A Study Of English Proverb Memes In Language Use From Perspective Of Memetic Adaptation

Proverbs are fixed sentences with relative complete meaning, which belong to the range of idioms. They mainly originate from life experience of the public or written records, such as religious classics or literary works etc. Proverbs are characterized with plain language, vivid expression and special cultural connotations, which are employed as directions to people’s behavior and have many social functions, such as passing on experiences and imparting moral education. Most of the proverbs are the reflections of national culture, consequently, studies on proverbs are always carried out from the perspectives of cultural values, differences between English and Chinese proverbs and translation strategies. However, few studies pay attention to the forms and ways of proverbs transmission, and the strategies of choosing and using proverbs. While the theory of memetics that is proposed by Richard Dawkins could well interpret these issues. Memetics is a new branch of pragmatics which is based on Darwin’s evolutionary theory, using for explaining the law of cultural evolution. Meme, the core concept of memetics, is defined as a cultural unit that is transmitted by imitation. Meme is analogous to gene, and the difference lies in that gene is passed down by inheritance while meme is spread by imitation. Memes could present in various forms, such as music, ideas, proverbs or religion etc. They can be transmitted vertically from one generation to another and from one individual to another horizontally by natural selection through daily communication, broadcast, television, newspaper, books and magazines. While among numerous memes, a meme has to adapt to the communicative needs and environment with the aim to be successfully chosen and passed on by the language users. For this reason, the issue of meme transmission could be better interpreted under the framework of memetics and the theory of adaptation.In the present study, memetics and the theory of adaptation will be employed as theoretical framework and qualitative analysis will be adopted as research method, taking proverb memes of news headlines and advertising slogans as study objects to explore properties of proverb memes and the transmission ways of proverb memes. Furthermore, successful replication of proverb memes will be discussed from the perspective of memetic adaptation, and the reasons why some proverbs become weak memes will also be explored.Based on the criteria of meme selection advanced by Heylighen, proverbs surely bear four properties in them to become memes, namely, simplicity, novelty, utility and conformity. Proverbs with these four properties could be considered as proverb memes and be transmitted by two ways:repetition and analogy, the former is classified into direct transmission and synonym, and the latter is further divided into analogy of the same sound and analogy of the same structure. According to the analysis in the present study, it is shown that proverb memes are widely transmitted in news media and advertising by these two ways, with the aim to realize different goals. From the perspective of memetic adaptation, proverb memes achieve successful transmission by adapting to cognitive, emotive and cultural factors. For cognitive adaptation, a proverb meme should fit in the working mechanism of memory and people’s cognitive style; while proverb meme adapts to emotive factors by activating feeling buttons of people; and value orientation, national psychology and religion play important roles on proverb transmission in the process of cultural adaptation. At last, strong proverb memes and weak proverb memes are analyzed to get the summary that weak proverb memes should adapt themselves to the new environment or make use of the strong proverb memes in order to revive.The present study is of great significance, it provides better interpretation to the transmission of proverb memes, which could deepen people’s cognition of proverbs and thus arouse more attention to proverb transmission in various fields with the aim to effectively employ proverbs. Besides, the present study complements the previous studies on memetics.