Set Expressions The cliche

Proverbs and sayings are facts of language. It is impossible to arrange proverbs and sayings in a form that would present and pattern, although they have some typical features: rhythm, sometimes rhyme and (or) alliteration.

But the most characteristic feature of proverbs and sayings lies in the content-form of the utterance, which is mainly characterised by its brevity.

A proverb presupposes a simultaneous application of two meanings: the face-value or primary meaning, and an extended meaning drawn from the context.

Proverbs and sayings have purely linguistic features which help to distinguish them from ordinary sentences.

Proverbs and sayings are brief statements showing in condensed form the accumulated life experience of the community and serving as conventional practical symbols for abstract ideas. Many of them through frequency of repetition become polished and verse-like:

Early to bed and early to rise

Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.

Proverbs are characterized by the omission of connectives:

First come, first served.

Typical stylistic features of proverbs (as Shirley Arora points out in her article, The Perception of Proverbiality (1984)) are:

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  Alliteration (Forgive and forget)
  
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  Parallelism (Nothing ventured, nothing gained)
  
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  Rhyme (When the cat is away, the mice will play)
  
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  Ellipsis (Once bitten, twice shy)
  

Internal features that can be found quite frequently include:

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  Hyperbole (All is fair in love and war)
  
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  Paradox (For there to be peace there must first be war)
  
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  Personification (Hunger is the best cook)
  

The most noticeable thing about the functioning of sayings and proverbs is that they may be handled not in their fixed form but with modifications. The use of such a unit in a modified form will always arrest our attention.

Come, he said, milk is spilt. - the proverb meant is it’s no use crying over spilt milk.

When a proverb is used in its unaltered form it can be qualified on an expressive means, when in a modified variant it assumes features of a stylistic device:

Proverbs and saying are widely used in:

Belles- letters style: You know which side the law is buttered.

His bread is buttered on both sides.

Newspaper style: Proof of the Pudding (The proof of the pudding is in the eating).

Advertisements:

At D & D Dogs, you can teach an old dog new tricks (D & D Dogs)

A pfennig saved is a pfennig earned. (Volkswagen) Not only absence makes the heart grow fonder. (Godiva chocolates)

An epigram is a stylistic device akin to a proverb, the only difference being that epigrams are coined by individuals whose names we know, while proverbs are the coinage of the people. Epigrams are terse, witty, pointed statements showing the ingenious turn of mind of the author. They always have a literary-bookish air that distinguishes them from proverbs. Epigrams possess a great degree of independence and taken out of the context, retain the idea they express. Epigrams get accepted as a word-combination and often become part of the language-as-a-whole. Brevity is an essential quality of the epigram.

In contrast to aphorisms and paradoxes, real epigrams are true to fact and that’s why they win general recognition and acceptance. Like proverbs they have brevity, rhythm, alliteration and often rhyme:

Little strokes

Fell great oaks. Benjamin Franklin 1 can resist everything except temptation.

Oscar Wilde

Like sands through the hourglass, so are the

days of our lives. Macdonald Carey

Allusion.