COMPARATIVE ANALYZES OF AZERBAIJAN AND NORTH AMERICAN NATIVE TRIBES’ CULTURES

Abstract

Overall, evidence reveals that wisdom is a culturally situated and flexible construct, with culture playing a key role in influencing wisdom-related behaviors, which supports a constructionist explanation of wisdom and its evolution. Traditional Azerbaijani and North American cultures embrace pragmatism, believing that wisdom should be "practiced daily" and "preached personally." The knowledge gained in daily life must be put into practice to see if it is viable. Proverbs are popular wisdom and tradition belonging to Azerbaijan and North American cultures, which help us to foreground the values and shared beliefs held by a speech community. Thus, this research aims to analyze comparatively the functions of proverbs taking examples from Azerbaijan and North American folklore. In order to achieve this goal, we have applied Azerbaijan and North American theories to explain how proverbs allow the speaker to express his/her intention in an implicit way. The findings demonstrate that the main functions of both nations’ proverbs are criticism, advice and warning. In addition, we have offered an explanation of how their often ironical and metaphorical nature affects proverbs’ understanding. Besides, we have studied the use of the ellipsis in proverbs, which takes place in familiar proverbs, analyzing how familiarity and unfamiliarity influences on proverb use. Finally, we summed up our conclusions to achieve a better comprehension of proverbs’ functions of peoples, their theoretical differences, similarities and uses.