The idea of past and future of the english and romanian proverbs and sayings

INTRODUCTION

This Graduate Thesis is the result of theoretical study and practical research of the unit “The Idea of Past and Future of English and Romanian Proverbs and Sayings” Proverbs are quite popular nowadays. They are widely used in verbal speech. People use them in their daily routine, in their business and commercial life. Very often proverbs, and especially sayings, become the titles of films or newspaper articles. They make any language more colorful, beautiful and besides they contain folk wisdom, which reached us through ages. Therefore, this diploma paper is of current importance.

The objectives of the work are the following:

1. To collect the set of English proverbs and sayings expressing time.

2. To collect the set of Romanian proverbs and sayings expressing time.

3. To describe the semantic field of English proverbs and sayings.

4. To describe the semantic field of Romanian proverbs and sayings.

5. To compare the semantic fields of proverbs and sayings expressing time in the English and Romanian languages.

While writing the Thesis the following research methods were used:

1. Compact Selection.

2. Analysis.

3. Classification.

4. Description.

5. Statistical method.

6. Comparison.

The analytical method has been employed for a thorough investigation into proverbs and sayings in both languages. With the help of the selective method proverbs characterizing healthy and unhealthy way of life have been singled out among other proverbial phrases. By means of classification method the semantic- thematic groups within semantic fields in both languages have been distinguished.

The descriptive method served for the description of the semantic groups on various levels of abstraction. The statistical method was applied to sum up the overall amount of proverbial entries the semantic fields consist of. The purpose of the comparative analysis lays in the establishment of similarities and distinctions between both semantic fields.

The main sources of paremies are the following:

1. Rosalind Fergusson. The Penguin Dictionary of Proverbs. Second edition.

2.Bartlett J.W.Modern Proverbs and Proverbial Sayings.-Cambridge,1989.

3. Dictionar roman de proverbe si zicatori.Botezatu Grigore.

The total amount of analyzed proverbs and sayings is 383.

The whole paper contains the introduction, two chapters (one is theoretical and the other is practical), the conclusion, appendixes and bibliography. The introduction includes the main goal and objectives of the investigation, the actuality of the topic and the motives for its choice. The first chapter of the diploma paper is the theoretical one. It presents the general idea of proverbs, their origins, points out distinctive features of proverbs from other language units, draws a parallel between proverbs and sayings. The second chapter contains the study and analysis of proverbs and sayings from the practical point of view. The main focus is made on semantic-thematic classification and description of proverbs and sayings expressing time. The conclusion contains the results of investigation on proverbs and sayings. The appendixes give the lists of proverbs and sayings in alphabetical order. The bibliography lists the material that helped the researcher in the overall study of proverbs and sayings and at the end to realize the objectives of investigation.

Chapter I.

Proverbs and Sayings. General Characteristics.

1.1 The problem of definition.

Proverbs and sayings are facts of language. They are collected in dictionaries. Paremiology is a branch of science that studies the nature of proverbs and sayings (“sum up a situation. characterize its essence” ) , their origin (“the wisdom of many, the wit of one” ) or their function (“.to provide an argument for a course of action which conforms the community values” ).

Despite their universality and the long history of paremiology, there is no clear, complete, and universally applicable definition of the proverb yet. Archer Taylor, a leading English proverb scholar wrote that the “Definition of the proverb is too difficult to replay the undertaking” . Still, much definition can be found in the corresponding papers. Professor Wolfgang Mieder in one of his works says, “We can almost state that there are more definition attempts than there are proverbs” .

Most proverbs begin with some statement about the special form of the proverbs, which has been described as brief, pithy, witty, full, impersonal, linguistically artful and epigrammatic.

Definition of proverbs is many and varied. Oxford English Dictionary defines a proverb as “a concise sentence, often metaphorical or alliterative in form which is held to express some truth ascertained by experience or observation and familiar to all” Mieder W. Calls the proverb “a short sentence of wisdom” Arnold I.V. suggests that, “A proverb is a short familiar epigrammatic saying, expressing popular wisdom, a truth or a moral lesson in concise and imaginative way” . An attempt to reveal the meaning of proverbs was made by some writers. For instance, Miguel de Cervantes in his masterpiece» Don Quixote” quotes: “Proverbs are short sentences drawn from long experience ”. Many Russian scholars have dedicated themselves to the study of proverbs and sayings as well. Among them are Permiakov G.L., Kuzmin S.S., Shadrin N.L., Cerneliov V.D., and others. The greatest merit in the investigation and the analysis of proverbs still belongs to Vladimir Dahl, the compiler of Russian popular proverbs. He defined proverbs as “a circumlocution or periphrasis” , himself citing the Russian proverb that stark speech is not a proverb- vorba goala nu este un proverb, which indicates that there is more to proverbs than a mere concatenation of words.