"Old proverbs in new skins – an fMRI study on defamiliarization"

We investigated how processing fluency and defamiliarization (the art of rendering familiar notions unfamiliar) contribute to the affective and esthetic processing of reading in an event-related functional magnetic-resonance-imaging experiment.We compared the neural correlates of processing (a) familiar German proverbs, (b) unfamiliar proverbs, (c) defamiliarized variations with altered content relative to the original proverb (proverb-variants), (d) defamiliarized versions with unexpected wording but the same content as the original proverb (proverb-substitutions), and (e) non-rhetorical sentences. Here, we demonstrate that defamiliarization is an effectiveway of guiding attention, but that the degree of affective involvement depends on the type of defamiliarization: enhanced activation in affect-related regions (orbito-frontal cortex, medPFC) was found only if defamiliarization altered the content of the original proverb. Defamiliarization on the level of wording was associated with attention processes and error monitoring. Although proverb-variants evoked activation in affect-related regions, familiar proverbs received the highest beauty ratings.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s Netherlandish Proverbs and Sixteenth Century Dutch Semiotics

"In 1559, Pieter Bruegel the Elder‘s depiction of {7f2015}Netherlandish Proverbs‖ illustrated his profound understanding of the Dutch love for proverbs, their contemporary values, and appreciation for moral lessons in art forms. Depicting gestures and poses that represented proverbial phrases enabled Bruegel‘s leap from didactic labels employed by other artists to his inscription-free success of {7f2015}Netherlandish Proverbs.‖ My examination reveals that Bruegel‘s employment of gestural imagery, indicating rhetorical phrases or proverbs, was reinforced by a history of scholarly curatorship for written proverb collections, humanist interest in proverbs, and use of Dutch vernacular to bolster protonational pride"

Proverbia communia; a fifteenth century collection of Dutch proverbs together with the Low German version.

Commentary includes the English translation.

Illustrative gatherings for preachers and teachers : A manual of anecdotes, facts, figures, proverbs, quotations, etc. Adapted for Christian teaching.

Mode of access: Internet.

The Book of Proverbs /by R.F. Horton.

Mode of access: Internet.

The syntax and idioms of Hindustani : or, progressive exercises in translation, with notes and directions and vocabularies.

Mode of access: Internet.

Scènes et proverbs

Le fruit défendu.--La crise.--Rédemption.--Le pour et le contre.--Alix.--La partie de dames.--La clef d'or.

Netherlandish Proverbs

Pieter Bruegel the Elder; 3 ft. 10-/16 in. x 5 ft. 4-11/64 in.; oil on oak