Internetin keskustelufoorumit sananlaskujen kasvualustana

The aim of the article is to study the use of proverbs and their modifications on the Internet. The author combines her social psychological point of view with the ethnological research-based knowledge of proverb use. Former conclusions that were reached about the functions of proverb use in speech situations led the research to the discussion forums on the Internet. Commenting on ”the question of the day” in a Finnish newspaper turned out to be an ideal substratum for proverbs. The particular question of the day dealt with the break of Sofi Oksanen, the famous Finnish novelist, with her publishing house. The question was posed in a dichotomic way, and it clearly provoked the need to substantiate the answer. There were few facts available about the case in question, and the personal style of the author evoked strong feelings. The research data amounted to 344 comments. The base for proverb use was favourable, since proverbs were employed in 17 % of the comments. Texts were compared to and recognized with the Matti Kuusi international type system of proverbs. In all, there were 46 different proverb types and some phrasal expressions. A surprising result was that only a few modifications of proverbs were used.