Semantic features of English proverbs

general truth

A proverb is a traditional, fixed-phrase saying, usually one sentence that expresses an opinion, often considered wisdom, on a subject or recommends a course of action.

A proverb is a traditional saying or sentence which summarizes an attitude towards something or describes a certain sitation. It is an often used saying through which one learns. A "picture" or "image" accompanies, or is within the expression, which gives light to the lesson to be learned. This lesson is often referred to as a moral.

A proverb is a traditional wisdom, advice or statement in a fixed phrase. It is short and precise, consists of at least two parts, and contains actor and verb.

A proverb is a well known saying which belongs to folk poetry and which is used by everyone.

A proverb is a well known spying without a known author, passed on from generation to generation, which gives advice, admonitions or a moral lesson - usually a few words to not more than one sentence in length and stated in a manner that is easily remembered i.e. rhyme, workable language, alliteration, analogy, etc. It is related to man as a whole and often begins with who.

A proverb is a witticism which combines clarity and precision of thought with brevity and profundity of word usage. The statement generally applies to a situation which is commonly understood and appreciated by all peoples of a given culture.

A proverb is an expression in colloquial or biblical terms which illustrates a moralistic point.

A proverb is an often repeated and metaphorical expression.

A proverb is generally used to provide "wisdom" in a concise way. It spares the speaker of the proverb the chore of being philosophically original.

A proverb is the wisdom of many, the wit of one. This is known as defining a proverb with a proverb. It doesn't hold up too well as a definition, but it sticks in my mind.1

Certain principles and conditions of everyday life are expressed in proverbs, which in turn help people to understand the world and to learn from experience.

In a few words proverbs explain human problems and behavior.

Proverbs are general statements of truth which can apply to certain instances in a commentary fashion, and which can act as wise words for future actions.

Proverbs are golden words of folk wisdom that have been treasured from generation to generation.

Proverbs are short and aphoristic expressions of wisdom which reflect basic human situations and concerns31.

A word analysis of these definitions results in an interesting composite of what a general definition of a proverb might look like. Taking the frequency of nouns first, the following picture emerges (the number :n parentheses indicates how often a particular noun appears in the 55 definitions): wisdom; phrase; sentence, saying; statement; folk; situation; expression; life; truth, moral, people; generation,' experience, advice, lesson, word; principle, analogy, belief, behavior, meaning, action; language, generalization, attitude, message, opinion, picture, comment, thought, comparison, tradition, rule, viewpoint; origin, idea, occurrence, philosophy, knowledge, conclusion, prejudice, folklore, paradigm, threat, form, norm, nature, value, ideal, image, poetry, author, admonition, rhyme, alliteration, witticism, brevity, profundity, clarity, precision, culture, condition, concern. From this it becomes clear that a proverb is commonly thought of as "a phrase, saying, sentence, statement or expression of the folk which contains above all wisdom, truth, morals, experience, lessons and advice concerning life and which has been' handed down from generation to generation." This composite definition basically includes all those words that appear from 4 to 20 times in the collected definitions. But since the words phrase, saying, sentence, statement and expression simply define a proverb as a basic sentence, it can certainly be stated that the shortest general definition of a proverb is simply "A proverb is wisdom expressed in a sentence."

Looking at modifying verbs, adjectives and adverbs in the 55 definitions, the following frequency picture arises: short; general; known; common, teach, traditional; metaphorical; concise, fixed ; repeated, remembered, everyday, didactic; handed down, formulaic, true, understandable, often quoted, universal, moralistic, colloquial, memorizable, learned, familiar, biblical, human; sum up, graphic, symbolic, rhyming, colorful, descriptive, old, linguistic, regional, pictorial, pithy, standardized, accepted, oral, poetic, parallel, precise, aphoristic, cultural, instructive, exemplary, small, allegorical. If one adds the 18 occurrences of "short" together with the 4 of "concise," the one of "precise" and the one of "small" it is clear that 24 or almost half of the definitions stress the shortness of the proverb. Adding to this a few more of the frequent descriptive words, a composite definition could be something like "A proverb is a short, generally known sentence that expresses common, traditional and didactic views in a metaphorical and fixed form and which is easily remembered and repeated." But again, the shortest common denominator for this group of descriptive words would simply1 result in the definition "A proverb is a short sentence."

There are several types of proverbs describe below:

Universal proverbs – On comparing proverbs of culturally unrelated parts of the world, one finds several ones having not only the same basic idea but the form of expression, i.e. the wording is also identical or very similar. These are mainly simple expressions of simple observations or simple ethical concepts, but not all expressions of simple observations became proverbs in every language.

Regional proverbs – In culturally related regions - on the pattern of loan-words - many loan-proverbs appear beside the indigenous ones. A considerable part ot them can be traced back to the>

Local Proverbs – In a cultural region often internal differences appear, the classics (e.g. the Bible or the Confucian Analects) are not equally regarded as a source of proverbs in every language. Geographical vicinity gives also rise to another set of common local proverbs. These considerations are illustrated in several European and Far-Eastern languages, as English and Korean.

Proverbs were always the most vivacious and at the same time the most stable part of the national languages, suitable competing with the sayings and aphorisms pf outstanding thinkers. In the proverbs and sayings picturesqueness of national thinking was more vivid expressed as well as their features of national' character.

The proverbs and sayings are the paper of folklore which is short but deep in the meaning. They express the outlook of the amount of people by their social and ideal functions. Proverbs and sayings include themselves the some certain features of historical development and the culture of people.

The semantic sphere of proverbs is very wide and cannot limit them. The proverbs describe the every branch of people's life. The fact is that proverbs and sayings are similar in meaning in spite of their diversity in form and language.

While investigating on the given qualification theme we have analused proverbs on the semantic point of view. We have come across on the following noticeable themes, such as Friendship, Motherland, Time, Knowledge, Beauty, Health, Work, and a lot other different subjects. We have classified some example on the given topics:

Friendship

A friendship in need is a friend indeed.

A friend's frown is better than a foe's smile.

Among friends all things are common.

Even reckoning makes long friends.

Who keeps company with the wolf, will learn to howl.

Motherland

East or West home is best.

Every bird likes its own nest.

There is no place like home.

Never cast dirt into that fountain if which you have sometimes drunk.

Don't cut the bough you are standing on.

Time

Time and tide wait for no man.

Time cures all things.

Time flies.

Time is money.

Time is wonders

Cost time is never found again.

Knowledge

To everything is to know nothing.

Soon learnt soon forgotten.

Live and learn.

It's never too late to learn.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Beauty

All that glitters is not gold.

Appearances are deceptive

Handsome is as handsome does.

There is no rose without the thorn.

Health

An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

A sound mind in a sound body.

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man health's, wealth's and wise.

Good health is above wealth.

Health is not valued till sickness comes.

Work

A bad workman always blames his tools.

A good beginning is half the worn.

A good beginning makes a good ending.

An attempt is not tortue.

AH is well that ends well.

As you sow so you reap.

Chickens are counted in autumn.

Man proposes bad disposes.

Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today

Nogain without plan.

Speak less but do more.

2.3 PROVERBS AS THE WAY EXPRESSING PEOPLES WISDOM AND SPIRIT IN LITERARY WORKS

A psychological method of analysis has been developed (Detje, 1996) and will be presented in order to show which psychological mechanisms the proverbs use to reach their goal of giving help (or advise) for human action regulation and human action organization. Some examples will be given to show which psychological insight there is inside the proverbs. Comer's theory of human action organization (e.g. Dorner, 1990, 1991) is used in this first analysis and compared with a lot of proverbs taken from Simrock, 1846. It can be shown that the proverbs have a much' differentiated "'knowledge" about human action organization and errors people make while planning and acting; even in complex and uncertain situations. Proverbs are "Guides to Right Behavior". This also means that a lot of psychologists' ideas of action organization are already included in "grandma's wisdom", although the proverbs use (of course) a quite different language.32 Since psychologists have used proverbs mainly for testing and differentiating groups of

persons it will be very interesting to have an exchange between paremiologists and psychologists about the psychological significance of the wisdom in the proverbs.

Many people have loved proverbs for the wisdom embedded in them. Others have treasured proverbs for the vividness or earthiness of their imagery. But students of the subject are impressed by still another characteristic of the proverb: its verbal economy. Proverbs are rarely wordy. The usual proverb is spare and austere in expression, and some are marvels of compactness.

"Wisdom" and "shortness" doubtlessly belong to the popular notion of what makes up a proverb. Even when a scholar such as Mario Pei wrote a short piece on "Parallel Proverbs" (1964)33 for the Saturday Review, he basically adhered to this general view of the proverb in his article dealing with national and international proverbs, their cynicism, philosophy and humor, their obvious misogyny and their contradictor) comments on life's experiences around the world: Proverbs are among the most ancient of human institutions. Criticism of life, in brief and pithy form, is characteristic of proverbs, while their popular philosophy is indeed, proverbial.

"Proverbs are the wisdom of peoples" goes an Italian saying. This is perhaps an exaggeration, but there is no doubt that much of a nation's folk-philosophy gets into proverbs, along with the spice of national customs and, above all, the peculiar flavor of the nation's language and phraseology... Proverbs are generalizations of human experience, condensations of oft-repeated occurrences of the trial-and-error variety. Above all, they are the fruit of observation and inductive reasoning, two of the great faculties of the human mind... A generalization... caught on, became popular, and was passed from mouth to mouth, from generation to generation.

Ultimately it became an integral part of the group's folklore, and was repeated whenever the situation it described recurred. Every proverb tells a story and teaches a lesson.

This lengthy discussion of the nature of the proverb by Pei reads almost as an attempt of summarizing the common understanding of proverbs. Many of the 55 definitions stated above are similar to Pei's points, and it is amazing to notice how congrous these definitions are to those defining attempts printed in magazines and newspapers. There certainly is much agreement in the non-scholarly world of what a proverb is even if scholars seem to be unable to agree on a reasonable definition at all.

A proverb is by definition a popular maxim. Proverbs are among the most ancient literary forms, and among the most universal. Enough if it [the proverb] holds its measure of truth. Proverbs are anonymous wisdom-literature of the common man in ages past.34 Matti Kuusi once defined proverbs simply as "monumenta humana," and this is exactly what they are to the general population. Our survey of 55 non-academic definitions has shown that proverbs are thought to express human wisdom and basic truths in a short sentence. Popular articles in magazines and newspapers fend to share this view of the proverb. Altogether proverbs are still seen as useful generalizations about life, even if at times their value of appropriateness in certain situations might be questioned. We can poke fun at proverbs, we can ridicule them or we can parody them, but eventually we are all governed by their insights to some degree. Proverbs and their wisdom confront us' daily, and modern people seem to have a clear idea of what proverbs are, what they express and what they can do for us. Proverb scholars would do well to pay more attention to the present use of proverbs while obviously also continuing to tackle the frustrating question of whether a universal proverb definition can be found. But in their enduring search for such an erudite definition, they can take solace in the fact that the people using proverbs do know in their minds what makes a good proverb - an incommunicable quality tells them that a short and repeated statement of wisdom, truth and experience must be a proverb.

Comparing the three approaches discussed above (semantic, functional, and contextual) we have ample ground to conclude that have very much in common as the main criteria of phraseological units appear to be essentially the same, i.e. stability and idiomaticity or lack of motivation. It should be noted however that these criteria as elaborated in the three approaches are sufficient mainly to single out extreme cases: highly idiomatic non-variable and free (or variable) word-groups.

The main features of this new approach which is now more or less universally accepted