’. Here, the bag represents a secret, whereas the cat is a personification of the
danger, as it is inferred in ‘a cat has nine lives’. Therefore, if a person reveals a secret,
he/she puts her plans in jeopardise.
That is why explaining proverbs at the light of metaphor theory would inform teaching and
learning approaches to bolster the learners’ ability to acquire new proverbs.
47
Chapter 6: Conclusion
The purpose of this study was to assess Arabic speaking students’ comprehension of
English animal proverbs in an EFL classroom. The experiment on Arabic speaking
students at the University of Birmingham was carried out in order to implement the
three hypotheses, which have been introduced in the first chapter. In this concluding
chapter, I summarise the major findings and present the implications of my research in
EFL learning and teaching in Arabic speaking countries. Finally, I will point out the
limitations and suggestions for further study.
6.1. Synopsis of major findings
At the light of the experiment and data analysis, the three research questions brought
out in the introduction have been justified in the following terms:
1) EFL learners grasp the meanings of proverbs more effectively when they analyse the
conceptual metaphors from which they are derived.
2) Teaching Aesop’s Fables would help English as a Foreign Language students to learn new
English animal proverbs.
3) A consideration of the pedagogical implications of metaphor theory can inform teaching

and learning approaches that allow EFL learners to bolster their language capacities.
In addition, a few other findings occurred during the experiment.
Firstly, the participants were able to process the proverbs better in the fables than when
they were uttered out of context. Thus presenting proverbs in illustrative examples would
help students to acquire them more effectively.
Secondly, they faced a few problems of comprehension with unusual words. Thus, it would
be important to explain them and make sure that the texts are accessible to a public of non-
native speakers of English.
48
Thirdly, the metaphor and metonymy theories are essential to understand the conceptual
mappings on which some proverbs are based. Simplifying them to students would provide
them with a deeper acquaintance of the origins of the proverbs, and thus facilitating their
acquisition.
In a nutshell, a cognitive linguistic approach on proverbs is essential for understanding their

pragmatic and didactic functions. It broadens new perspectives on teaching proverbs in EFL
contexts, which I think do not put much emphasis on them.
6.2. Implications for English Language Teaching
There are three main contributions of my piece of research to the teaching of proverbs in
the EFL classroom.
First, it ties the bridge between English animal proverbs and Arabic ones by helping both the
students and teachers to relate the new English proverbs to the ones, which they are
accustomed with. Henceforth, they are encouraged to analyse the cultural implications of
language acquisition.
Secondly, it draws the line between the pragmatic and didactic functions of proverbs, since
proverbs convey morals, but they also serve the purpose of advice in everyday life
conversations. This point ought to be stressed, since the learners would be able to know in
which situations they could employ the proverbs.
Thirdly, although various research has been conducted in the field of the cognitive
mechanisms of figurative language in second language learning, Arabic speaking students
appear reluctant to employ English proverbs in the EFL classroom because they are not sure
if their message would be passed through. That is why this study would provide them with a
cognitive linguistic approach that can be implemented in the EFL context.
49
6.3. Limitations and suggestions for further study
The limitations of the research need to be taken into consideration for further analysis.
Firstly, the sample of participants from different countries may impact on the data analysis
because proverbs are different from a dialect to another. Secondly, the small number of
participants does not allow us to draw generic conclusions. Thirdly, the broad discipline
areas from which the students come from has had an impact in how they perceive the
proverbs. Indeed the participants from scientific subject areas tended to analyse the
proverbs in a scientific manner, which differs from the cognitive linguistic one I was
interested in.
The suggestions I would bring for further research would be of three:
First, the study would be more suited for a larger scale of participants and preferably from
Arts and Humanities subjects, since they are more disposed to express and develop their
opinions in writing.
Second, I would propose a framework for the acquisition of proverbs that would combine
between the Great Chain, metaphor and metonymy theories.
Finally, the context of studying proverbs through Aesop’s Fables must be expanded to
Vladimir Propp’s narratology theory enounced in his book The Morphology of Folk Tale
(1942). Therefore, it would be interesting to explore the cross cultural impact of proverbs in
fairy tales and how that could be implemented in the EFL classroom.
50
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53
Appendix A
Activity 1: Semi-constructed interviews
This study is part of a dissertation investigating the acquisition of English animal proverbs
amongst Arabic speaking students at the University of Birmingham. All the data will be
anonymous and confidential and will only serve the purpose of the project. This study has
been ethically reviewed by the University of Birmingham and you may be recorded with
your consent for data analysis purposes. If you do not understand any term, please ask the
researcher.
You will be asked the following questions for each proverb:
a) Have you come across this proverb?

b) Can you explain its meaning?
c) Is there an equivalent proverb in Arabic? If yes, what is it?
1) It is the last straw which breaks the camel’s back

2) To pass a camel through the eye of a needle
3) Do not count your chickens before they’re hatched
4) A cat has nine lives

5) Do not let the cat out of the bag
6) When the cat is away, the mice will play
7) Do not change your horse in mid-stream

8) Never look a gift horse in the mouth
9) You take a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink
10) A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

11) The early bird catches the worm
12) To kill two birds with one stone
13) Let sleeping dogs lie

14) You cannot teach an old dog new tricks
15) The dog’s bark is worse than its bite
54
Appendix B
Proverbs for activity 2
Relate each proverb with the morals of the fables you have just read.
A- A bird in the cage is worth two on a branch
B- Any fool can despise what he cannot get
C- The greedy who want more lose all
D- Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched
E- Don’t bite the hands that feeds you
Answers:
A- The farmer and the Nightingale

B- The Fox and the Grapes
C- The Goose with the Golden Eggs
D- The Milkmaid and Her Pail
E- The Gardener and His Dog
55
Appendix C: Excerpts from The Best of Aesop’s Fables retold by Margaret Clark
1) The Gardener and his Dog

56
2) The Milkmaid and her Pail

57
3) The Fox and the Grapes

58
4) The Goose with the Golden Eggs

59
5) The Farmer and the Nightingale

60
Appendix D: Questionnaire
1) What do these animals represent in your culture?
Camel
Cat
Dog
Horse
Bird
Chicken
2) Have you studied Ibn Muqafah’s Fables `Kalila wa Dimnah’ in your school
curriculum?
Yes/no
3) If yes, at which stage?
Primary school secondary school college university
4) Do you think that studying Aesop’s Fables will help Arab learners to acquire English
proverbs more effectively? Yes/no
5) Why?
6) How did you learn English animal proverbs?
School/University interaction with friends reading films/TV

Other, please specify:
7) How often do you employ English proverbs in your everyday language?

Very often often sometimes rarely very rarely
8) Which top three English proverbs do you use the most?

61
9) Which processes happened in your mind while you were trying to find out the
explanations of the proverbs?
10) Which difficulties have you encountered while reading the proverbs?
11) How difficult have you found the tasks?
Task 1
Very Simple Simple Nor simple/nor Difficult Very difficult
difficult
Task 2
Very Simple Simple Nor simple/nor Difficult Very difficult
difficult
12) Did you know any of the fables you have read? Yes/no
If yes, which ones?
The Gardener and his Dog

The Milkmaid and her Pail
The Fox and the Grapes
The Goose with the Golden Eggs
The Farmer and the Nightingale
62
13) Have you learnt new proverbs by participating in the study? Yes/no
I will need a few information concerning your educational and cultural background.
This information will remain confidential and will not be shared with a third party
Name:
Age:
e-mail:
Nationality:
Level of study and subject:
Languages spoken:
How comfortable do you feel after having completing the study?
Very uncomfortable uncomfortable neutral comfortable very comfortable
What did you like?
What did you dislike?
What would you suggest to improve the study?
How clear were the instructions?
Very clear clear neutral unclear very

unclear
Would you be interested in taking part in other studies in relation with the project?
63
Yes/no
Thank you for your participation.

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1

THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

English Language & Applied Linguistics

Name: .Anass Fourati.......ID: 1396137..............................................................................

Word Count: 14,280…………………………………………………………………………

Name of Supervisor: ........Rosamund Moon..........................

a. that this Dissertation is my own work;

b. that this is written in my own words; and

c. that all quotations from published or unpublished work are acknowledged

with quotation marks and references to the work in question.

Sign: Anass Fourati Date: 04/09/2015

For Office Use Only

[Dissertation front cover sheet]

1.1. Research motivation and Purpose 8

Chapter 2: Literature Review 12

2.1.1. Definition of proverbs 12

2.1.2. Analysability of proverbs 13

2.1.3. The reasons of studying proverbs 14

2.2. Metaphor theory 17

2.2.1. Definition of Conceptual Metaphor 17

2.2.2. Cultural implications of Conceptual Metaphor 18

2.3. Metonymy theory 20

2.3.1. Definition of Conceptual Metonymy 20

2.3.2. Cognitive mechanism of metonymy 22

2.3.3. The relationships between Conceptual Metaphor and Conceptual Metonymy 24

2.4. The cognitive approaches to proverbs 27

2.4.1. Conceptual Metaphor Theory in Second Language Acquisition 27

2.4.2. Cognitive views on proverbs 28

2.4.3. Conceptual Metaphor Theory in Proverb Understanding 29

2.4.4. Empirical studies on Proverbs Acquisition 32

3.4. Data collection

Chapter 4: Discussion of the findings 37

5.1. Semi-constructed interviews 37

5.2. Reading test 41

6.1. Synopsis of major findings 47

6.2. Implications for English Language Teaching 48

6.3. Limitations and suggestions for further study 49

Appendix A Semi-constructed interviews 53

Appendix B Reading activity 54

Appendix C Sample of Aesop’s fables 55

Figure 2: An idealised cognitive model for ‘bicycle’ 21

Figure 3: Characteristics of the Great Chain 31

Table 1: Students’ performance in understanding English animal proverbs out of context 38

Table 2: The fables which the participants knew 42

Table 3: The representations of animals in the participants’ cultures 43

Table 4: The most used proverbs by the participants 45

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ELT: English Language Teaching

L2: Second Language

1.1. Research Motivation and Purpose

1.2. Research Questions and Hypotheses

1) What kind of strategies do Arab speaking learners of English employ in order to

Hypothesis 3: A consideration of the pedagogical implications of metaphor theory can

1.3. Structure of the Dissertation

Chapter 2: Literature review

2.1.1. Definition of Proverbs

2.1.2. Analysability of Proverbs

Goose Golden eggs

Real life situations

(Gibbs, 2001: 169).