Defining a “proverb” is a difficult

Defining a “proverb” is a difficult task. Proverb scholars often quote Archer Taylor’s classic “The definition of a proverb is too difficult to repay the undertaking... An incommunicable quality tells us this sentence is proverbial and that one is not. Hence no definition will enable us to identify positively a sentence as proverbial”.[12] Another common definition is from Lord John Russell (c. 1850) “A proverb is the wit of one, and the wisdom of many.” [13]

More constructively, Mieder has proposed the following definition, “A proverb is a short, generally known sentence of the folk which contains wisdom, truth, morals, and traditional views in a metaphorical, fixed, and memorizable form and which is handed down from generation to generation.”[14] Norrick created a table of distinctive features to distinguish proverbs from idioms, cliches, etc.[15] Prahlad distinguishes proverbs from some other, closely related types of sayings, “True proverbs must further be distinguished from other types of proverbial speech, e.g. proverbial phrases, Wellerisms, maxims, quotations, and proverbial comparisons.”[16] Based on Persian proverbs, Zolfaghari and Ameri propose the following definition: "A proverb is a short sentence, which is well-known and at times rhythmic, including advice, sage themes and ethnic experiences, comprising simile, metaphor or irony which is well-known among people for its fluent wording, clarity of expression, simplicity, expansiveness and generality and is used either with or without change"[17]

There are many sayings in English that are commonly referred to as “proverbs”, such as weather sayings. Alan Dundes, however, rejects including such sayings among truly proverbs: “Are weather proverbs proverbs? I would say emphatically 'No!'”[18] The definition of “proverb” has also changed over the years. For example, the following was labeled “A Yorkshire proverb” in 1883, but would not be categorized as a proverb by most today, “as throng as Throp's wife when she hanged herself with a dish-cloth.”[19] The changing of the definition of "proverb" is also noted in Turkish.[20]

In other languages and cultures, the definition of “proverb” also differs from English. In the Chumburung language of Ghana, "aŋase are literal proverb and akpare are metaphoric ones.”[21] Among the Bini of Nigeria, there are three words that are used to translate "proverb": ere, ivbe, and itan. The first relates to historical events, the second relates to current events, and the third was “linguistic ornamentation in formal discourse”.[22] Among the Balochi of Pakistan and Afghanistan, there is a word batal for ordinary proverbs and bassīttuks for "proverbs with background stories".[23]

All of this makes it difficult to come up with a definition of "proverb" that is universally applicable, which brings us back to Taylor's observation, "An incommunicable quality tells us this sentence is proverbial and that one is not.".

結果 (中文) 3:

定义一个“谚语”是一项艰巨的任务。谚语的学者经常引用的射手泰勒的经典”的谚语的定义太难以偿还的承诺…一种难以言传的质量告诉我们这句话是众所周知的，一个是不。因此没有定义将使我们能够识别正的一句谚语“。【12】另一个常见的定义是从约翰·罗素勋爵（C 1850）”的谚语是一种智慧，和许多的智慧。”[ 13 ]

更有建设性的，65提出了以下的定义，“谚语是一种简短的句子，一般称为民间所包含的智慧，真理，道德，和传统的观点中的隐喻，固定，和可记忆形成并代代相传。”[ 14 ]诺里克创建了一个表独特的特征来区分从谚语习语，陈词滥调，等[ 15 ]普拉拉德区分谚语格言等，密切相关的类型，“真实的谚语必须进一步区别于其他类型的谚语的语言，例如谚语短语，wellerisms，格言，报价，并比较式谚语。”[ 16 ]基于波斯谚语，zolfaghari和美国提出了如下的定义：“谚语是一种简短的句子，这是众所周知的，在时代的节奏，包括建议，圣人的主题和民族的经验，包括明喻，隐喻和讽刺为其流利措辞人之间是众所周知的，表达清晰，简洁，扩展性和通用性，可有或没有变化”[ 17 ]

有许多英语谚语，一般称为“谚语”，如天气谚语。艾伦邓迪斯，然而，拒绝这样的谚语中包括真正的谚语：“天气谚语谚语吗？我要说的重点“不！”“[ 18 ]”的定义中所说的“多年来也改变了。例如，以下是标有“约克郡的谚语“1883，但不能归类为大多数今天的谚语，“看索普的妻子当她上吊着一块抹布。”[ 19 ]的“谚语”也注意到在土耳其的定义的变化。【20 ]

在其他语言和文化，“谚语”也不同于英语的定义。在chumburung语言加纳，“ŋASE是字面的谚语和akpare是隐喻性的。”[ 21 ]尼日利亚比尼之间，有三个词来翻译“谚语”：是，ivbe，和设置。第一个涉及的历史事件，第二涉及当前的事件，和第三是“语言的装饰形式话语”。【22】阿富汗和巴基斯坦的俾路支语中，有一个词“背景故事”的谚语普通谚语和低音īttuks盘。[ 23 ]

实在很难想出一个定义的“谚语”是普遍适用的，这让我们回到泰勒的观察，“不能通信质量告诉我们这句话是众所周知的，有一个没有了。”。