Національна Академія Мистецтв України Інститут культурології

The echoing manner of exposing the material can be felt in the song formulae, in the forms omf the so called hocket where short phrases sound alternatively in different voices as if being interrupted. The effect of echo aids in comparing distanced notions so that the coupled situational synonyms (hendiadys) arise. One can find out such phenomena in the songs «Ой, у лузі та й при березі» (Ho, in the lawn and at the shore), «Ой, по горі, по крутій голуби літають» (Ho, there pigeons fly around the high hill) [Тобілевич, 1982] where such couples as “widow – son” or “shore – tree” arise.

Any dialogue looks like a circumlocution as far as it refers to the objects known to the partners and meant but not mentioned. This reference to the known presupposition provides favorable conditions both for ellipsis and for pleonasm that’s for informational deficit & excess. To sum up the denial as the fundamental proverbial property one has to point to ambivalence as the elementary basic contradiction to which the general semantic ambiguity can be reduced. For instance the proverb “fama crescit eundo” ‘fame grows from itself (that’s from being retold)’ presupposes double meaning of benefit and danger; “a forgetful head makes a weary pair of heels” implies both the consequence of mental disorder and the opportunity to foresee the.

The creative experimental origination of epigrammatic genus imparts also the ephemeral hue to its products such as proverbs (in opposite to ritual incantations’ formulae with their lapidary stiffness). In its turn their inherent transformability displays the opportunities of detecting connotations proper for different usages of reproducible proverbial text. Code’s reproducibility entails the effect of inertial resistance (or, more generally, impedance) revealing itself as automatism. While being repeated and reproduced automatically code’s elements impede textual evolvement as the vehicles of inertial resistance. Semantic net arises then from the integration of initial textual impulses and the repulsive forces exerting impedance. In this respect code is comparable to meter in regard to rhythm or to measure in regard to harmony. Code provides the background where automatic processes are displayed. In this respect the well known variability of folklore can be reconsidered as its capacity of developmental experiments with words at least on the most primitive level of “trials and errors” and “black box”. It concerns first of all the role of proverbs as the plots’ compressions. Therefore textual versions can be conceived as the experimental ways of representing motifs (fixed in particular with key words).

Textual minimalism of epigrammatic genus results in motivational intensification and the expansion (extension) of motivational net, the growth of the density of motivation (in contrast to spontaneity where the motivation is ultimately loosened). It is within such “condensed state” of verbal substance that it becomes indispensable that the slightest textual details would ne motivated. Such motivational density and intensification result in approximation to a code with its taxonomic order. In particular this approximation concerns the affiliation of epigrammatic utterance to the respective taxonomic divisions. For instance it is still necessary to understand that ‘to break ground’ or ‘to pave path’ don’t concern the mechanical work but belong to the notions of discoveries and explorations. Thus there arises the reason for codification from the motivation together with the reason of reproducibility as the tautological prerequisites for interpretability. The experiments with lexical compatibility are promoted due to transformability as the initial property of proverbial genus. Experiment therefore can be said to provide conditions for the convergence of the both proverbial properties of reproducibility and transformability. The productive transformations involving inferential consequences converge with interpretative representation of the problem designated with the proverbial utterance.

Together with motivational questions the problem of textual integration arises that turns to become that of compression and expansion. The very existence of allegorical contents in proverbial texts irreducible to the meanings of their components⁶²⁵ bears thus witnesses as to the high degree of integration and the entirety of these texts. One could say of the synthetic type of proverbial idiolect caused with such integrity proper for allegories. At the same time such integrating derivative figurative meaning is not only irreducible to ingredients: it cannot also be inferred from them⁶²⁶. It entails the conclusion that together with the tension between literary and figurative meaning there arise also contradiction between normal lexical valence and textual lexical attraction peculiar for the proverbial idiolect. For instance there is no unusual in the collocation “bone in throat” taken as a description of a medical case and read with the direct meanings, at the same time it has a derivative meaning as a proverbial expression. It is interesting that this expression bears quite different figurative connotations in the Slavonic languages where it presupposes an irritant obstacle and in English where it means inability to say a word. The same concerns “cat in a bag” presupposing merely an unknown thing in the Slavonic proverbs and admitting the version of letting the cat out of a bag with the meaning of disclosing a secret. Such transformations of the meanings are well known in lexicology. For instance N.I. Zubov has proved that the locution написавше женq въ члвчьскъ wбразъ тварь must to be understood as pejorative expression⁶²⁷.

Any lexical combination can give rise to semantic transitions where direct meanings bring forth derivations. For instance the pair “blue sky” represents already synecdoche as the designation of totality substituting a particular because the intersection arises here as the result of restrictions of the volume of the both abstractions used in the collocation <blue & sky>. In its turn such intersection of abstractions endures still further restrictions ensuing from presupposition while being used in speech, in particular those of localization (place & time). Therefore a simple couple of words doesn’t designate abstractions only; it refers to a particular object seen by a private person in a singular moment (in this case it must be daytime) although the volume of abstractions is retained in its entirety. Such restrictions of abstractions being the inherent properties of “free” lexical compatibility become actually still mote intensified in idiomatic use.

That experimentation concerns lexical compatibility can be seen from the formation of situational synonyms (hendiadys) as well as partial antonyms. The experimental variability of proverbs can be felt in the particular representation of coupled verbs both in a single proverbial utterance and within a set of variants where the substituted verbs can be regarded as the situational partial synonyms (in particular those of coupled type of bifurcation or hendiadys) entailing the shifts in the whole taxonomy. In the first case the verbs combined in a couple build up a kind of hendiadys so that they become affiliated to the same semantic field within the given situation as in «где пьют, там и льют» ‘where one drinks one pours’ [Мельц et al., 75] with the couple [drink & pour] as the situational synonyms. The case of folklore textual variability enables detecting the unexpected synonymous rows as in the two versions «живий живе – гадає, а смерть з-за плечей виглядає / а смерть не чекає» ‘those alive live and guess, and the death looks out from behind the shoulders / doesn’t wait’ so that the couple [to look out & not to wait] becomes here synonymous. Such row can be traced in the variants attested with «кто молчит – не грешит / тот двух научит / никого не обидит / чем не ответ?» ‘who keeps silence – doesn’t sin / can teach a couple / doesn’t abuse anybody / answers’ [Даль, 415] so that a set appears [not to abuse / sin & teach & answer]. As a particular kind of experiment the assimilation of loan words can be regarded so that adoption and experimentation go hand in hand.

It is such special cases of lexical attraction arousing referential nets that become codified as poetical conventions. Then one can respectively regard epigrams and proverbs as the packets (encapsulations) of conventions obtained as the results of verbal experimentation. It is the experiments with lexical attraction that produce the new and renovate the old conventions so that experimentation & conventionality are to be regarded as the two sides of the same essence. In particular such experiments with attraction can be conceived within the mentioned concept of semantic modulation (Yu. V. Martemyanov). Such approach can be justified with the minimal textual scope that distinguish aphorisms occupying the ultimate position within phrase units analogous to similar limit occupied with lexical units. Such a notion of limit for word combinations has been introduced by M.M. Makovski who regarded it as the minimal row of lexical attraction⁶²⁹. Usually this limit consists of a pair of words. Meanwhile it is already within this minimal scope that the processes trespass the borders of a separate language so that s real modulation takes place even within a minimal lexical couple. The singular lexical compatibility disclosed in proverbs makes words behave comparably to elements of different languages (in particular as the estranged loan-words with incomprehensible meanings). Lexical attraction displayed in these particular cases and regulated with poetical conventions is of a particular kind. It is such minimal acts of attraction that provide conditions for the integration of textual entity⁶³⁰. While proving the known M. Gorki’s statement on the synthesis of details as the basis for creative action⁶³¹ it continues the packing properties of textual encapsulations together with capacities of being expanded.

It is because of the existence and formation of a particular poetic idiolect with its indispensable conventions that textual motivational problem acquires an outlook of translation and assimilation (adoption). Seemingly the same meaning of the word used in poetry in fact opposes radically to that in colloquial speech and has to be reinterpreted (the poetic and colloquial usages being homonyms). In its turn this special poetic meaning evokes the necessity of experiments that would disclose the concealed contents arisen and created in poetry. In this respect the known suggestion (developed by M.L. Gasparov) to apply experimental methods (already tried and tested in folkloristic and linguistic researches) such as the experimental transformation of a text for the study of poetry looks quite reasonable. In particular such an experiment would consist in building a kind of the so called versus centonarius (“cento”) that meant merely to use the method of textual transformation through variations inherent to folklore as the habitual way of creativity. Another way of experiment consists in the replacement of verses with prose and vice versa. A productive approach in explorative experimentation can be found in the devices of the elimination of key-words with the observation of the ensuing effects. Thus the proverb Rome was not built in a day can be turned into the question how long did one build Rome? Actually such experimental abbreviation can transform a proverb into an adage so that the excluded part had to be guessed. The inherent property of proverbial transformability as the coexistence of inferential implicit conclusions and consequences is becomes thus the aspect of textual integration.

Meanwhile not only research but also creative tasks of the experiments with lexical stuff turn out to become valid. Experiment is by no means the instrument of a philologist only: it is performed daily and usually in each communicative act of colloquial speech’s generation. The matter is that such experiments take place first of all in the habitual colloquial practice and only consequently in the actions of researchers observing them. The very existence and development of folklore is in itself such a global experiment with words where colloquial habits become sublimated to artistic shape. Actually one deals in folklore with rudimentary and latent experiments limited with the borders of customary culture. It reveals itself already in the instability of text so that one always must say of similarity instead of identity, of co-variations instead of invariants. It goes not only about “trials-and-errors” method or that of heuristics but of improvised text as such that always can become a chain of inventions. If in literature the editorial process of the versions’ selection eliminates the preliminary specimens the folklore text endures community’s “grinding” that preserves multiple variants and paves the path for them to diachronic perspective. Such “grinding machine” of historical societal experience performs the role of examination for experimental conjectures. Within the customary culture of folklore all experimental efforts are limited with the rites, habits, patterns of behavior that allow the space for creative attempts and efforts. This space can be said to be situated between customs and wonders that determine its lower and upper boundaries. Thus poetic worldview develops in difference to artistic one where the demands of perfection and of “good - best” intolerable opposition determine the selection of specimens. The paradox of artistic text is that one must distort the texts in interpretative process with the aim of comprehending them. In this respect interpretation opposes to folklore improvisation. Respectively not only description but also distortion is needed to attain sufficient comprehension.

Essential property of the adoptive (migratory) nature of proverbs and other aphorisms is to be attributed to their double relation to literature and folklore simultaneously reflecting thus the dualistic model of culture as a whole. At one side many a proverb becomes the element of folklore stuff as the result of assimilation of the works of literature (such are the proverbs of the Bible origin or those adopted from plays of Shakespeare, Schiller etc.), at the other side literary aphorisms are often the reformulated proverbs taken from folklore and presented in periphrastic locutions. Moreover the plainest occasional locutions of colloquial speech often give pretext to generate idioms that are destined to become proverbial expressions. Thus these expressions demonstrate not only the incompleteness as the immanent quality of each verbal construction but also inconclusiveness as the readiness for further transformations and variations. These verbal artifacts are peculiar for there exclusive mutability and variability that provide also their migratory capacities.

In particular it is already within the limits of folklore that a proverb (as well as a riddle or incantation) is very vaguely to discern from poetic formulae of lyrics or epics. For instance a line from a carol “наколядували кишок аж повен мішок” [Нечуй-Левицький, 34] can with equal reasons be treated as the proverb that designates the fortuity of efforts in the image of the rite’s scarce results. In its turn the version of the motif [the grass of oblivion] is present in the proverb “вже і місце по нім травою поросло”, and it belongs also to peculiar elements of lyric songs. Numerous enunciations of the former literary texts become adoptive folklore contributions. The line of T. Shevchenko “В своїй хаті своя правда / І сила і воля” is known also as a proverb. The initial sentence of L. Tolstoi’s “Анна Кареніна” has become the catchword: “Все счастливые семьи похожи друг на друга, каждая несчастная семья несчастлива по своему” (All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way). These locutions didn’t exist before they were created by their authors. After that they have been introduced in the phraseology’s fund of the language as neologisms. Moreover the history of culture attests the existence of purposeful and conscience efforts of producing aphorisms from colloquial locutions. Such was the practice of early Christian authors, in particular of those appertaining to the Holy Fathers⁶³². At last, daily colloquial practice becomes an enormous source for spontaneous rise of new aphorisms.

In its turn experimentation is both creative and explorative device. The very idea of experimental approach to verbal art has been associated with futurists proclaiming the overt purpose of concocting neologisms⁶³⁵. This experimentation takes place not only within such artistic movements or explorative practice but in the plainest colloquial practice⁶³⁶. Meanwhile the very existence and development of folklore is in itself a global experiment with a world. Proverbial genus attests the experimental foundation of folklore most clearly. Such experimentation not only provides premises for textual integrations from colloquial use but also reveals the interpretative opportunities of locutions as their genuine integrative foundation. With the proverbial rules of play one comes into the space of deviations from “normal” common tongue with its direct meanings. In this respect proverbial formation is to be regarded as the inductive way of cognition. Derivation as the main property of proverbial phrases entails verbal experimentation as the examination of combinatorial opportunities and lexical compatibility. The examples of such spontaneous colloquial experiments are well known⁶³⁷. The experimental game has its apparent diachronic dimensions: proverbs disclose the retained relics of the etymological past and simultaneously demonstrate rudiments of future neologisms. All proverbial locutions are developmental elements of code due to their experimental attachment. These diachronic consequences of experimentation coincide and converge with minimalistic conditions resulting in derivative condensation. In the same way compression here can be said to expand over historical scope of changeability. It is just the effect that the neologisms in literature entail⁶³⁸. In its turn such experimentation presupposes also vital practical experience. When one says as in German <in der Not schmeckt jedes Brot> it implies the experience in need that deviates from routine to support this opinion; French <la nuit porte la conseil> is the inductive conclusion of experience.

Being integrated experimentally proverbs deliver relics & rudiments to the fund of phraseology. Their transformability (as well as folklore variability in general) imparts virtual quality of intermediary transitive position that hasn’t still won actuality. Therefore proverbs aren’t to be taken as something terminated in its development. One of the consequences of such proverbial mediation is (together with the obvious communicative meaning) the commemorative validity of aphorisms. The Latin <fide sed cui vide> ‘be confident though see with whom’ presupposes the situation of warning against some suspected person. Being used as the quotations of an oracle such utterances can be conceived as the cues of imaginary conversation. Then their colloquial origination meets with such commemorative mission. Each proverb as an experimental enunciation awaits continuation of objection or agreement with detailed comments.

Within this reference to colloquial practice experimentation displays still another aspect of the examination of lexical compatibility. The problematic mode of epigrams revealed as the multiplication of semantic transitions peculiar for allegories and symbols can in its turn be regarded as the consequence of special lexical compatibility. The lexical attraction can be said to contradict here to lexical valence, and this conflict determines (as well as in the nonsense poetry) the combination of the units that would seem impossible to be juxtaposed in a colloquial speech. Thus a kind of the rhetoric locutions of impossibilia arises here. Such premises of derivational condensation have been in particular scrutinized in oriental studies. Traditional Japanese poetry knows the so called title (literally “pillow”) word (makura kotoba) that changes its meaning many a time, showing dependence upon referential links both with other sections of the text and with known texts of a certain tradition. For instance, the constant epithet of firmament (hisakata ‘eternally firm, steadfast’) is already a trope, at the same time it can refer in a text also not to firmament but to rain, so that a secondary semantic transition takes place. The whole expression then will mean “a heavenly rain” (with the sense of the rain not merely spontaneously falling from heaven but sent to the earth by the heavenly powers). In the same way the epithet celestial is constantly used with storm, cloud; the constant epithet dark as a mulberry (ubatama no) is associated with night as well as with sleep (dream) thus getting the connotation of “nocturnal”[Боронина, 1978, 159, 173, 157]. It is worth stressing that the Japanese folklorists suggest “early makura kotoba to have possibly the character of proverbs” (quot. [Боронина, 1978, 153]).The doubled transitions of the kind are also to encounter in the European culture, e.g. in Lat. perennis ‘perennial’ as the constant epithet of a fur-tree is used as the attribute of the philosophy of Thomism philosophia perennis et aeternis.

Convergent constitution of the Japanese language (together with ensuing drops of etymological links and their substitution of newly constructed lexical nets) makes it fruitful to pay attention to specific peculiarities of lexical attraction. In particular it concerns those collocations that reveal themselves to become both stable locutions and at the same time to contradict to normal and usual order of lexical combination provoking thus semantic transition. Being tropes and elements of topics at the same time such collocations can be regarded as idioms and as such they are opposed to the independent lexical combinations that are regarded as grammatically adequate (the so called grammaticalized) units. In Japanese as the principal idioms - generating source does the kango lexical layer appear due to the mentioned drops of etymological links. A bulk of pairs of characters that denote Japanese lexical units have no respective combinations in Chinese where they are originated from. Thus an opportunity arises of combining former Chinese characters or respective syllables (reflected normally as pairs of syllables in Japanese) independently that provokes the formation of a rich treasury of newly created lexical units. Such Japanese kango words as taben ‘a talkativeness’ (literally ‘multi-’ as a prefix + ‘petal > speech’), keisetsu ‘a zeal in study’ (‘a light of a glow - worm’ + ‘glitter of snow’), futo: ‘a harbor’ (‘a beach (as a prefix)’ + ‘a unit to reckon cattle’) have no precedent Chinese sources and can be regarded as newly invented idioms.

One observes such a liberty of making idioms in wago where a series of lexical combinations arises unmotivated from the occidental viewpoint. Thus, for instance one observes such combinations of a predicate with an object (i.e. V + N - phrases) as chi - o megurasu literally ‘to turn wisdom’ > ‘to invent’, kotoba-o kakeru lit. ‘to hang words’ > ‘to address, to appeal somebody’, kemuri-o tateru lit. ‘to put fume’ > ‘to struggle for existence’. Another series of idioms one obtains from the tradition of constant tropes (and, especially, epithets, i.e. Adj. + N. - or N. +N. - phrases). Such are, for instance, locutions yukizora lit. ‘a snowy sky’ > ‘winter’, yuki-no yado lit. ‘a snowy house’ > ‘a shelter in mountains’, kuchiguruma lit. ‘a carriage of a mouth’ > ‘flattery’, iwaya lit. ‘a house of a cliff’ > ‘a cave’, itoguchi lit. ‘mouth of a thread’ > ‘the beginning’. At last, a very peculiar type of such idiomatic collocations is transformed into the class of composed verbs (i.e. V. + V. - phrases) that are fundamentally different from those to be found in occidental languages as to their semantic motivation. As examples one may cite kuraikomu lit. ‘to fill with eating’ > ‘to imprison, to keep in a jail’, omoi-megurasu lit. ‘to turn a thought’ > ‘to remember, to recollect’. Both kango and wago idioms demonstrate semantic shifts that are unexplainable from the occidental viewpoint and cannot be obtained as a conclusion from the sense of the components of the respective locutions. It seems reasonably to compare such idiomatic collocations with those of distant languages, in particular with those of German that is radically opposed to Japanese as one of the most closed of modern Indo-European languages and at the same time as the language where composed word building flourishes just owing to its closed and self – sufficient structure. Here one finds grounds for tropes overtly different to those in Japanese. Thus Garn spinnen lit. ‘to spin a yarn’ > ‘to retell nonsense, to lie’, uebers Ohr hauen lit. ‘to hew over an ear’ > ‘to deceit’ and other demonstrate the V. + N. - phrases. Respective examples are to be found also for the other types of phrases.

A plausible explanation of such stable collocations with unexpected semantic transitions can be given within the semantic references. Then the semantic transitions are to be regarded as the consequences of the shifts of referential net that provides a respective elucidation of these references. At the same time together with such a net the sense of the locutions is determined with the expansion of the key words. Idioms turn out to become the sources for images and for those opportunities of the construction of imaginative world. We see in the cited examples the rise of conventions “packed” with the created and codified collocations. The package of conventions resulting from experimentation contributes essentially to the outer form’s development entailing thus the involvement of the so called super-segmental (extra-linguistic, in particular prosodic) expressive means (such as rhyming and versification). That is why such means are to be conceived as the continuation of poetical conventional system. Due to textual codification attained with producing poetical conventions the outer form becomes involved where the signified and the signifiers converge. It comes actually to the motivational extension. The growth of the density of motivational net comes to the situation when the difference between the inner and the outer forms (and between the signified and the signifiers) becomes irrelevant. The more motivation becomes intensified (spontaneity being its zero level), the more textual units approach those of code (with their reproducibility as the newly arisen conventions) and therefore the more outer form becomes involved.

The basis for the experimental integration of heterogeneous motifs within the minimal scope gives grounds for a very important conclusion on the relative autonomy of such motifs. This result has been for the first time discovered by J, Mukarovski in regard to folklore as a whole. It was defined by him as the result of cumulative effect of semantic transitions as “a consequence of semantic shifts that lead to semantic independence of details”, in contrast to a work of literature, where “tendency towards semantic unification” is predetermined with the writer’s draft [Mukarovski, 1978, 190, 194]. Experimental essence of proverbial texts is to be found in the circumstance that the combination of motifs within their minimal scope can be regarded also as the contamination in the manner that a tale can demonstrate. The proverb «доки сонце зійде, роса очі виїсть» ‘until the sun will rise the dew erodes the eyes’ with the general meaning as the antithesis to Lat. “festina lente” ‘hurry slowly’ comprises together also other implicit motifs, such as “*erosive dew” and “*long dawn”. The motif [ground without grass] that is reproduced in the collocation *grass won’t grow is attested with the proverbs «де люди ходять (де ступить ногою), там трава не росте» ‘where people go the grass won’t grow’, «на битім шляху (на ледачій землі) трава не росте» ‘the grass doesn’t grow at the highway (at the lazy people’s land)’, «без роси (без кореня) трава не росте» ‘without dew (without root) grass doesn’t grow’. Besides, one notices here such motifs of vanity as *людська хода ‘a man’s step’, *ступання ногою ‘leg’s tread’. *битий шлях ‘highway (lit. the struck way)’ (etymological doublet because шлях ‘way’ comes from Germ. schlagen ‘to strike’), *ледача земля ‘lit. lazy land’ (refers to ляда the old designation of a remote parcel). Thus the problem arisews as to the autonomous meanings of separate motifs that they display already within such microscopic limits. Autonomous details in proverbs lookn like combination of the desribed pictographic emblems or mnemonnic prompts.

Incompleteness is to be discerned from the especially intensified form of insufficiency. In this respect adages can be conceived as the statements that can’t become sufficient for autonomous existence under the given textual condition. Even when they display propositional form as those sufficient for autonomy it is the textual conditions that prevent from independent use of such statements so that they become comparable to necessary but insufficient units as lexical units are. While being propositions they are used as words. For instance such proverbial enunciations as simple sentences in German <“kleine Geschenke erhalten die Freundschaft”>, <“keine Regel ohne Ausnahme”> presuppose as a rule their inclusion in the speech as the appositive additions of explanatory destination as the examples show: “– Heute habe ich für Ulrike einen Bildband gekauft… – Ulrike wird sich bestimmt darüber freuen, und kleine Geschenke erhalten die Freundschaft”, “Gewöhnlich geht Hubert schon zeitig ins Bett, Aber keine Regel ohne Ausnahme” [Frey et al., 1979, 44 – 45]. These apparent features of insufficiency are felt in the dependent functions of such propositional structures in speech where they are included as auxiliary (not obligatory and indispensable, decisive!) arguments or means of exemplification. The more it concerns those locutions that have not even propositional forms and are restricted with mere lexical combinations

As far as aphorisms represent condensed textual heterogeneities that presuppose the multitude of interpretative actualities the dual opportunities for the comprehension of aphoristic texts are to be traced that correlate with the suggested incompleteness in general and its intensification in the form of insufficiency. This dualistic nature of aphorisms attains universal scope being attested with such terminological oppositions as Lat. proverbium vs. adagium, Fr. proverb vs. dicton, Engl. proverb vs. adage (saying), Germ. Sprichwort vs. Redensart, Jap. katawazu vs. kanyo:ku, Ukrainian and Russian прислів’я vs. приказка, пословица vs. поговорка. Such ubiquity of aphoristic dualism seems to have its reasons already in the contrast directions of generating processes: when proverb s compress narrations and represent their convolutions adages can be said to expand the keywords and open the possibilities contained in their inner forms. Meanwhile this reason for such opposition only reveals the most evident and immediately observable circumstances. There are still deeper grounds to suppose that are the consequences of the interpretative essence of aphoristic text.

Adage presupposes open ways of expansion and inclusion in various plots; in opposite to it proverb itself is a compressed representation of a given plot. Adages display their insufficiency in spite of possible propositional form just due to their functional ambiguity and subsequent auxiliary destination. It is this diffuse & ambiguous functional load that entails their use as reproducible fixed circumlocutions attested with such denominative forms as <хлопать дверью>, <краснеет заря> in opposite to free collocations <(слышалось) хлопанье дверью>, <(занялась) красная заря> that have no idiomatic meaning neither derivative hints and are free collocations [Королькова, 2008, 82]. That is why adages conceived as such fixed collocations (especially those of completive combinations with denominative verbs as in the cited examples) retain mythological relics as in <выводить на чистую воду> <как в воду глядеть> [Мокиенко, 2005, 231 – 232].

In the same way as riddles can be represented in the form of proverbs with ultimately limited field of interpretations that have been reduced to the single correct solution one can regard adages in opposite to proverbs as limits for their interpretative opportunities. Being more succinct and abbreviated adages restrict these opportunities. Thus the split of idiomatic locutions into the classes of proverbs and adages has reflexive foundation that can be represented with the means of intitulation (key-words): adages are then the immediate expansions of the respective titles whereas proverbs imply intermediary links. An essential difference between adages and proverbs can be defined in that the first only imply the lacking antecedent or consequent containing hints to the latent implicit contents to be found out. Respectively both adages and riddles can be regarded as allegories with a definite indirect meaning whereas proverbs behave as symbols that can be interpreted in infinitely many different ways (be the discussed A.F. Lossev’s concept of allegory and symbol taken into account).

Symbolic and allegorical essence of proverbs as well as of riddles and adages enables representing interpretation as the process of conjectures as to the genuine appropriate meaning. The accumulation of multiplied semantic transition with the derivative indirect meanings makes it possible to confront derivation with deviation from direct literal meanings so that one could say of derivative deviation in proverbial semantic processes. In its turn such deviation must necessarily remain conjecture. Thus one can say not only of derivative but also of conjectural or mantic nature of proverbial semantic derivation The reasons for such conjectural approach can be found also in the compressive nature of proverbial texts. Each text explaining a proverb can be regarded as the deviation from the “true” interpretative version of its expansion. Respectively, the problem of latent possible expansions being open, it remains the field for various conjectures. To attain a reasonable and most probable approximation one has to substantiate the conjectured version so that the motivational problem returns.

Adages as the incomplete and insufficient form of proverbial locutions can demonstrate their deductive inferential foundation from the opposite side. As usual adage contains antecedent or consequent of the implication without the supplementing member. The absent member is still to be guessed. One can easily reproduce such absent part. For instance (he) has eaten the dog presupposes the possible consequent +*(so that) he has become experienced. In the same way (he) has eaten a pound of salt (together with them) can be continued with +*(therefore) he knows his fellows perfectly. Respectively the implied antecedents for adages can be restored: the affairs are as white as coal +* because there were numerous failures. A complicated variant of such continuation can be found out in the adage a mountain doesn’t encounter another mountain +*while a man encounters a man that can be extended still wider with the conclusion +*as far as we have at last met ourselves after the long years. One has grounds to compare adages to the special genus of Chinese folklore known as ‘unfinished utterances’. If in proverbs the members of inferential text (as syllogism) are only folded up and compressed but manifested explicitly the adages are peculiar for the fact that a part of inference is excluded and omitted.

This distinction is comparable to that of lexical vs. propositional units as the necessary vs. the sufficient for textual formation. The very opportunity for the existence of adages as the incomplete proverbs ensues from the above discussed relative autonomy of motifs integrated in a proverbial text. It entails in its turn the opportunity of paradoxical combination of different adages entailing humoristic effect. Such are for instance juxtapositions of the Ukrainian adages «рятував шкіру, а втратив голову», «шукали вітру в полі, а знайшли в голові» (‘he tried to save his skin and lost his head’ ‘they looked for wind in a field and found it in their heads’). One can combine the Russian adage «откормить змею за пазухой» ‘to foster a snake at one’s bosom’ that comes to Aesop [Тимошенко, 1897, 19] with «держать камень за пазухой» ‘to keep a stone at one’s bosom’ so that the statement of “killing the snake from the bosom with the stone that was kept there” can arise. In such cases adages behave in the manner of the lexical units that serve to build up the propositional units.

The fact of the exclusion of a textual part as the distinctive feature of adages gives also the way of generating them as the abbreviated (truncated) proverbs. One eliminates antecedent or consequent thus obtaining adage as the hint to the excluded part. Thus «голодній кумі все хліб на умі» (the hungry aunty constantly thinks about bread) can produce the adage of the title of ‘a hungry aunty’ that refers to the entire proverbial image (as well as the known lupus in fabula does). In this respect adages can be called elliptic proverbs or proverbs with reticence. Thus one can say of adages as the relics of the proverbs as well as of proverbs as the rudiments of textual entities.

The properties of incompleteness and insufficiency can be regarded still within the problematic load of epigrams as the antithesis to any form of tedium or boredom. Epigram precludes tedium already due to its destination. Meanwhile it is already the plenitude that contributes essentially to the effect of boredom. As L.N. Tolstoy has once wittily noticed, “le secret d’être ennuyeux, c’est tout dire” (10.08.1909 according to the notes of A.B. Goldenweiser) ‘the secret to be tedious consists in retelling all’. Therefore the presence of implicit and enigmatic reticent information imparts the meaningfulness to utterances, and epigrams become the puzzles to solve. The mission of epigrams is to excite curiosity in opposite to tedium. It’s already due to their indispensable problematic load that they must become curious for an addressee.

It is not a mere informational deficit (as opposed to the excess of pleonasm) but the very enigmatic verve that makes these tasks for mind fascinating. One supplements an epigram with one’s own conjectures as the remedies contra tedium entailed with an epigram’s interpretative opportunities. Here is the reason for the existence of the places of indefiniteness indispensable for epigrams. All revelations of such places (ellipsis and reticence, incompleteness and insufficiency) can be generalized in the (already mentioned) concept of lacuna so that epigrams can be defined as the class of texts with lacunas destined for conjectures.

The exploration of such “void & vacuous” places within a textual entity has been undertaken primarily within the translations’ studies. Thus the principle of “functional similitude” as the demand for a translation’s adequacy has been suggested [Левый, 1974, 36] where this demand presupposes the introduction of additional comments comparable to the just mentioned conjectures in comprehending proverbial locutions. The existence of lacunas is provided with the system of textual protection that prevents the incomprehensibility that otherwise would arise from such omitted places. In particular such protective devices appear in drama where they enable the spectator’s ability to ignore or just not to notice the apparent contradictions and informational deficiencies⁶³⁹. These devices presuppose the evolvement of interpretative textual opportunities so that the integration is not only expected but also guessed⁶⁴⁰. Conjectural (mantic) features of proverbial texts are connected with other their qualities of the kind, namely those of enigmatic and reticent nature as the revelations of incompleteness. It is already the partiality of designation and reference that entails textual incompleteness so that the appearance of such qualities looks out quite plausible. The existence of such mantic aspect determines the attachment of proverbs and riddles to the realm of ambiguities.

The problem of veracity and adequacy exists for proverbial locutions as the touchstone for their interpretation and comprehensions. At the same time such problem doesn’t exists for adages due to existence of their definite meaning together with the indefiniteness of implications. This difference may be exemplified with the adage “(one) knows where the shoe pinches” (coming down to Plutarch) that has the only meaning of knowing the feebleness or obstacles. Another adage “(one) runs as a bullet” has the only interpretation of the meaning of movement’s velocity. There is also proverb concerning the same item as “quick choice – long repentance” where the different circumstances ensuing from the mentioned bullet-like movement are implied, and so the interpretations are of different kind: at one side it concerns the destructive effect of hasty decision as the antecedent; at another side the painful aftermath is meant as the consequent; meanwhile the both of them are to be chosen to emphasize as actual predicate. The bookkeeping locution «отпустил денег» (literally ‘(he has) released the money’ that is sent money) can have an outlook of adage. Quite definite meaning is proper to the adage “packed as herrings in a barrel” that admits no other interpretations. In this respect adages are alike to idiomatic terms in demonstrating definiteness and exactitude of meaning⁶⁴¹.Such distinction of proverbs from adages can be demonstrated with the replica from A. Ostrovski’s drama «Бесприданницы» (The dowerless bride) in Karandashov’s replica: «Да-с, Лариса Дмитриевна знает, что не все то золото, что блестит. Она умеет отличать золото от мишуры». The quoted proverbial locution is succeeded with its fragment («золото» ‘gold’) that is implied to be known and comprehended and to be opposed to the own author’s trope («мишура» ‘tinsel’) presuming the contents of the proverb to be reduced to literal meaning (gold as metal opposed to tinsel and not the metaphor of positive qualities). The allegorical contents of proverb can be said to be deciphered here as the transitional step to use new trope of ‘tinsel’ that already has exact implicative reference and can be regarded as adage in its opposition to ‘gold’.

Adages don’t need conclusions to be obtained. They designate only singular and separate event without consequences and implications that would enable generalizing judgments: if one “kills the time” (or “eats the time” in Japanese), of course it will entail some consequences but one can’t come to any conclusion concerning them from the contents of the adage. The same occasional actions are represented with such adage-like locutions as «хлопнул дверью», «сжег мосты / корабли», «разрази его гром» that imply no further consequences. To compare such proverbial locutions as «малая искра рождает большой пожар» or «из искры возгорится пламя» can be cited.

Quite a different situation concerns proverbs. It is here to remind that there exists a whole set of fabulous plots concerning the motif of the so called “wise advice” (with the standard signatures AA 910 – 915) where the probation of the veracity of proverbial utterances makes up the core of narrative. Besides, it is to be taken into account that the majority of adages are comparisons or completive collocations (consisting of a verb with complement). Thus adages get an outlook of the designated motifs’ periphrastic descriptions. Such locutions as “sleeps as a log”, “wash dirty linen”, “play ducks and drakes”, “throw dust in eye” play the role of adages as the circumlocutions of the definite singled out notions and images. In this form of circumlocutions adages designate the essential attributes of the explored objects, and it enables their formation in poetical speech. The examples of the kind can be found in R.M. Rilke’s lines: “bei den Wurzeln sbebendsten Sternen … Haus (bauen)” contains the hint to Orpheus’s myth. These semantic properties give ground to trace further distinctive features of adages and proverbs in colloquial and idiomatic speeches.

The proverb vs. adage opposition has also connection to the compression vs. expansion aspect of aphoristic texts. Proverbs are always the convolutions or folds of some wider narrative entities whereas sayings or adages are void of this referential load. Proverbs refer to some imaginary plot and can be regarded as compressed summaries of it or as annotated descriptions of respective fables. Be proverbs the compressions of fables, so adages can be regarded as the expansion of keywords. The locution “to fear a wolf – not to go to a forest” is the proverb referring to a tale about cowardice. At the same time this locution implies the possibility of involving the respective image in a narrative so that an adage “fabulous wolf” (from Lat. lupus in fabula) appears that has already no reference to any concrete fable. The same concerns such adage as “paper tiger” that only bears vestiges of pre-existent Far Eastern traditions and images without more exact reference to any of them. Adages represent then proverbial fragments that need supplementing with the reproduction of the absent textual part. Respectively adages always presuppose their implied invisible part still to be guessed and reproduced. Adages acquire abstractedness (in comparison to proverbs) and as the result also the mentioned exactitude of meaning. This property accounts for their capability of being converted into and extended substantive (in the manner of S-transformation of generative grammar).

The difference between proverbs and adages in respect to their properties of folding texts can be illustrated with the comparison between the locutions “when the sweethearts make a quarrel they do only cherish themselves” and “cherish with quarrel”. The last fragment implies reference to the quoted proverb but not to the implicit plot immediately so that it gains autonomy from this plot folded in the proverb. This lost of immediate reference proper for proverbs entails together with abstractedness also the absence of totality of plot that proverbs refer to so that the