ABSTRACT
Folklorists and linguists have repeatedly attempted to explain the semantic ambiguity of proverbs, which results to a large degree from their being used in various contexts with different functions. But proverbs also act as analogies, and this fact adds to the complexity of understanding their precise meaning in a particular speech act. Some semantic and semiotic studies along this line are by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, “Toward a Theory of Proverb Meaning,” Proverbium, no. 22 (1973), 821–827; Richard P. Honeck and Clare T. Kibler, “The Role of Imagery, Analogy, and Instantiation in Proverb Comprehension,” Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 13 (1984), 393–414; Arvo Krikmann, “On Denotative Indefiniteness of Proverbs,” Proverbium, 1 (1984), 47–91, and 2 (1985), 58–85; Thomas Green and William Pepicello, “The Proverb and Riddle as Folk Enthymemes,” Proverbium, 3 (1986), 33–45; and Robert M. Schumacher, Factors Affecting Memorial Access to Analogical Similarity (Diss. University of Illinois, 1989).
