Il proverbio nei discorsi pronunciati nel Parlamento italiano e nel Parlamento spagnolo: un’analisi contrastiva

This study is structured as a contrastive analysis of the use of proverbs in the speeches delivered by Senators in Italy and Spain. In particular, it focuses on the plenary sessions held in the Upper Chamber of each country over a selected period of time (starting from December 2011 until January 2016). The investigation is carried out through the use of specific databases containing shorthand records of the plenary sessions, made available on the official website of each institution. A specific methodology is put in place in order to select, for each language, a meaningful sample of proverbs to be searched within the databases. Before conducting the analysis, some light is shed on the subject of phraseology and the definition of ‘proverb’, which is still controversial due to the amount of different taxonomies produced by paremiologists over the years. Some preliminary observations are also made with respect to the structure of the Italian and the Spanish Parliament and the evolution of political language under the influence of the media.