Un sociologo e alcuni modi di dire. Piccolissima indagine su alcune espressioni popolari provenienti dai media

Abstract

As a sociologist of communication, the author wonders what function common sayings have. Phrases crystallized in collective imagery and used by many individuals in a certain context, common sayings are support bases of verbal communication, able of creating a comfortable setting for oral (or written) human relations. To exchange common sayings means to share a common culture: not by chance in the past a great number of phrases has come from Latin repertoires, or from Shakespeare’s masterpieces, or – in a more distant past – from the Bible, the Gospels, and the Koran. In our time a large number of common sayings come from the media: the text provides some examples of widespread expressions to be commented, coming from different branches of popular media culture (songs, radio and television programs, movies, comics, political communication). Nevertheless, quickness and frantic pace of media production do not seem to guarantee the permanence of common sayings among generations: the expressive cycles are increasingly shorter, and the digital culture is playing a decisive role in differentiating and fragmenting generations.