Proverbs and sayings

They are collected in special dictionaries. Features: rhyme, rythm, alliteration. Proverbs are brief statements, showing in condenced form the accumulated life experience of the community serving as a conventional phraseological symbols for abstract ideas. Usually image-bearing, complete sentences, logically arranged. A saying stands for the notion and has a nominative function [to add fuel to fire - to scold sb.]. If issued approprietely, proverbs and sayings will never use their freshness and vigour. Proverbs and sayings can be regarded as expressive means of the literature; emotionally coloured and difficult. They are usually built on some image. When the proverb is used in unaltered form, it is an expressive means. When in a modified variant assumes one of the features of a stylistic device. Acquires a stylistic meaning without becoming a stylistic device [You know which side the law is buttered - is formed from - His bread is buttered on both sides]. We have a decomposition of a phrase. It occurs in the belles-lettres, newspapers, emotive prose, headlines. A proverb presuposes a simultaneous application of two meanings: primary and extended/contextual.

Epigrams and quotations

Epigrams are stylistic devices akeen to a proverb. The only difference is that epigrams are coined by individuals whose names we know, while proverbs are coinages of the people. Epigrams are short, witty statements, showing the ingenious turn of mind of the originator. They always have a literary bookish air about them that distinguishes them from proverbs. They have a generating function and are self-sufficient. The sentence gets accepted as a word combination and often becomes part of the language as a whole. Brevity is the essential feature of the epigram [Mighty is he, who conquers himself]. In fact, epigram is a surpraphrasal unit in sense, though not in structure. Poetry is epigrammatic in essense. It always strives for brevity of expression, leaving to the mind of the reader the pleassure of ampliphying the idea. A quotation is a repetition of a phrase or statement from a book, used by authority as an illustration or proof used as a basis for further speculation on the matter of fact. By repeating a passage in a new environment we attach to the utterance an importance it might not have had in the context it was primarily used. Plus we create a stable language unit. And what is quoted must be worth quoting, since a quotation will inevitably have some degree of generalization. Quotations are usually marked off in the text by inbverted commas or other graphical means.

A quotation is an exact reproduction of an actual utterance made by a certain author. They are echos of somebody's words. So utterance, when quoted undergo subtle change. Originally, they are units of the text they belong to, but once quoted they are rank in pile no more. A quotation is always set against the other sentence in the texts by its greater sense and significance. It has two meanings a primary one and the applicated. Unlike epigrams they need not to be short. Quotations are also used in epigraphs. In this case the quotations possess great associative power and cause connotative meanings.