ABSTRACT
Scholars throughout the world, but especially in Russia, Germany, and the United States, have attempted in the last twenty years to find out what the paremiological minimum for their respective languages might be. As folklorists, sociologists, psychologists, or psycholinguists, they have tried to establish lists of those proverbs that have a high frequency or currency using modern demographic methods including sophisticated questionnaires. Among the pioneering works along these lines are Grigorii L’vovich Permiakov, Paremiologicheskii eksperiment (Moskva: Nauka, 1971); and his article “On the Question of a Russian Paremiological Minimum,” Proverbium, 6 (1989), 91–102; Kenneth Higbee and Richard Millard, “Visual Imagery and Familiarity Ratings for 203 Sayings,” American Journal of Psychology, 96 (1983), 211–222; and Peter Grzybek, “Sinkendes Kulturgut? Eine empirische Pilotstudie zur Bekanntheit deutscher Sprichwörter,” Wirkendes Wort, 31 (1991), 239–264.
