Proverb and saying are unique forms of folklore of peoples of different countries. The uniqueness lies in the fact that in one short sentence it is possible to show the rich life experience of many generations of people, to impress with the depth of thought, to express hopes and dreams, to present the beauty and imagery of the language. In terms of their subject matter, the works are diverse - these are sayings and proverbs about animals, people, natural phenomena, and character traits of a person. You can name many other topics and directions.
Small folk genres
Folk art includes jokes, jokes, counters, songs, proverbs, sayings and some other forms.
A proverb is a short figurative expression in which is instructive meaning. It does not exclude the use of rhyme and a special rhythm, which helps to memorize the statement well.
The saying is much like a proverb. Its main difference is that it does not instruct, its educational value is not so great. The completeness of the thought of the statement is also missing. The proverb is designed to decorate the language, giving speech imagery, brightness, novelty.
For example, some proverbs about animals are:
- To live with wolves - howl like a wolf.
- The cat sleeps and sees mice.
After reading the sayings, where the characters are also animals, it is easy to notice the difference between these genres:
- worn like a cat with kittens;
- like a cow tongue licked.
Genre Conditions
Most of the figurative statements used in speech today were born several centuries ago. And proverbs about domestic animals are considered the most ancient, their age is estimated in millennia. Despite this, sayings continue to live, performing educational tasks, decorating our language.
The main condition under which the proverb remains in the memory of people is its connection with existing reality. If this does not happen, then the expression becomes obsolete, and after some time it is completely forgotten.
One should not lose sight of the fact that new well-aimed, topical statements appear in our days. Some of them are unusually successful, they entered the language and are used along with those that were created in ancient times. It is interesting that the names of the authors of modern proverbs and sayings are also unknown, or authorship is disputed. And works can rightly be attributed to the genre of folk art.
The purpose of using proverbs and sayings in speech
The main task that these figurative, capacious, apt statements make is to educate people. Moreover, it does not matter at what age a person is. A proverb can point out the shortcomings of not only children, but also adults. She is able to suggest how to act in a difficult situation. Be sure to trust the advice given in the proverb. After all, it has developed on the basis of experience tested over the centuries.
It should only be noted that proverbs about animals for children are more understandable. Especially if the child is still small enough. For this reason, children's collections, along with other works, contain a large number of proverbs and sayings about animals.
Given the main purpose of these forms of folk art, it should be noted that their meaning should be easily guessed by a person. That is why the keywords of proverbs and sayings are familiar to everyone, they do not require additional explanations.
The origins of apt statements
After reading any of the proverbs or sayings, you can try to determine the reason for its appearance in a particular language. Today, scientists have already systematized knowledge in this field of literature. They name several sources due to which our speech has been enriched by these turns.
Firstly, these are historical events that entailed the birth of certain apt expressions. For example: "put a pig", "Mom passed."
Secondly, the social and everyday experience of a person had a huge impact on the emergence of small forms of folklore. He became the main source of the birth of many aphorisms, stable combinations of words. Proverbs and sayings about animals also came into the language of different peoples from their way of life.
The third and important source of birth of proverbs and sayings was folk and author's literary work. Many widely used figurative expressions came from fairy tales ("at my request, at the pike's command"), legends, and legends.
Author's works gave birth to expressions, the amount of which can be compared with folk proverbs and sayings. For example, everyone knows the following expressions: “I'm spinning like a squirrel in a wheel”, “I stayed with a broken trough”, “I didn’t manage to take down my shoes”, “I’d be glad to serve - it’s sick to be sick”, and “the king is naked”. Each of them is perceived as an independent statement. Although it is well known that all these expressions are taken from the works of specific authors.
Image creation
A proverb and a proverb are able to fulfill their basic tasks only if they have a certain image. To create imagery in these short literary works, a special technique is used - allegory.
For example, many proverbs about animals should be understood not in a direct but in an allegorical sense.
"A horse will not run without a hitch," - this proverb says that failure, difficulty can be encountered on the life path of every person. It is only necessary to be able to overcome the obstacle.
But the proverb “cow in the yard - grub on the table” can be taken in the direct sense. Since ancient times, human life has been associated with hunting, and later with animals that he tamed. The importance of this relationship is indicated by proverbs about people and animals. They are abundant in all the peoples of the planet.
From the history of the creation of collections
The first edition of Russian proverbs and sayings contained 2,500 sayings. It was released in the 17th century by an unknown author.
In the XIX century, V. Dahl compiled a similar collection, but it already contained about 30,000 expressions. All of them were divided into groups. Readers could easily find, for example, proverbs about animals, labor, teaching, wealth, or another topic of interest. A collection of proverbs and sayings by V. Dahl is still interesting to a large circle of readers.