Search

This article deals with changes of form and meaning of the Croatian proverb‘Odjeća ne čini čovjeka čovjekom’ (Clothes do not make the man). The analysis is done on the basis of its use in newspaper articles and spoken communication. Furthermore, the data are interpreted within the framework of cognitive semantics. The analysis shows that the proverb is often used in modified form and that it has changed its form from negative to positive. Most of the informants recognize its modified form ‘Odijelo ne čini čovjeka’ (The suit does not make the man) as the original one. From the cognitive semantic point of view, changes analysed in relation to the concept of basic conceptual metaphor point to changes in the socio-cultural context and to perception of the importance of (outward) appearance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While conducting fieldwork in Croatia in 2000, the author identified and interviewed an elderly gentleman who was present when Milman Parry and Albert Lord recorded an epic singer in the village of Kijevo, Croatia, on 24 September 1934. During follow-up work, scholar Ante Juric-Arambasic conducted interviews concerning the singer's biography. All material is here reported, translated, and interpreted for the purpose of thickening the corpus of Parry and Lord archival materials and for improving our reconstruction, based on the available evidence, of the traditions flourishing in the region during the first half of the twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]