Proverbs, Sayings and Cliches

The place of proverbs, sayings and familiar quotations with respect to set expressions is a controversial issue. A proverb is a short familiar epigrammatic sayings expressing popular wisdom, a truth or a moral lesson in a concise of 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. Another reason why proverbs must be taken into consideration together with set expressions is that they often form the basis of set expressions. For example: the last straw breaks the camel’s back: : the last straw a drowing man will clutch at a straw: : to clutch at a straw; “take precautions when the accident they are meant to prevent has already happened”.

Both set expressions and proverb are sometimes split and changed for humorous purposes, as in the following quotation where the proverb. All is not gold that glitters combines with an allusion to the set expression golden age: :. It will be an age not perhaps of gold, but at least of glitter.

5) Lexicology does not deal more fully with the peculiarities of proverbs: created in folklore, they are studied by folklorists.

Lecture 11

Theme: 1. The Etymological Survey of Word-stock.

Borrowings.

Не знайшли потрібну інформацію? Скористайтесь пошуком google:

Генерація сторінки за: 0.004 сек.