A linguistic study of socio-cultural values in Jordanian proverbial expressions

Proverbial expressions have their linguistic connotations and literary and social importance as they summarize a lot of speech and statements to indicate a specific situation or to judge a situation and to clarify it in a clear manner. The just few words of the proverb would enable the person to understand and comprehend the intended meaning without the need for further speech and explanation in many times. The proverb is a summary of the repeated human experiences which are confirmed by the practices and consequences that result from it. Proverbial expressions are important in promoting the social and cultural values that contribute to controlling, promoting and directing the individual and collective behaviors in the society. The present study aims to explore a number of socio-cultural values in Jordanian spoken Arabic by investigating the proverbial expressions that are used to show them. The study showed that these values were expressed with different proverbial expressions which were formulated in different linguistic forms and which use different tools and products to confirm their social functions.