On the Origin and Evolution of Paroemias

Abstract

This study aims at examining the three commonest thesis in paremiology, namely the antiquity of proverbs, their popular origin and their belonging to the category of idiomatic expressions. Based on both diachronic and synchronic data and through an examination of the syntactic, semantic and metric structures of proverbs, the study brings out the misdirection of such vulgatas, and suggests a new approach, mainly based on the concept of lexical schemata, with an emphasis on the importance of metric patterns within the process of creation and evolution of paroemias.