Why Money Cannot Buy Happiness. The Painful Truth about Traditional Proverbs and Their Modifications

Abstract

Can one imagine language without proverbs? Do we really need these somewhat clichéd adages like An apple a day keeps a doctor away, Once bitten, twice shy, or Crime doesn’t pay? Are they still influential, or perhaps modern society should give them a new lease of life? This paper aims to reveal the “painful truth” behind traditional proverbs and especially their modified versions. Leading paremiologists (Wolfgang Mieder, Nihada Delibegović Džanic, Anna Litovkina) introduce a number of terms in reference to the latter, and so this study discusses the etymology and the semantic import of such labels as anti-proverbs, twisted proverbs, quasi-proverbs, and pseudo-proverbs. However, its basic aim is to propose a classification of modified proverbs based on a number of examples, such as Man proposes, mother-in-law opposes; A good beginning is half the bottle; Crime pays – be a lawyer; A new broom sweeps clean, but the old one knows the corners, and many others. Finally, based on Ronald Langacker’s conception of the profile-base distinction, deriving from the figure-ground alignment, this paper makes an attempt to prove the necessary link between traditional proverbs and their innovative modifications.