Is there speech performance in Proverbs?

What is it about?

Writing is speech performance, and reading is the uptake of that performance. However, people who study proverbial literatures throughout the world focus on oral settings of the speech performance of proverbs. Bible scholars adopt this framework, apply it to Proverbs, and conclude that there is no actual speech performance in the book. Yet most agree that Proverbs is designed to influence the moral character and practical wisdom of readers. The intent to influence is the determining feature of "proverb performance." And it is this communicative intent in Proverbs, not the reconstruction of oral speech settings, that qualifies material in the book as speech performance. Cognitive research into how people process writing supports this and enriches our understanding of the mental work people do when we read Proverbs.

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Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Most see Proverbs as a work designed to exert ongoing influence on the moral character and practical wisdom of readers. To maintain this view of the book, we need a cognitively realistic assessment of writing and reading processes that make it so. These processes call for a reevaluation of how speech performance and performance context are manifest in Proverbs, and that is what I offer in this article.