ABSTRACT
Theoretical proverb scholarship has been influenced to a large degree by the semiotic studies of Grigorii L’vovich Permiakov (1919–1983), notably his Russian book Ot pogovorki do skazki: Zametki po obschei teorii klishe (Moskva: Nauka, 1970) and its English translation From Proverb to Folk-Tale: Notes on the General Theory of Cliché (Moscow: Nauka, 1979). Many of his subsequent articles have now been collected and translated into German or English by Peter Grzybek and Wolfgang Eismann in their essay volume entitled Semiotische Studien zum Sprichwort – Simple Forms Reconsidered I (Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 1984). The most significant publications that interpret proverbs as “sign” are listed in the bibliography of Peter Grzybek’s article that is reprinted here, but see especially also Zoltán Kanyó, Sprichwörter – Analyse einer Einfachen Form: Ein Beitrag zur generativen Poetik (The Hauge: Mouton, 1981).
