Національна Академія Мистецтв України Інститут культурології

Besides, it is not only adversative clauses and other objections that a proverb derives. It is partial negation that constitutes the definitive feature of proverbs disclosing the slight differences in the depiction of the represented objects. The above discussed function of proverbs as the objections to somebody’s statements enables such differentiation. For instance the proverb you’d better count the teeth in your mouth presupposes the denying continuations +*and not in the mine or +*and not do what you’re now occupied with. In particular it is periphrastic transformation that is based on partial negations. The differentiation process can be conceived in communicative aspect as the reason for attributing different enunciations to different partners of dialogue and respectively for conceiving them as the manifestations of different intentions. One of the revelations of this inner contradictoriness of proverbial texts is the phenomenon of absurdity always present in their corpus. Due to the obligatory presence of absurdity in proverbial absurdity it multiplied semantic transitions gives pretext for humoristic inferences in evoking amazement and the subsequent emotions. It is together with condolence and compassion as purely human sensations that contradictory attributions entailing absurdity remove each vestige of nuisance. It is already the idiomatic semantic shift that implies comic inferences. This attachment of proverbs to jokes attests at the same time the distinction of comic from tragic texts as to their scope, the first being always more succinct.

The very effect of admiration (amazement) entails also the image of wonder, of some supernatural that always enhances poetic lines. The phenomena of juxtaposition proper for poetic images evoke this presence of the miraculous that implies the old rule of nil admirandi. For example in I. Manzhura’s lines «Той як тільки глянув – у крик здивувався» (‘As far as he threw a glimpse, he was astonished in a shrill’) give witness to the miracle disclosed by the poet in metaphorical representation of the affect of amazement: a very singular case of ‘amazing in a shrill’ acquires here an outlook of possible adage. In another inventive line «Е, коли б ти, брате, побачив хоч в скрині» (‘If thou, brother, hath seen it at least in a case’) the phrase is worth comparing to the proverbial image of seeing through a saw (as in the German durch Sieben sehen). Poetic lines present thus possible adages as the spontaneous cases of the formation of future catchwords.

From here the so called cryptotype arises that is the designation of latent and enigmatic essence demanding deciphering. It is in this interpretative process that the property of lyrical utterance begins to develop. In its turn the concept of cryptotype necessarily entails a very productive simile of periphrastic descriptions with the effect of echo⁶²⁴. This phenomenon can be demonstrated in particular with the tautologies arising from etymological figures. The phenomena of the kind are also to be found in homonymous dissociation. Therefore the effect of echo conceals problem as the essence of epigrammatic genus. The existence of such concealed puzzle for meditative efforts can be detected at the most simplest and commonest locutions. When one says “a dog barks” there are no mystery; meanwhile it implies latent information when used idiomatically, as with the continuation “but the caravan goes on”, A very witty lines in this connection are to be found in M. Rylski’s poetry: «В зимовім небі / Два шуляки недвижно пролетіли / І даль була порожня. От і все» ‘In the winter sky a couple of kites has immovably flied by. And the space was empty, And that’s all’ [Новиченко, 1993, 240]. This poet’s own ironic commentary means that in reality it is not “that’s all”, moreover, “that’s still far from being over”: it does not go about the kites and the heaven, there’s something other that is to be guessed and detected.

Cryptotype brings forth periphrastic descriptions circumscribing its contents that behave as if they become comparable to an echo as they represent thee latent notion while reproducing it with the estranged means. Meanwhile the premises for such semantic effects of echoing a word have much deeper sources than those of mantra-like (or in the manner of musical ostinato) repetition proper for rites and taboo. The simple effect of echo gives pretext to be comprehended as an alienation represented with such repetition of own voice that behaves already autonomously and independently from the speaker’s will.

The role of echoing effect reveals itself essentially in the origins of dialogue and its simplest form, that of the mentioned catechism. The “question-response” scheme of catechism appears when the possibility of negative answer has been opened with taboo and the ability for reflection has been generated. In this property again one can trace the mutuality between proverbial and dramatic text. Here lies the source of dialogues with their controversies and quarrels where assertions and negations are confronted in a naked form. Each proverb is a challenge uttered to provoke a discussion or at least a meditation. It looks as an incognito’s remark out, and it awaits continuation. Initiating thus interpretative process a proverb becomes the germ for the development of a dialogue. These echo analogies entail self-descriptive effects that become inherent property of proverbial locutions.

There are also some premises to be taken into consideration while dealing with such a self-description. First of all it is the formulaic character of proverbial locutions that demands explanation. One assumes the proverb as a trope to be comprehensible for the addressee while using it in speech, and consequently it belongs to the category of commonplaces and rare locutions (loci communes vs. loci raritates), so that each proverb turns to be a topos or hapax of rhetoric tradition. This stability and comprehensibility of a seemingly absurd or trivial utterance as an indication towards the latent transferred sense reveals itself in the circumstance that within a text a proverb appears as a sort of quotation of an anonymous source. It sounds as a proverb would be pronounced by an oracle or an incognito, so that it belongs to the direct speech of an unknown personality. Being endowed with such a quality of catchwords introduced with the process of diffusion (migration), proverbs behave as a commonly acceptable truth.

The well known prevalence of syntactic parallel constructions in the proverbs also may be regarded as a special case of echo. The mentioned figure of hendiadys (paired situational synonyms) also meets the demands of an “echoed” locution. At the same time such constructions bring forth the formation of minimal listing structures fit for becoming a device of the self-description of proverbial texts. The very idea of comparison and ensuing syntactic parallel structures implies the confrontation of the pairs of lexical units in the manner of the mentioned figures of hendiadys. Here the fact attracts attention that such confrontation often reveals diachronic meaning thus enabling etymological regeneration and simulation. For instance in the proverb “Їдь тихо – минеш лиха” (go calmly and you’ll omit harm) the antithesis <calm – harm> will reveal deep semantic latent load when one bears in mind that the words (тихо, тішити) is akin etymologically with the Lithuanian tiesa ‘truth’, and