"Science and Education" Scientific Journal June 2021 / Volume 2 Issue 6

The most characteristic features of proverbs and sayings

Mohira Akmal qizi Hikmatova

Uzbekistan State World Languages University

Abstract: Proverbs and sayings are facts of language. They are collected in
dictionaries. There are special dictionaries of proverbs and sayings. It is impossible to
arrange proverbs and sayings in a form that would present a pattern even though they
have some typical features by which it is possible to determine whether or not we are
dealing with one. These typical features are: rhythm, sometimes rhyme or
alliterations. But the most characteristic feature of a proverb or a saying lies not in its
formal linguistic expression, but in the content - form of the utterance. As is known, a
proverb or a saying is a peculiar mode of utterance which is mainly characterized by
its brevity. The utterance itself, taken at its face value, presents a pattern which can
be successfully used for other utterances.
Keywords: proverb, sayings, idioms, phrases, speech.

The peculiarity of the use of a proverb lies in the fact that the actual wording
becomes a pattern which needs no new wording to suggest extensions of meaning
which are contextual. In other words, the proverb itself becomes a vessel into which
new content is poured. The actual wording of a proverb, its primary meaning,
narrows the field of possible extensions of meaning, i.e. the filling up of the form.
That is why we may regard the proverb as a pattern of thought. So it is in every other
case at any other level of linguistic research. Abstract formulas offer a wider range of
possible applications to practical purposes than concrete words, though they the same
purposes.
Almost every good writer will make use of language idioms, by phrases and
proverbs. As Gorky has it, they are the natural ways in which speech develops.
Proverbs and saying have certain purely linguistic features which must always
be taken into account in order to distinguish them from ordinary sentences. Proverbs
are brief statements showing in condensed form the accumulated life experience of
the community and serving as conventional practical symbols for abstract ideas. They
are usually didactic and image bearing. Many of them through frequency of repetition
have become polished and wrought into verse-like shapes are following:
“to cut one’s coat according to one’s cloth.”
“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”
Brevity in proverbs manifests itself also in the omission of connectives, as in:
“First come, first served.”
“Out of sight, out of mind.”
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I. But the main feature distinguishing proverbs and sayings from ordinary
utterances remains their semantic aspect. Their literal meaning is suppressed by what
may be termed their transferred meaning. In other words, one meaning (literal ) is the
form for another meaning (transferred) which contains the idea. Proverbs and
sayings, if used appropriately, will never lose their freshness and vigor. The most
noticeable thing about the functioning of sayings, proverbs and catchphrases is that
they may be handled not in their fixed form ( the traditional model) but with
modifications. These modifications, however, will never break away from the
invariants to such a degree that the correlation and its variant ceases to be perceived
by the reader. The predictability of a variant of a word – combination is lower in
comparison with its invariant. Therefore the use of such a unit in a modified form
will always arrest our attention, causing a much closer examination of the wording of
the utterance in order to get at the idea Thus the proverb “all is not gold that glitters“
appears in Byron’s “Don Juan” in the following form and environment where at first
the meaning may seem obscure:
“How all the needy honorable misters”
Each out-at- elbow peer or desperate dandy, The watchful mothers and sisters
(Who, by the by, when clever, are more handy at making matches where “it is gold
that glitters“ Than their he relatives ) like flies o’er candy Buzz round the Fortune
with their busy battery, To turn her head with waltzing and with flattery.” Out
periphrasis, the meaning of which is deciphered two lines below; the Fortune”, that
is, “a marriageable heiress1“
It has already been pointed out that the Byron is fond of playing with stable
word-combinations, sometimes injecting new vigor into the components, sometimes
entirely disregarding the semantic unity of the combination. In the following lines,
for instance, each word of the phrase safe and sound gets its full meaning.
“I leave Don Juan for the present, safe – Not sound, poor fellow, but severely
wounded:” The proverb Hell is paved with good intentions and the set expression to
mean well are used by Byron in a peculiar way, thus making the reader re-appraise
the hackneyed phrases.
“……………if he warr’d or loved, it was with what we call the best.
Intentions, which form all mankind’s trump card, to be produced when brought
up to the test. The statesman, hero, harlot, lawyer, ward Off each attack, when people
are in such meaning should pave hell.” The stylistic effect produced by such uses of
proverbs and sayings is the result of a twofold application of language means, which
as has already been emphasized, is an indispensable condition for the appearance of
all stylistic devices. The modified form of the proverb is perceived against the
background of the fixed form, thus enlivening the latter. Sometimes this injection of
1
Arnold I.V.” The English Word”. Moscow. 1986

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new vigor into the proverb causes a slight semantic re-evaluation of its generally
accepted meaning When a proverb is used in its unaltered form it can be qualified as
an expressive means (EM) of the language; when used in a modified variant it
assumes the one of the features of an SD, it acquires a stylistic meaning, though not
becoming an SD.
We shall take only a few of the numerous examples of the stylistic use of
proverbs and sayings to illustrate the possible ways of decomposing the units in order
simply to suggest the idea behind them:
“Come! He said “milk’s spilt.” (Galsworthy)
(from “It is no use crying spilt milk”)
“But to all that moving experience there had been a shadow (a dark lining to the
silver cloud), insistent and plain, which disconcerted her.”(Maugham)
(from “Every cloud has a silver lining”)
“We were dashed uncomfortable in the frying pan, but we should have been a
damned sight worse off in the five.” (Maugham ) (from “Out of the frying pan into
the fire“)
“You know which side the law’s buttered.” (Galsworthy )(from “His bread is
buttered on both sides”.)
This device is used not only in the belles – letters style. Here are some instances
from newspapers and magazines illustrating the stylistic use of proverbs, sayings and
other word-combinations:
“…..and whether the Ministry of Economic Warfare is being allowed enough
financial rope to do its worst.”(from “Give a thief rope enough and he’ll hang
himself).
“The waters will remain sufficiently troubled for somebody’s fishing to be
profitable.” (Economist)
(from “It is good fishing in troubled waters”).
“Proof of the Pudding” (from The proof of the Pudding is in the eating).
Here is a recast of a well-known proverb used by an advertising agency:
“Early to bed and early to rise No use-unless you advertise” (from “Early to bed
and early to rise makes man healthy, wealthy and wise”)
Proverb
The proverb is generally considered as a brief, witty saying in common use that
conveys a moral. It couches conventional wisdom in clever form and imagery thereby
making it memorable and easy to pass on form one generation to another. In certain
parts of the world, however, the equivalents of the word “proverb” do not refer only
to brief, witty sayings, but also to extended allusions like the parable, anecdote, or
any series of allusive statements cited to demonstrate a lesson in discourse (Finnegan

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1970 : 419-23;Taylor 1962 :27).This article deals with the proverb, in the sense of
terse, witty saying.
Cultural Truth
Proverbs state cultural truisms. The truism may be in the form of an empirically
valid statement, or an existing superstition or social norm. It may even have a
questionable logic, or make an unverifiable claim. In any case, the proverb’s cultural
validity is hardly disputed.
Moral Precept
The proverb cited mainly in situations of stress and conflict, may be either
prescriptive or descriptive. It may advise a course of action by drawing attention to
the moral or ethical benefits that accrue when that suggestion is taken or allude to the
negative consequences inevitable if a line of behavior is ignored. The Maori saying,
“Broil your rat with its fur on lest you be disturbed by someone’s draws attention to
the negative consequences of ignoring a suggested line of behavior and the Ba-Congo
proverb, ”Water drawn by old men quenches thirst,” points to a positive result in
consulting men of experience. Rather than explicitly prescribe behavior, the proverb
may be merely descriptive, highlighting a common irony or tendency in life.
Education
The lessons often embedded in proverbs make them a ready tool for moral
education. In actual fact, however, it is only in rare instances that proverbs are
ostensibly used to educate, for proverbs are generally not used in isolation. Instances
of the didactic use of proverbs as an end in itself may be found among the Chaga. In
this culture, proverbs are used as a mode of instruction during initiation ceremonies
(Finnegan 1970:413 ) The Maori of New Zealand offer another such example. To
ensure that valuable facts about economic lore in the environment are grasped,
various proverbs are repeated to the youth by the elders side by side with technical
instruction.(Firth 1926 : 148 ) Other than that, the proverb is normally triggered in the
course of ongoing discourse, and unless the motivation for that discourse itself is
didactic, the proverb it triggers need not have an educational intent.
Persuasion
Generally, however, the element of education in the use of proverbs can be
subsumed under the rhetorical function: the use of proverbs to persuade. The proverb
user seeks to alter or reinforce the listener’s conviction or attitude by referring him to
lessons from parallel events in the proverb world. By getting the addressee to agree
with moral precept in the proverb used, the speaker thereby hopes to win him over to
his viewpoint. Thus in a situation where a truant has missed his evening meal, an
Akan mother may cite to him the proverb. “The chicken that is nearer its mother eats
the thigh of the grasshopper.”
Contradictory proverbs

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Despite the moral element embedded there in a culture’s repertoire of proverbs

does not necessarily portray a consistent philosophy. Thus it is not uncommon to find
within the same culture, proverbs advocating apparently opposing principles. The
Chinese proverb,” Know a man by his looks,” has an antithetical counterpart in
“looks are borne in the hart”: and the English proverb.
“Look before you leap” is rendered questionable in “He who hesitates is lost.”
Proverbs are unsystematized; they are based on a variety of cultural experiences that
require the exercise of individual discretion in various moments. Haste may lead to
disaster is one situation but yield fruitful results in the other. The speaker uses the
proverb only as it suits his discretion in a specific rhetorical situation.
Style
Certain stylistic features, however, appear to be common with proverbs in
general, and set them apart in discourse. This includes terseness, impersonal character
and the use of devices like rhyme, metaphor, hyperbole, assonance and parallelism.
The proverb may be a straight literal statement, as is the Arabic saying,
“Covetousness is the punishment of the rich,” or be presented in the form of simile,
as in the Akan proverb, “Wife is like a blanket; when you wrap yourself in it you itch,
when you cast it off you feel cold.“ Most proverbs, however, are metaphorical and
refer to life outside the human realm, as in the Maori proverb. The greedy pigeon
bolts its food, the parrot eats it bit by bit, and the Moroccan, “Every beetle is a
gazelle in the eyes of its mother.” The proverb may also be an exaggeration as in the
Solomon Islands saying, “When a chief declaims, the very ground is rent asunder.”
Whether literally or metaphorically rendered, proverbs are relatively terse. The
proverb’s relative brevity may derive from the omission of certain words, for
rhythmic effect, as in the English proverb, ”Forewarned forearmed where the verb “to
be” is elided. Bantu languages in Africa are particularly known for elisions in
proverbs. Not only are whole words left out, but vowels are frequently elided,
especially the final vowel of a word. The terseness of expression grammatically
possible in Bantu, can be illustrated from the Tswana proverb, “Young birds will
always open their mouths, even to those who come to kill them,” which in the
original, is only three words (Finnegan 1970:400 )
A common device used in proverbs is parallelism, which may be expounded
structurally and semantically, and may present synonymous or contrastive ideas. The
English proverbs “Many men, many minds,” is an example and so is the following
from Akan, “the right washes the left, and the left washes the.” Structurally balanced
prepositions that permit a pause between them, may be used for rhetorical effect in
certain cultures, where the speaker utters the first part only and expects the addressee
to complete the proverb (Yankah 1989 a: 169-71)
Illiterate Societies

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Proverbs have fallen into relative disuse in literate societies and are more readily
employed in cultures of predominant illiteracy such as in Africa, Asia and the Pacific.
Even in these cultures, proverbs use diminishes with the progressive acquisition of
Western education.
Power of Speech
One major reason for the close relationship between proverbs and illiterate
societies is that the latter rely solely on the spoken word for communication and since
face-to-face communication carries considerable hazards for both speaker and
addressee, various strategies have to be deployed to minimize such risks and these
include the use of indirection of which proverbs are a typical example. Since most
proverbs are metaphorical in their application to situations, delicate matters may be
discussed more conveniently with little or no threat to face. In the absence of this
mode of indirect communication the forces unleashed by the spoken word can hardly
be contained. The power of the spoken word is acknowledged in several cultures in
such sayings as the Arabic. The wound caused by the lance head is curable; bur that
caused by the tongue cannot be cured.” According to a Japanese proverb the tongue
but three inches can kill man six feet high.” According to the Yoruba, “Speech is like
an egg; when dropped it shatters;” and an Indian proverb says “Words will secure
you an elephant and words will also bring you to the feet of an elephant.”
Couched in an impersonal form, the proverb avoids the impression of a
subjective judgment on the part of its user. Rather, the speakers viewpoint is
objectivized and presented as coming from a neutral source, the voice of a third party.
The application of a proverb in a particular situation implies that the situation at
hand is not unique or completely new, but has the trappings of something that has
occurred before. That way, an apparently new turn of events is subsumed under a
preexisting pattern. There is nothing is this world that has not happened before,” say
the Akan.
Authoritative Source
Part of the rhetorical power of the proverb derives from is authoritativeness or
rather its ascription to authoritative sources. In several cultures in Africa, for
example, proverb authorship is ascribed to elders or ancestors. Even though proverb
authorship may also be attributed to specific individuals and sometimes nonhuman
entities, the collective category considered responsible for proverbs are the elders, to
whom are attributed the qualities of wisdom, responsibility and exemplary behavior.
“The elders say…” is the prefatory formula that triggers proverbs in several African
cultures. The belief in the prophetic power of words spoken by elders is supported by
the Akan saying “The mouth of the elder is more powerful than a charm.”
In several Western cultures, however, the proverb is prefaced with a formula
attributing it to an indefinite source. They say… “Besides the use of a “source” to

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enhance a proverb’s rhetorical value, a “activity” may also be used. The proverb
speaker may use an active phrase such as, “You know that…, Remember that ….,”
etc., to imply that the statement that follows is conventional knowledge, a cultural
fact of truth and truth and should facilitate appreciation of his argument.
Aesthetics of Speaking
Cultures where proverbs are intensely used recognize also the proverb’s
aesthetic value in speech. Among the Somali, it is said, proverbs, “put spice into
speech.” The Igbo say, the proverb is the broth of speech,” broth referring to the
nicely flavored water in which meat is boiled. They also say the proverb “is the palm
oil with which words are eaten,” implying that words are hard to swallow without
proverb lubrication. Among the Yoruba, it is said, the proverb is the horse of
conversation droops, the proverb picks it up.” In above statements, the proverb’s use
an agent of beauty and vitality in speech is the point of emphasis. The Akan also say
they use the proverb to “hoist a tree on speech“ (Yankah 1989b) . Reference here is to
the high attention value of the proverb, made possible by its saturation with poetic
devices. Since proverb use is part of the process of persuasion, a speaker expects the
audience to react to his message if he succeeds in getting them to focus their attention
on it, since his words are competing for attention with other stimuli in the
environment. The point in using the proverb then is to highlight a point or make it
more conspicuous, indelible is memorable, for the purpose of giving the listener
something substantive to ponder over. In the absence of such a speech landmark, an
argument may be submerged in the swift flow of discourse1.
Equally important is the use of the proverb in Africa to “tie a knot around
discourse.” Here, it is the proverb’s ability to lend density, coherence and the finality
to argument that is at issue. Argument expressed in proverbial language is often pithy
and the successful decoding of dense rhetoric is highly valued in several nonliterate
societies. Where this skill is observed among children, it is taken as a sign of early
wisdom. The Yoruba say, ”It is half a word that we speak to the wise child; when it
gets inside, it becomes whole. “ The Akan also say,” A wise child is addressed in
proverbs, not in plain speech, and “In is a fool to whom a proverb is told and then
explained.“
Norms of Usage
In various cultures, proverb use in governed by social norms; and a good
proverb speaker does not only know its logical application and meaning but also its
appropriate social use: which proverb to select and avoid in what social situations, or
whether it is discreet to use a proverb at all. Normally, proverbs may be used among
peer groups or form a socially superior to a subordinate. In situations involving fewer
interactants a proverb, may not be used by one much younger that the listener,
1
Арбекова Т.И. “Лексикология английского языка”. Москва. 1978.

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particularly if it has a didactic flavor or else this the speaker may preface it with an
apology or incorporate his audience in the authorship formula, “It is you the elders
that say…” That way, the speaker implies that he is unqualified to teach words of
wisdom to the elders assembled. In several cases, a proverb in the offing may be
abandoned by the speaker if the social context is not suitable. This is true of several
cultures in Africa.
Nonoral Channels
Even though proverbs in predominantly illiterate cultures are mostly expressed
by the spoken word, other channels may be used to communicate the proverb. These
include the talking drum, particularly in cultures where the language spoken is tonal.
Akan and Yoruba drum proverbs are very well-known. These are proverb verses that
are uniquely identified with the drum and are uncommon in oral circulation. Their
major structural features are repetition and parallelism.
Also common is the phenomenon of proverb symbols on royal umbrella tops,
orators’ staffs, and also gold weights and textile design (Cole and Duran 1977;
Yankah 1989b) Indeed among the Akan, proverbs are so integrated with human life
that a purposeful negation of cultural etiquette may be decoded as proverbial
behavior and elicit an appropriate response.

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