ANTI-PROVERBS AND THEIR USAGE

Аннотация

This article gives a definition of the anti-proverb and terminology, discusses its occurrence, treats proverbs most popular for variation and proverbs with international distribution, addresses different mechanisms of proverb variation and topics emerging in anti-proverbs, and last but not least reviews the background of antiproverb research. The vast majority of the anti-proverbs quoted in this chapter are in English, and were taken primarily from American and British written sources185. In some additional cases, anti-proverbs from other languages (Russian, French, German, and Hungarian) might also be quoted. KEYWORDS: Proverbs, ever day, literature, linguistics, terminology. INTRODUCTION parodies, transformations, variations, wisecracks, deliberate proverb innovations, or Proverbs have never been considered fractured proverbs) and has published several sacrosanct; on the contrary, they have collections of anti-proverbs in both German frequently been used as satirical, ironic or (see Mieder, 1982a, 1985, 1989a, 1998) and humorous comments on a given situation. For English (see T. Litovkina & Mieder, 2006; centuries, they have provided a framework for Mieder, 2003; Mieder & Tóthné Litovkina, endless transformation. In the last few 1999). Wolfgang Mieder’s term decades, they have been perverted and Antisprichwort has been widely accepted by parodied so extensively that their variations proverb scholars all over the world as a general have been sometimes heard more often than label for such innovative alterations of and their original forms. Wolfgang Mieder has reactions to traditional proverbs: anti-proverb coined the term Antisprichwort (anti-proverb) (English), anti(-)proverbe (French), for such deliberate proverb innovations (also aнтиnословицa (Russian), and anti(- known in English as alterations, mutations, “ANTI-PROVERBS AND THEIR USAGE” P age 67 | 4 )proverbium (Hungarian) (see the general (< A fool and his money are soon parted)). Like discussion of the genre of anti-proverbs in T. traditional gems of wisdom, anti-proverbs Litovkina 2007b; T. Litovkina & Mieder, 2006: appear in a broad range of generic contexts, 1–54; Mieder, 2004, 2007). Besides the term from personal letters to philosophical journals, anti-proverb, many other terms187 exist in from public lectures and sermons to songs, different languages for such phenomena, e.g.: from science fiction to comics and cartoons German: verballhornte Parömien, (Mieder, 1989b, 2007). Anti-proverbs are also Sprichwortparodien, verdrehte Weisheiten, found in great abundance on the Internet “entstellte” Sprichwörter, sprichwörtliche (Mieder, 2007; for a detailed discussion of the Verfremdungen. French: faux proverbe, use of Hungarian anti-proverbs on the perverbe, proverbe déformé, proverbe dérivé, Internet, see Vargha, 2005; for a discussion of proverbe détourné, proverbe modifié, the use of Bulgarian anti-proverbs on the proverbe perverti, proverbe tordu, pseudo- Internet, see Hrisztova-Gotthardt, 2006, proverbe. Russian: трансформa, пословичная 2007), in advertising slogans (Forgács, 1997a; ”переделка”, прикол. Hungarian: Mieder, 1989b, 2007), in the titles of books szokásmondás-közhely, közmondás-paródia, and articles, and in magazine and newspaper közmondás tréfás ferdítése, (el)ferdített headlines. They are commonly quoted in közmondás, közmondás-persziflázs, kvázi- collections of puns, one-liners, toasts, közmondás. Some anti-proverbs question the wisecracks, quotations, aphorisms, maxims, truth of a proverb through employing quips, epigrams and graffiti (see the lists of antonyms (An exception disproves the rule (< bibliography in T. Litovkina, 2005: 211–228; T. An exception proves the rule), transforming Litovkina & Mieder, 2006: 349–357; Mieder & the proverb into its opposite (A friend that Tóthné Litovkina, 1999: 246–254). There is no isn’t in need is a friend indeed (< A friend in sphere of life where anti-proverbs are not need is a friend indeed); Crime pays – be a used. But the anti-proverb is not a new genre lawyer (< Crime doesn’t pay) or posing a naive born in the era of mass media and the Internet question (Still waters run deep – but how can (Mieder, 2007); rather, it can be traced back to they run if they are still? (< Still waters run the distant past. Proverb alterations are as old deep); If love is blind, how can there be love at as proverbs themselves: they flourished in first sight? (< Love is blind). The vast majority classical times and in all subsequent eras. of anti-proverbs, however, put the proverbial Thus, in the eighteenth century the traditional wisdom only partially into question, primarily wisdom of many proverbial gems was by relating it to a particular context or thought questioned by a number of philosophers, in which the traditional wording does not fit writers and poets (to name just a few: G. C. (Money isn’t everything – but it’s way ahead of Lichtenberg, I. Kant, F. Schiller, Goethe, what’s in second place (< Money