Date:  Wed, 13 Dec 1995 13:39:28 -0800

From:  "Alan S. Kaye" <AKAYE[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CCVAX.FULLERTON.EDU>

Subject: Proverbial Knowledge



Part of communicative competence includes a knowledge of proverbs. Thus,

many English speakers have heard the following proverb: "You pays your money

and you takes your choice." This is listed in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 3rd ed., 1979:9. Today I heard a variant of this from a native speaker

in which the word "chances" occurred for "choice." How many have heard this

version? Are there any other permutations with this proverb? Does anyone

have other examples of proverbs with variations in English or in any other

language?

My theory is this. Proverbs are universal, and native speakers change them

according to well-defined rules ("chances" is monosyllabic and begins with

a voiceless affricate, etc.).

I will post a summary of examples sent to me or the network + reasons/

explications of the phenomenon.

Does anyone know of any research on this?

--Alan Kaye--

Linguistics

Calif. State Univ., Fullerton --- akaye[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]fullerton.edu