Paper short abstract:

The aim of research is to analyse paremiological units in Slovenian primary-school-children’s magazines. The study will bring overview of the selection of paremias (including context and motivation) in texts, which are predicted for younger readers.

Paper long abstract:

General opinion of the Slovenian general and professional public is that proverbs are either obsolete language and therefore not appropriate for children either too abstract for children to understand them. This presumption results in rarely used figurative language which negatively influences child language learning. The study tests these hypotheses in three most often recommended magazines with general contents for children in primary school: Ciciban, Zmajček and Pil. The first two are published for 6 to 9 years old children and focus on the writing and reading skills; Pil is published for 10 to 15 years old children and includes articles on teenage problems and popular teenage issues. The presentation gives the overview of used proverbs and proverbial forms in texts with wider context and motivation in above mentioned magazines. It presents which proverbs and proverbial forms and how many of them are understood as acceptable for certain age; how many proverbs are explained with the context; and which proverbs and proverbial forms are accepted as appropriate and understandable for children.