Estudio de los refranes ingleses como modelo para la clasificación de los europeísmosStudy of english proverbs as a model for the classification of europeisms

Abstract

The present doctoral thesis proposes a system for the organisation of proverbs existing in an identical, or quasi-identical, form in different languages, particularly those in Europe. For that purpose, it has been articulated in two blocks. In the first, an attempt has been made at providing an answer for a series of fundamental questions for the understanding of the proposed system, as well as a definition of proverb based on definitions provided by several renowned intellectuals. Subsequently, the linguistic phenomenon generally known as europeism is explained in order to, then, make a brief recount of a sample of literary works and assess their contribution to the diffusion of proverbial wisdom in Europe. Finally, two media that provide some interesting perspectives for paremiology are presented. In the second block, a proposal for the classification of proverbs in different languages is made taking as a reference the 1,164 proverbs included in the "Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs". For this purpose, some systems presented by recognised paremiologists are evaluated, assessing their contributions and attempting to analyse which aspects needed to be amended for the classification presented here. For the composition of this system, the aforementioned proverbs have been analysed from four perspectives that allow for the consideration, in equal conditions, of proverbs from different languages. Finally, after a detailed analysis of a series of proverbs according to the proposed criteria, a classification of the 1,164 proverbs has been carried out, identifying each of them and allowing for their grouping according to the common features detected after their analysis.