諺語是先民智慧的結晶，不僅音律和諧、修辭優美，且具有知識性與教化性。本文以台灣地區的閩南諺語為研究對象，論文內容主要包含以下幾個部分：一、將諺語與琥珀（amber）相類比，藉由琥珀所呈現的諸種特性，具象地詮釋諺語的形成過程、本質特徵與文化內涵；二、從符號學觀點解析前人如何從結構、語義與功用等層面來研究閩南諺語，並思索未來閩南諺語研究的可能轉向；三、根據認知語義學（cognitive linguistics）的理論與方法，闡述閩南諺語的生成模式與理解策略。

The essence of the ancestor's knowledge reflects upon the proverbs, which possess not only harmonious meters and poetical rhetoric, but also the sense of knowledge and didacticism. The subject of this essay is the Min Nan idiom in Taiwan; the content includes: (1) To interpret the formation of proverbs, the essential characteristics and the cultural content by the metaphor or image of amber-which itself shares a variety of characteristics in common; (2) To explore how, in terms of semiotics, the ancestors research on the Min Nan dialect through its structure, syntax, function and so forth and, moreover, propose the possible trends of Min Nan dialect study; (3) To expound the germinal formation and the comprehension strategies by the theory and method of cognitive linguistics.