Page 404 - Gabrijela Kišiček and Igor Ž. Žagar (eds.), What do we know about the world? Rhetorical and argumentative perspectives, Digital Library, Educational Research Institute, Ljubljana 2013
P. 404
What Do We Know about the World?
it himself. / Tko pod drugim jamu kopa18 or To have and have not19 / Da-
bogda, imao pa nemao.
It has already been said that two groups of examinees can hard-
ly be differentiated on the bases of overall results in the understanding
of paraphrases. Therefore, our previous hypothesis based on the assump-
tion that age and different cultural backgrounds have no influence on
paraphrase recognition should be discarded. For example, the younger
and older groups of examinees displayed very different, and occasional-
ly significantly opposite, levels of knowledge and paraphrase recognition,
especially when asked to identify movie and song titles. The degree of
the examinees’ familiarity with the modified headline depends on sev-
eral circumstances. It is known that phraseological in general and peri-
phrastic groups in particular are very dynamic and many paraphrases are
short-lived and are quickly replaced by new ones. The headlines that were
most frequently recognized by examinees were modifications of common
proverbs, pragmatic formulas, fairytale titles, commercials, famous mov-
ies, collocation and so on. The headlines that were less frequently identi-
fied are actually unmodified titles of old movies which the younger gen-
erations were unfamiliar with, titles of old songs, ancient phrases, inter-
national phrases, proverbs… The following examples show the great lev-
el of difference between the two groups of examinees in recognizing par-
aphrase originals: 98 % of the older examinees recognized the title of the
song Blue eyes shed tears20 / Suze liju plave oči in the form Suze Lyon plave
oči, while the younger examinees recognized it only 50 % of the time; the
paraphrase Tower neither in socialism nor in capitalism / Čardak ni u so-
cijalizmu ni u kapitalizm was identified by 95 % of the older examinees
as the Serbian folk tale Tower neither in heaven nor on earth / Čardak ni
na nebu ni na zemlji. Nowadays, due to the fact this story is no longer
a part of the school curriculum, its recognition was significantly lower
among the younger examinees, meaning only 25 %. A similar result is
also found in the socialist slogan Proletarians of all countries, unite! / Pro-
leteri svih zemalja, ujedinite se! The older examinees recognize it from the
paraphrase Kroatisti i slavisti, ujedinite se! / Croatists and slavists, unite!
58 % of the time, while the younger examinees only 33 %.
There is one example where the results of recognition are higher in
the younger examinee group: the title of the movie Pirates of the Carib-
18 Old Croatian proverb.
19 Old Croatian folk proverb.
20 Song by Croatian songwriter and singer Ivica Šerfezi from 1966.
it himself. / Tko pod drugim jamu kopa18 or To have and have not19 / Da-
bogda, imao pa nemao.
It has already been said that two groups of examinees can hard-
ly be differentiated on the bases of overall results in the understanding
of paraphrases. Therefore, our previous hypothesis based on the assump-
tion that age and different cultural backgrounds have no influence on
paraphrase recognition should be discarded. For example, the younger
and older groups of examinees displayed very different, and occasional-
ly significantly opposite, levels of knowledge and paraphrase recognition,
especially when asked to identify movie and song titles. The degree of
the examinees’ familiarity with the modified headline depends on sev-
eral circumstances. It is known that phraseological in general and peri-
phrastic groups in particular are very dynamic and many paraphrases are
short-lived and are quickly replaced by new ones. The headlines that were
most frequently recognized by examinees were modifications of common
proverbs, pragmatic formulas, fairytale titles, commercials, famous mov-
ies, collocation and so on. The headlines that were less frequently identi-
fied are actually unmodified titles of old movies which the younger gen-
erations were unfamiliar with, titles of old songs, ancient phrases, inter-
national phrases, proverbs… The following examples show the great lev-
el of difference between the two groups of examinees in recognizing par-
aphrase originals: 98 % of the older examinees recognized the title of the
song Blue eyes shed tears20 / Suze liju plave oči in the form Suze Lyon plave
oči, while the younger examinees recognized it only 50 % of the time; the
paraphrase Tower neither in socialism nor in capitalism / Čardak ni u so-
cijalizmu ni u kapitalizm was identified by 95 % of the older examinees
as the Serbian folk tale Tower neither in heaven nor on earth / Čardak ni
na nebu ni na zemlji. Nowadays, due to the fact this story is no longer
a part of the school curriculum, its recognition was significantly lower
among the younger examinees, meaning only 25 %. A similar result is
also found in the socialist slogan Proletarians of all countries, unite! / Pro-
leteri svih zemalja, ujedinite se! The older examinees recognize it from the
paraphrase Kroatisti i slavisti, ujedinite se! / Croatists and slavists, unite!
58 % of the time, while the younger examinees only 33 %.
There is one example where the results of recognition are higher in
the younger examinee group: the title of the movie Pirates of the Carib-
18 Old Croatian proverb.
19 Old Croatian folk proverb.
20 Song by Croatian songwriter and singer Ivica Šerfezi from 1966.
