6.Proverbs and sayings.What do they have in common with phraseological units,idioms.

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 phraseological units, because their lexical components are also constant, their meaning is traditional and mostly figurative, and they are introduced into speech ready-made. That is why some scholars think proverbs must be studied together with phraseological units.

Another reason why proverbs must be taken into consideration to­gether with phraseological units is that they often form the basis of set ex­pressions. E. g. the last straw breaks the camel's back : : the last straw; a drowning man will clutch at a straw : : clutch at a straw; it is useless to lock the stable door when the steed is stolen : : lock the stable door 'to take precautions when the accident they are meant to prevent has al­ready happened'.

Proverbs and Sayings

A proverb is a short familiar saying expressing popular wisdom, a truth or a moral lesson in a concise and imaginative way, e.g. the devil is not so black as he is painted; the best is oftentimes the enemy of the good; if you cannot have the best, make the best of what you have; true blue will never stain; as the call, so the echo; as a tree falls so shall it lie; a danger fore-seen is half avoided; what we do willingly is easy; don't trouble troubles until troubles trouble you; where there is a will there is a way; there is no use crying over spilt milk; too many cooks spoil the broth; a stitch in time saves nine. Proverbs have much in common with other phraseological units because the lexical components of proverbs are also constant, their meaning is traditional and mostly figurative, and they are introduced into speech ready-made. That is why some scholars following V.V. Vinogradov think that proverbs must be studied together with other phraseological units. Others, like J. Casares and N.N. Amosova, think that unless they regularly form parts of other sentences, it is wrong to study them together with other phraseological units.

These days, however, proverbs and sayings are considered by most scholars as a part of phraseology. The reasons are as follows: 1) whether phraseological units are independent sentences or parts of sentences is not important; 2) although in many proverbs the meaning of words does not differ from the meaning of the same words in free word combinations, we consider these proverbs phraseological units on the basis that there are other phraseological units — word-combinations in which the meanings of the components do not differ from the meanings of the same words in free word-combinations, i.e. the meanings are direct, not figurative, not transferred; 3) another reason why proverbs must be taken into consideration together with other phraseological units is that proverbs form the basis of other phraseological units: e.g. the last straw breaks the camel's back — the last straw; a drowning man will clutch at a straw — to clutch at a straw. As you see, proverbs can be shortened. The shortened forms exist side by side with the full forms and in most cases have the same meaning: e.g. 'the last straw' has the same meaning as in the proverb 'The last straw breaks the camel's back'; the proverb 'Birds of a feather flock together' can be shortened to 'birds of a feather' which preserves the meaning as it is in the proverb. But there are cases when the shortened form changes its meaning and is different from the meaning in the full form of the proverb: e.g. Every cloud has a silver lining. The shortened form 'silver lining' has the meaning 'a ray of hope'.

The shortened forms of proverbs are referred to sayings. A saying is a sententious remark to the situation: e.g. more haste than speed; the last straw; more praise than pudding; by hook or by crook. Sayings can be both word-combinations and sentences. Unfortunately the terms 'proverb' and 'saying' are not defined properly up to day in linguistics, sometimes they are even mixed as in everyday speech.