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Honorable Members of the Examination Board! Ladies and Gentlemen!

I am Peter Brown and the title of my graduation paper is:

PROVERBS IN MODERN ENGLISH AND ROMANIAN

The graduation paper consists of introduction, two chapters, conclusions, bibliography

and references. In the Introduction the importance of the topic of the investigation is

grounded and aims, tasks and methods of the analysis are determined. This graduation

paper is dedicated to the research of English proverbs and their specific features. The

general aim of this work was to study and point out the most essential characteristics of

English proverbs that make them so bright, expressive, popular and memorable. In

Chapter I. Proverbs in the English Language we have analysed the definition and

origin of proverbs, their classification and structure, changeability and unchangeability,constant variant dependence and content, types of phraseological meanings of proverbs

and the sociolinguistic character of proverbs. In Chapter II Style, Structure and

Translation of the English Proverbs our research dealt with stylistic devices in the

English proverbs, lexical and stylistic means of their formation, morphological

constituents and syntactic analysis of proverbs. An important part of this chapter is the

analysis of various types of translations of proverbs from English into Romanian with

occasional examples of translation into Russian as well. Most of the English proverbs

were supplied with their equivalents in Romanian.

As a result of the investigation stylistic devices, that are most frequently used in the

formation of proverbs, have been singled out. These are alliteration and rhyme among

phonetic stylistic devices, parallelism, chiasmus, ellipsis and repetition among syntactical

stylistic devices, metaphor, personification, antonomasia and simile among lexical

stylistic devices and antithesis among lexical-syntactic stylistic devices. They all

contribute to the brevity, laconism, brightness and expressiveness of proverbs.

The second step is the morphological analysis of proverbs. Here the most important

parts of speech that make up proverbs have been studied. The investigation has resulted in

the fact that among notional parts of speech the most frequent are the verb and the noun

performing various syntactic functions. As to the verb, it is represented both in finite and

non-finite forms and the latter bear the same functions as the noun.

Then the syntactic structure of the English proverbs is analyzed. Thus, the proverbsare more often expressed in simple expanded sentences than in unexpanded ones.

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Composite sentences: both compound and complex are as well very frequently used in the

formation of proverbs. Here the most typical syntactic structures have been pointed out.

Sentences have been also classified on the basis of the purpose of communication and it

has been found out that the majority of proverbs are declarative and declarative-

imperative sentences.

Then there is an observation of the usage of proverbs in literature and survey of

lexical, morphological and syntactic changes they undergo when used in a certain context.

This part also deals with the problems of translation of English proverbs into the Russian

language and here the most frequent ways and techniques of their translation are

distinguished. It is stated that most of English proverbs, having their correspondence in

Russian are translated by means of analogue. But in the cases when there are noRomanian or Russian equivalents and it is necessary to render certain peculiarities and

national colouring of English proverbs they are translated word for word or descriptively.

Having studied the theory of this issue and analyzed more than 700 English proverbs

and more than 400 Romanian (and a limited number of Russian) translations I have come

to the following conclusions:

The proverb may be defined as a short popular metaphoric saying, having a fixed

specific rhythmic-phonetic arrangement expressing a common truth or useful advice based

on experience, which are usually of unknown or non-traced origin;

Proverbs are very expressive and vivid due to numerous stylistic devices used in

them. As proverbs are mostly spoken than written, phonetic stylistic devices play a very

important role in their formation. These are alliteration, rhyme and rhythm. We may

observe a great variety of rhymes in English proverbs: complete male and complete female

rhymes, incomplete consonant and incomplete vowel rhymes, mixed rhymes. These

devices perform very significant functions in proverbs. Thus, rhyme makes metrical

division of proverbs into rhythmical units more precise. Rhyme and alliteration give a

certain melodic effect and also contribute to semantic singling out of key-words, making

them more noticeable and drawing our attention to them;

Among lexical stylistic devices used in English proverbs the most frequent are

metaphor, personification, antonomasia and simile. They are very helpful in creating vivid

images and emphasizing the main ideas of proverbs, making them much more colourful,bright and expressive. Antithesis is the most widely spread lexical-syntactic device found

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in proverbs, it bears comparative and rhythm-forming functions;

As to the syntactic stylistic devices they are of extreme importance for proverbs

as the proverbs should be laconic and syntactically well constructed to be more easily

memorized. Thus, we can often come across ellipsis, parallelism, chiasmus, different types

of repetitions: anaphoric, epiphoric framing. All these stylistic devices perform both the

rhythmic and semantic functions. They contribute to laconism and brevity of proverbs and

make them sound more expressive and emphatic;

As a result of morphological analysis of proverbs I may conclude that all parts of

speech are present in them: notional and functional. Some proverbs contain only notional

parts of speech, for instance, noun, verb, adjective, but such proverbs are very rare.

Among notional parts of speech the most essential are the noun and the verb. The firstperforms the functions of the subject, object, attribute, adverbial modifier and predicative.

The verb is as frequent as the noun and is represented in its two subclasses: finites and

non-finites. It has been observed that in proverbs the substantival functions of the verb

expressed in its non-finite forms become even more essential than its syntactic function of

predicate. Thus, the verbids: the infinitive, the gerund, the present and the past participles

are widely used in proverbs where they serve as the subject, object, adverbial modifier,

attribute or predicative. The finites are still represented in all their grammatical categories:

time, mood, aspect, voice, person and number. Most of proverbs are expressed in the

indicative mood, present simple tense. Aspectual forms of continuous and perfect are quite

limited and are not characteristic of the majority of proverbs; The adjective and the adverb

are abundant in proverbs, though not so numerous as the noun and the verb. Their degrees

of comparison are rather formed by means of suffixes to contribute to the brevity of

proverbs. The pronouns are used as noun substitutes and most of all these are he, it, who,

that, having generalizing meaning. Numerals are rather rare and especially the ordinals;

The English proverbs have quite a rich variety of syntactic constructions. Among

communicative types of sentences declarative and declarative-imperative are the most

typical of proverbs, due to the fact that in such forms of statement the common generally

accepted truth is expressed or advice is given, and that is the aim of proverbs;

Proverbs are subdivided into simple, both expanded and unexpanded, and

composite sentences. They can be also affirmative or negative. The negation is expressedin various ways: not with auxiliary or modal verbs, not preceded by a notional verb,

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pronouns no, nothing, none, nobody and adverb never. The most frequent are negations

formed by not with auxiliary or modal verbs and pronoun never;

The composite proverbs fall into the asyndetic and the syndetic. They are divided

into the compound and the complex sentences. In most of the cases the compound

sentences are linked by the conjunction and, and less often by but. The complex

sentences as a rule have only one subordinate clause and may contain various

conjunctions, such as while, when, till, until, before, if, as, and also pronouns who and

that. Very often these pronouns are accompanied by the pronoun he where they perform

generalizing functions;

Proverbs are frequently used in literary works. They may be taken in

their initial form, just quoted, or may be transformed, or innovated, i.e. undergocertain changes. These changes are of three types: lexical, morphological and

syntactical. All these changes may occur simultaneously to fit the context; the

process is similar to the transformation of all phraseological units;

Having studied and summarized the most popular classifications of methods and

techniques of translation of phraseological units, I distinguished the following methods, by

means of which English proverbs can be translated into the Russian language: absolute

equivalent, relative equivalent, analogue, antonymic translation and calque or loan

translation. While translating English proverbs the most frequent are relative equivalent

and analogue, whereas absolute equivalent, calques and antonymic translation are less

widely spread, when proverbs are part of context, but their form and arrangement remain

unchanged, they are as a rule translated by means of analogue, but when their lexical,

morphological or syntactical arrangement is changed they are usually translated word for

word, i.e. by calques or loan translation.

On the whole proverbs play an important role in our life. They give us advice,

instruct us, help to overcome difficulties and teach us how to live. Proverbs represent the

history, culture and traditions of a nation; they are the embodiment of folk wisdom.

Proverbs enrich our vocabulary; speech becomes more laconic, vivid, colourful,

emphatic, emotional, expressive and full of sense. They may be used as euphemisms or to

produce a certain comic effect. But we should be cautious while using the proverbs,

because their misuse may lead to absurdity and misunderstanding.

Thank you for your attention!