Introduction to Paremiology: a Comprehensive Guide to Proverb Studies
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Hrisztalina Hrisztova-Gotthardt, Melita Aleksa Varga (eds.) Introduction to Paremiology: A Comprehensive Guide to Proverb Studies Hrisztalina Hrisztova-Gotthardt, Melita Aleksa Varga (eds.) Introduction to Paremiology: A Comprehensive Guide to Proverb Studies Managing Editor: Anna Borowska Associate Editor: Darko Matovac Language Editor: Aderemi Raji-Oyelade Published by De Gruyter Open Ltd, Warsaw/Berlin Part of Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Munich/Boston This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 license, which means that the text may be used for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/. © 2014 Hrisztalina Hrisztova-Gotthardt, Melita Aleksa Varga ( Eds.) and contributors for chapters ISBN: 978-3-11-041015-0 e-ISBN: 978-3-11-041016-7 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. Managing Editor: Anna Borowska Associate Editor: Darko Matovac Language Editor: Aderemi Raji-Oyelade www.degruyteropen.com Cover illustration: © Thinkstock/Vladimirs Complimentary copy, not for sale. To Professor Wolfgang Mieder, with eternal gratitude for support, advice, inspiration and encouragement. Acknowledgements After years of conducting various researches and investigating this highly interest- ing field of study, paremiology, we have benefitted immensely from interactions with prominent scholars, friends and colleagues. We are indebted to all of them for support, advice, and help, because without any of these we would not have been inspired to compile this volume. Therefore our gratitude goes in the first place to our contribu- tors, who transferred their time, energy and knowledge into these texts. Thank you for the hard work and willingness to enrich the world of paremiology. We would like to especially thank Professor Aderemi Raji-Oyelade, and express our deepest apprecia- tion for his support and for dedicating his precious time to proofread the manuscript. We are very grateful for all the valuable remarks and suggestions on content, lan- guage and style of the various chapters. The Editors Contents List of contributing authors XIV Hrisztalina Hrisztova-Gotthardt, Melita Aleksa Varga Introduction 1 References 6 Neal R. Norrick 1 Subject Area, Terminology, Proverb Definitions, Proverb Features 7 1.1 The Subject Area of Paremiology 7 1.2 Terminology 8 1.2.1 The Proverb and Its Kin 8 1.2.2 Self-containedness 9 1.2.3 Traditionality 10 1.2.4 Didactic Content 11 1.2.5 Fixed Form 12 1.2.6 Poetic Features 13 1.3 Proverb Definitions 14 1.4 Proverb Features 17 1.4.1 Polysemy 17 1.4.2 Pun 17 1.4.3 Hyperbole 17 1.4.4 Irony 18 1.4.5 Tautology 18 1.4.6 Paradox 18 1.4.7 Connotation 18 1.4.8 Imagery 19 1.4.9 Syntactic Features 21 1.4.10 Discourse Features 22 1.5 Conclusion 25 References 25 Wolfgang Mieder 2 Origin of Proverbs 28 2.1 Introduction 28 2.2 The Creation of Proverbs 29 2.3 Four Major Sources for Common European Proverbs 32 2.4 Origin of Some Modern Proverbs 38 2.5 New Theories on the Creation of Proverbs 41 2.6 Conclusion 44 References 44 Outi Lauhakangas 3 Categorization of Proverbs 49 3.1 Introduction 49 3.2 The Specificity of Proverbs 49 3.3 Whose Tradition Are Proverbs? 50 3.4 Practical and Ideological Needs to Categorize Proverb Material 51 3.5 Differences in the Accuracy of Proverb Material 53 3.6 From Intuitive Orderliness to Systematic Categorization 55 3.7 G. L. Permyakov’s Logico-semiotic Classification of Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases 56 3.8 The Matti Kuusi International Type System of Proverbs 59 3.9 Comparison Between Permyakov’s Logico-semiotic Categorization and Kuusi’s Type System 62 3.9.1 Permyakov’s is not worth in Kuusi’s System 63 3.9.2 Permyakov’s absence of in Kuusi’s System 63 3.10 Automatic Data Processing and New Possibilities to Construct Proverb Databases 65 3.11 Summary 66 References 66 Peter Grzybek 4 Semiotic and Semantic Aspects of the Proverb 68 4.1 Semiotics and the Proverb 68 4.2 Semiotics and Its Dimensions 70 4.2.1 Pragmatics 70 4.2.2 Syntactics 72 4.2.3 Semantics 74 4.3 Metalanguage 76 4.4 “Indirectness” and “Non-literalness” 78 4.5 Holistic vs. Componential Analysis, Analytical vs. Synthetic Clichés 81 4.6 Sign Concepts: System-based vs. Process-oriented Semiotics 90 4.7 Logics and Analogics 94 4.8 Analogy, Double Analogy, and the Concept of Situativity 97 4.9 From Proverb Semantics to Semantic Proverb Classification 103 4.10 Theoretical and Empirical Paremiology and the Semiotics of Culture 107 References 108 Marcas Mac Coinnigh 5 Structural Aspects of Proverbs 112 5.1 Structure and Style 112 5.2 Sentences and Phrases 113 5.2.1 Sentence Type 113 5.2.2 Sentence Function 115 5.3 Syntax and Structure 117 5.3.1 Proverbial Formulae 117 5.3.2 The Wellerism 120 5.3.3 Anti-proverbs 121 5.4 Structural Markers 122 5.4.1 Syntactic Parallelism 122 5.5 Emphatic Word Order 125 5.5.1 Clefting 125 5.5.2 Left-dislocation 125 5.5.3 Topicalisation 126 5.5.4 Sub-Clausal Fronting 126 5.6 Parataxis 127 5.6.1 Relationship Between Juxtaposed Phrases / Clauses 128 5.7 Concluding Remarks 130 References 130 Vida Jesenšek 6 Pragmatic and Stylistic Aspects of Proverbs 133 6.1 Introduction and Theoretical Framework 133 6.2 Stylistic of Proverbs 138 6.2.1 Proverbs and Rhetorical Devices 138 6.2.2 Proverbs and Stylistic Registers 141 6.2.3 Proverbs and Stylistic Colouring 141 6.2.4 Proverbs and the Feature of Expressivity 142 6.3 Pragmatic Aspects of Proverbs 144 6.3.1 Argumentative Functions of Proverbs 145 6.3.2 Proverbs as Items of Speech Acts in Non-argumentative Contexts 149 6.3.3 Proverbs in Text-constituting and Text-structuring Functions 153 6.4 Conclusion and Outlook 157 References 158 Anna Lewandowska, Gerd Antos 7 Cognitive Apects of Proverbs 162 7.1 Introduction 162 7.2 Lakoff and Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory 162 7.3 Metaphorical Concepts 164 7.4 Epistemological Essentials 165 7.5 Proverb Concepts (PCs) 166 7.6 Structural Elements of Proverb Concepts 169 7.6.1 Linguistically Concise Form 169 7.6.2 Syntactic-semantic Structure 169 7.6.3 Holism 171 7.6.4 Structural Simplicity 173 7.6.5 Cultural Frame 174 7.6.6 Ability to Project 175 7.6.7 Ability to Implicate 176 7.7 The Relation of MCs to PCs 177 References 181 Peter Ďurčo 8 Empirical Research and Paremiological Minimum 183 8.1 What a Paremiological Minimum Ought to Be? 183 8.2 Why Do We Need a Paremiological Minimum or Optimum? 186 8.3 How to Get a Paremiological Optimum? An Empirical Approach 187 8.4 The Concept of a Paremiological Optimum. A Complex Approach 190 8.5 An Example: Paremiological Optimum of Slovak Language 191 8.5.1 Method 191 8.5.2 Questionnaire 192 8.5.3 Empirical Survey Findings 193 8.5.4 Corpus Analysis Findings 194 8.6 Paremiological Optimum of Slovak Language – correlation of the knowledge/familiarity and the corpus frequency 196 8.7 Conclusions 200 References 201 Kathrin Steyer 9 Proverbs from a Corpus Linguistic Point of View 206 9.1 Introduction 206 9.2 Why Corpora? 207 9.3 Corpus Linguistic Approaches to Proverb Study 209 9.3.1 Corpus-based Questions About Proverbs 209 9.3.1.1 Proverb – Yes or No? 209 9.3.1.2 Fixedness and Variance 214 9.3.1.3 Proverb Frequency 216 9.3.1.4 Meaning and Usage 216 9.3.2 Proverbs – Corpus Driven 218 9.4 Summary and Outlook 222 References 223 Appendix 1 227 Tamás Kispál 10 Paremiography: Proverb Collections 229 10.1 Definition of Proverbs, Proverb Collections and Proverb Dictionaries 229 10.1.1 Definition of Proverbs 229 10.1.2 Definition of Proverb Collections and Proverb Dictionaries 229 10.2 Usage of Printed Proverb Collections 230 10.2.1 Which One to Use? 230 10.2.2 How to Find a Proverb in a Proverb Collection? 231 10.2.3 What Kind of Information is Contained Under a Proverb Entry? 231 10.2.3.1 Information on Standard Proverb Forms and Variants 232 10.2.3.2 Information on Meaning of Proverbs 233 10.2.3.3 Information on Usage of Proverbs 233 10.2.3.4 Proverb Exercises 235 10.3 Usage of Electronic Proverb Collections 236 10.3.1 How to Find a Proverb in an Electronic Proverb Collection? 237 10.3.2 What Kind of Information Contains a Proverb Entry? 237 10.3.2.1 Information on Standard Proverb Forms and Variants 238 10.3.2.2 Information on the Meaning of Proverbs 238 10.3.2.3 Information on Usage of Proverbs 239 10.3.2.4 Exercises on Proverbs 240 10.4 Conclusion 240 References 241 Roumyana Petrova 11 Contrastive Study of Proverbs 243 11.1 Introduction 243 11.2 Comparative and Contrastive Approach 244 11.3 The Beginnings: Contrastive Paremiography 245 11.4 Contrastive Paremiology: What Is It All About? 247 11.5 New Approaches to Contrastive Paremiology: Tertium Comparationis 249 11.6 Contrastive Paremiology and the Ethnic Aspect of Proverbs 251 11.7 Modern Contrastive Paremiology: A Short Overview 252 11.8 New Approaches to Contrastive Paremiology 254 11.8.1 The Semantic Approach 254 11.8.2 The Linguocultural Approach 255 11.8.3 The Cognitive Approach 256 11.8.4 The Culturematic Method 257 11.9 Concluding Remarks 258 References 258 Charles Clay Doyle 12 Proverbs in Literature 262 12.1 Introduction 262 12.2 Proverbs in Poetry 262 12.3 Proverbs in Prose Fiction 268 12.4 Proverbs in Plays 270 12.5 Proverbs in Other Kinds of Literature 272 12.6 Conclusion 273 References 274 Anna Konstantinova 13 Proverbs in Mass Media 276 13.1 Introduction 276 13.2 Proverbs in the Media Discourse: