Formules et dire proverbial

Linguistic approaches of proverbs lack clear definition as well as reliable corpus, being widely dependent on an intuitive idea of proverbs. So we first try to shed light on the common notion of proverb nowadays through the study of the most current collocations involving the words proverb and proverbial. Then it is shown how linguistic descriptions of proverbial meaning cannot be founded upon such widespread ideas and keep mixing up formal and semantic features of the litteral proverbial formulation with those of the usual associated gloss. From this point of view, some previous propositions or obvious statements about the status of "denomination", generic sentence and lexical meaning of proverbs reveal to be illusory and then require new investigations.Tamba Irène. Formules et dire proverbial. In: Langages, 34ᵉ année, n°139, 2000. La parole proverbiale, sous la direction de Jean-Claude Anscombre. pp. 110-118