Specific features of proverbs and sayings

 

PEOPLES’ FRIENDSHIP UNIVERSITY OF RUSSIA

 

 

Institute of Foreign Languages

 

 

Department of Foreign Languages in Theory and Practice

 

 

 

 

“LEXICOLOGY”

 

LIBRARY RESEARCH PAPER

 

 

«Specific features of proverbs and sayings»

 

 

035700 – Linguistics

 

 

 

Submitted by

_____________________E.V. Pavlova

Student’s ID №  1032122473

Full-time course, group 309

«______»_______________2015

 

Library Research Paper Advisor

_____________________Ph.D. L.A.Egorova,

Associate Professor

Department of Foreign Languages in Theory and Practice

 

 

 

 

 

Moscow 2015

CONTENTS

 

INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………...3

CHAPTER 1. PROVERBS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE………………........4

1. Proverbs as a phraseological unit……..……………………………………..4
2. The difference of proverbs and sayings…..…………………………….........5

CHAPTER 2. SPECIFIC FEATURES OF PROVERBS AND SAYINGS…8

2.1. Classification of proverbs and sayings……………………………………...8

2.2. Proverbs as the way expressing people's wisdom and spirit………………11

CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………..14

REFERENCES………………………………………………………………..15

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

Proverbs and sayings play important role in language. They give emotionality, expressiveness to the speech. They have certain pure linguistic features that must always be taken into account in order to distinguish them from ordinary sentences.

Proverbs are brief statements showing uncondensed form of the accumulated life experience of the community and serving as conventional practical symbols for abstract ideas.

Summarizing above mentioned information the following definition can be given to a proverb: It is a short, meaningful has the rhythmic organization in poetic style - that people had created for centuries in their social and historical life.

The actuality of this library research paper is that the usage of proverbs in speech is very important. The correct usage of these proverbs is also important; it demands a person's high skill and deep knowledge.

The aim of the research paper is:

1.   To examine proverbs as a phraseological unit;
2.      To classify proverbs and sayings;
3.      To show the difference of proverbs and sayings;

The following tasks have been solved in this paper:

1. To deal with the history of the proverbs and analyze them. To show their components or equivalents if they exist in languages, and the ways of their translation.
2. To point out the difference between proverbs and sayings.
3. To research the structural type of English proverbs, to differ in the groups of types of proverbs according to their equivalents and synonymic row.

The theoretical value of this library research paper is to investigate the structural types of proverbs and sayings in English.

CHAPTER 1. PROVERBS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

 

1. Proverbs as a phraseological unit

 

By phraseology we mean the branch of linguistics dealing with stable word - combinations characterized by certain transference of meaning.

The vocabulary of a language is enriched not only by words but also by phraseological units. Phraseological units are word-groups that cannot be' made in the process of speech, they exist in the language as ready-made units. They are compiled in special dictionaries. The same as words phraseological units express a single notion and are used in a sentence as one part of it. American and British lexicographers call such units «idioms». [2, p. 104] We can mention such dictionaries as: L.Smith «Words and Idioms», V.Collins «А Book of English Idioms» etc. In these dictionaries we can find words, peculiar in their semantics (idiomatic), side by side with word-groups and sentences. In these dictionaries they are arranged, as a rule, into different semantic groups. Phraseological units can be classified according to the ways they are formed, according to the degree of the motivation of their meaning, according to their structure and according to their part-of-speech meaning. [8, p. 32]

So, proverb is a brief saying that presents a truth or some bit of useful wisdom. It is usually based on common sense or practical experience. The effect of a proverb is to make the wisdom it tells seem to be self-evident. The same proverb often occurs among several different peoples. True proverbs are sayings that have been passed from generation to generation primarily by word of month. They may also have been put into written form. [7, p. 129]

Proverbs often find their way into literature. The term itself phraseological units to denote a specific group of phrases was introduced by Soviet linguists and is generally accepted in our country.

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 of 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. [11, p. 44]

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. To prove the said above some examples:

 

A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.

Un tiens vaut mieux que deux tu’auras.

Un chien vivant vaut mieux qu'un lion mort.

Лучше синица в руках, чем журавль на небе.

 

Even if the form, the word structure and the stylistic structure of these proverbs are different they have the same meaning. The proverbs change their meaning and form very rare, they have long living features. The spreading of any proverb among people is implemented as slow as it is created. Proverbs are retest by geographic area which is going to admit it only after that the proverb can become its property. [3, p. 62]

 

1.2 The difference of proverbs and sayings

 

Many scholars tried to do the researches to show the differences between proverbs and sayings in order to point out their border of limit. One of the outstanding Russian scholars the author of "dictionary of vivid Russian language" and "the proverbs of Russian nation" V.I. Dal wrote: saying is the bud and proverb is the fruit. [1, p. 183] So from this point of view we can see that proverbs express the full finite meaning and saying is a phrase, which expresses the fugitive meaning. The sayings are considered to be the half part of the proverbs. We can also add that proverbs and sayings are separate genres, which are different from each other.

There are some features that can be helpful in identifying the proverbs from sayings.

1. When there are tow logical counters became complete composition the brief summarizing thought appeared. That explains the lack of spare word or description.
2. To express the idea straightly and logically proverbs are characterized by their features. Every proverb values or appreciates any event both positively and negatively. Such kind of features serve to make the proverbs popular among people.
3. Proverbs express wise and complete idea and sayings express the description of something but do not give complete meanings. They consist of one compositional composition.
4. Proverbs can be used in neutral figurative meaning. This features of proverbs widen the sphere of their usage thematically. That's why proverbs are famous among different nations and people. Sayings are characterized by limited usage in one or two nations who are near to each other geographically and in non - related languages. For example in Russian «заморить человека» means to eat something has no equivalent or component in English language and translated by analogy.
5. The sayings are the means of devices or pointing in speech the function of proverbs is to prove any event or situation. [3, p. 71]

In spite of their own specific features proverbs have general sides, which also belong to the other types of folklore. One of such features of the proverbs is that they are created in language in a very long time and disappear in a long period. It is connected with the formal feature of the content of the proverb. To turn some wise thoughts into proverbs some conditions are required. And this conditions may be the followings: first of all the proverbs should describe the economic, social and politic life of the people. To the instruction to the dictionary of Dal, Shoiochov wrote that among all the proverbs which are closer and more important for them and reject those, which are old and not suitable for them to build a new life. For example in Russian we can find the proverb "Где хан, там и Орда", "Старших и в Орде почитают"; these kind of proverbs can be considered as old ones and are not used in nowadays, because they do not describe the nowadays life and politics. But such kind of proverbs could be changed and said "Где царь, там и народ". [1, p. 276]

Secondary the idea expressed in the proverb must have global character. It means that those proverbs that describe the characters related to the human beings are the same in all the languages.

It should be pointed out that the character of immediate creation of proverbs is connected with sociable structure, the dominance and non -dominance of politic, cultural, social - economic life. The content expressed in proverb changes depending on the change in. of social life.

It can be approved from the above - mentioned proverb about "хан" and "Орда". It either widens or narrows and it gives completely another meaning. In this term we can see that second feature of the proverb is that it is connected with social life, and it is close to people's way of living.

Proverbs serve as rare base in researching or studying of people: the level of their cultural, politic, economic life in ancient time or periods. As proverbs reflect the life practice of people over different periods and also they reflect moral norms and religious faith of nation. One more feature of proverbs is that proverbs are often used in colloquial speech of people and are extended in varied forms. [15, p. 241]

 

 

 

CHAPTER 2. SPECIFIC FEATURES OF PROVERBS AND SAYINGS

 

2.1 Classification of proverbs and sayings

 

As we know, proverbs are used for some practical, pragmatical purposes in various circumstances of everyday communication. With the aid of a proverb on poetic adornments of speech; neither are they used, normally, to meet man's needs for philose can aim to provide an endorsement to his statements and opinions, forecast something, express doubts, reproach someone with something, accuse someone of something, justify or excuse somebody, mock somebody, comfort somebody, jeer at somebody's misfortune, repent something, warn against something, advise something or interdict somebody from doing something, and so on, and so forth. It is unthinkable to consider the proverb apart from such pragmatic functions. [10, p. 480]

Unfortunately, paremiologists have so far only some vague ideas of the functions of proverbs. Moreover, the proverb lies just somewhere on the borderlands between language and folklore. We accept here a simple and widespread scale, namely the set of three degrees:

Statement → evaluation → prescription

The illusion may arise that proverbs can be classified functionally straight on the ground of their "superficial" grammatical moods, so that the proverbs with stating (designative, informative) function were represented with indicative sentences, and those with normative (prescriptive, evocative) function, respectively, with imperative sentences. [14, p. 108] This illusion, however, would be immediately shattered against two complications:

1. The evaluative, (emotive, expressive) function has no separate or distinct manifestation in the shape of any grammatical mood;
2. As affirmed by several authorities, every verbal utterance fulfills not only one function, e.g. that corresponding to its grammatical mood, but all its main functions (or at least several different functions) simultaneously; otherwise, a context-free proverb, like any other utterance, is functionally indefinite.

The place of proverbs, sayings and familiar quotations with respect to set expressions is a controversial issue. A proverb is a short familiar epigrammatic saying expressing popular wisdom, a truth or a moral lesson in a concise and, imaginative way. Proverbs have much in common with set expressions because their lexical components are also constant, their meaning is traditional and mostly figurative, and they are introduced into speech ready-made. [4, p. 212]

Lexicology does not deal more fully with the peculiarities of proverbs created in folklore, they are studied by folklorists, but in treating units introduced into the act of communication ready-made we cannot avoid touching upon them too. [9, p. 74]

As to familiar quotations, they are different from proverbs in their origin. They come from literature but by and by they become par and parcel of the language, so that many people using them do not even know that they are quoting and very few could accurately name the play or passage on which they are drawing even when they are aware of using a quotation from Shakespeare.

For example: Something is rotten in the state of Denmark; Brevity is the soul of wit.

As to classification, each approach has their advantages and their drawbacks. The choice one makes depends on the particular problem one has in view and even so there remains much to be studied in the future.

The problem of defining a proverb appears to be as old as man's interest in them. People who consciously used them or began to collect them in antiquity obviously needed to differentiate proverbs from other gnomic devices such as apothegms, maxims, aphorisms, quotations, etc.

English proverbs which are part of traditional culture lose their conventional significance. The proverb used to be a form of collective consciousness and has evolved in its language based on traditional experiences. Transmission of proverbs was an essential part of culture and a prerequisite for education and the formation of self. Those past proverbs, however, have been driven away from education. What is more, the proverb is even on the verge of extinction. The proverb has been left as mere information, which is individualistic, but not imperative or social at all. [13, p. 237]

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.

Local Proverbs – In a cultural region often internal differences appear, the classics 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, for example, English. [3, p. 114]

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 of 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. [11, p. 69]

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.

 

2.2. Proverbs as the way expressing people's wisdom and spirit

 

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. 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. [12, p. 45]

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.

"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. [6, p. 437]

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.

  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.

The proverbs describe the every branch of people's life. Some examples from Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs: [5]

Friendship

1. A friendship in need is a friend indeed.
2. A friend's frown is better than a foe's smile.
3. Among friends all things are common.
4. Even reckoning makes long friends.
5. Who keeps company with the wolf, will learn to howl.

Motherland

1. East or West home is best.
2. Every bird likes its own nest.
3. There is no place like home.
4. Don't cut the bough you are standing on.

Time

1. Time and tide wait for no man.
2. Time cures all things.
3. Time is money.
4. Time is wonders
5. Cost time is never found again.

Knowledge

1. To everything is to know nothing.
2. Soon learnt soon forgotten.
3. Live and learn.
4. It's never too late to learn.
5. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Beauty

1. All that glitters is not gold.