Particularities of the formulaic aspect of proverbs

For any researcher, examining a corpus of proverbs highlights a schematic scenario that ensures their resilience over time and their circulation across vast spaces, as well as their ability to (self-)regenerate in diverse contexts, altering details in accordance with ever-renewed reference systems and the changing possibilities of reception by an increasingly large audience. Universal conceptual data (life, death, good, evil, human qualities and defects, the universe, nature – mobilised to signify human nature) correspond to several patterns, several compositional characteristics that constitute the canvas for the arrangement of meanings. Practically, some researchers argue, the paremiological treasures of peoples rely on a vast action of compositional “calque” and the recurrence of certain ideas and images.