Representing intellectual traits in the neoparemic worldview: evidence from English

This study offers a comprehensive examination of how traditional English paroemias are transformed into neoparoemias, or anti-proverbs, under the influence of extralinguistic factors of a sociocultural, economic, political, and other nature. The study’s purpose is to identify the structural-semantic and functional-pragmatic features through which human intellectual abilities are represented in established and novel English paroemias. The scientific originality lies in the comprehensive analysis of English neoparoemias relating to mental abilities, encompassing their structure, semantics, transformation, pragmatics, and functions in comparison with established paroemias. This approach makes it possible not only to identify the linguistic means involved, but also to reveal the cognitive mechanisms, pragmatic dimensions, and semantic shifts associated with the concepts of intelligence and foolishness in the contemporary English-language worldview. The study finds that English neoparoemias concerning intelligence and foolishness adapt to contemporary conditions while altering the form and meaning of established English paroemias. They perform a range of functions, reflecting society’s values and anti-values and indicating correlations within the emerging anthropocentric paradigm. Semantically, they represent quick-wittedness and limited intelligence, wisdom and foolishness, thereby documenting changes in how the world is perceived.