Case study
Abstract
An anti-proverb is a traditional saying with a twist. The change can be as subtle as swapping out a word or as drastic as flipping the meaning of the traditional proverb on its head. Anti-proverbs can be found in a range of discourse forms from Dad jokes to advertising and political speeches. This case study utilizes corpus linguistics to analyze new anti-proverbs in the Kazakh language. We developed a corpus of anti-proverbs and a reference corpus of related traditional Kazakh proverbs for comparison. We find evidence that the anti-proverbs address new topical areas, and that further research is warranted.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Linguistic research and analysis
Linguistics and Cultural Studies
Linguistics and Discourse Analysis
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Routledge eBooks
- Pages
- 177–184
- Publication date
- 30 January 2026
- Language
- EN
- Document type
- Book chapter