Revisiting Paremiological Units of the Tabasaran Language

Abstract

Folklore is an important segment of a linguistic picture of the world and is a part of culture of any nation. Paremiological units have been objects of linguistic research already. Due to complexity of their sign nature and ethnocultural originality, they have been studied in various aspects. Attempts to reveal steady criteria for differentiation between paremiological units were made in works of such researchers as V. I. Dahl, A. A. Potebnya, I. M. Snegirev, F. I. Buslayev, A. A. Molotkov, V. P. Zhukov, V. M. Mokiyenko, N. M. Shansky, Z. K. Tarlanov, etc. But the issue on differentiation between the terms ‘saying’ and ‘proverb’ still remains contestable in present-day linguistics. Some researchers (V. P. Adrianova-Peretts, I. E. Anikov, etc.) suggest not to differentiate between ‘saying’ and ‘proverb’ uniting them under one single term ‘paroemia’ (a paremiological unit). Perhaps, from the perspective of linguoculturology such differentiation is also not basic. But nevertheless, most researchers (Z. K. Tarlanov, L. G. Permyakov, Yu. P. Solodub, etc.) insisted on such differentiation. The article deals with the problem of differentiation between ‘saying’ and ‘proverb’ and determination of their linguistic status. Within a ‘broad’ understanding of phraseology, paremiological units can be also be viewed as part of the latter. Researchers have repeatedly noted than proverbs and sayings are the main source of phraseological units which often originate from reduced paroemias. In a general sense, distinctive marks, riddles, beliefs, superstitions, folksays, humorous sayings and tongue twisters are also - together with proverbs and sayings - designated as paroemias. Interdisciplinary nature of paremiological units should be noted as well. In domestic linguistics, proverbs and sayings are studied from the perspectives of folklore - as a minor genre of oral lore. Paroemias are considered in the contexts of both literary studies and linguistics. In recent years, paremiological units have become objects of numerous linguoculturological research studies within which those are viewed as microfragments of a linguistic picture of the world. In terms of linguistics, the criteria that lie at the root of differentiation between proverbs and sayings are as follows: semantic criterion, syntactic one, criterion of presence / absence of a figurative meaning. Interdisciplinary nature of paroemias is emphasized. The analysis of scientific literature on the topic under consideration allowed to identify the following distinctive features of proverbs and sayings: 1) proverbs are didactic by nature; 2) sayings contain no direct didactic message and are characterized by figurativeness of expression; 3) sayings depict features of events, a person or actions; 4) proverbs are expressed by narrative and hortatory sentences but do not take the form of interrogative ones; 5) sayings are expressed by not only narrative but also interrogative and exclamatory sentences; 6) the aspect of generality in the considered paremiological units is conveyed differently; 7) within a saying generality is occasional and is determined by actual functional and communicative conditions. The article provides a variety of viewpoints on the presented problem, describes the main features of proverbs and sayings and attempts to reveal structural and functional similarities and differences of the concepts.