What is a proverb? What is a idiom?

Spoken sayings, also known as common sayings and sayings, these three should be synonymous. The word "slang" has been widely used as a linguistic term; the word "shangyan" has the flavor of classical Chinese; the word "slang" has the flavor of spoken language.

Some articles occasionally refer to common sayings as idioms. Both slang and idioms are conventional language forms in Chinese, and they are closely related. The idiom "convention" contains the two words "su" and "成". But from a learning perspective, they still have their own characteristics. Try comparing the following examples:

A. The big fish eats the small fish, and the small fish eats the shrimp

B. The weak eats the strong.

A. The old crooked tree has been growing for many years. Can't get up

B. It's hard to get back

A. The horns that grow later are longer than the ears that grow first

B. Coming from behind

A. Picked up the sesame seeds and threw away the watermelon

B. Lost a big thing for a small amount

A. You take your Yangguan Road; I will cross my single-plank bridge

B. Parting ways

A. Afraid of wolves before and tigers behind

B. Afraid of head and tail

A. Breaking the casserole to get to the bottom of things

B. Getting to the bottom of things< /p>

A. The tortoise looked at the mung beans and fell in love

B. Falling in love at first sight

In the above sets of examples, A and B have the same meaning, and A is a common saying , B is an idiom. Common sayings are based on images; idioms are characterized by conciseness. Common sayings are mostly complete sentences, varying in length, and can be used flexibly; idioms are mostly stable structures of four characters and neat in form. Common sayings are popular among the people orally, and their writing maintains the characteristics of being popular; idioms are mostly used in written language, and their writing tends to be elegant. From this comparison, we can make a definition from the main aspects: colloquialism is a popular spoken language with images as the main body. Its structural form is relatively stable, but it can be flexible in practical application.

This is the main connotation of the proverb. In terms of denotation, it is inevitably intertwined with the idiom. Although common sayings take image as the main body, they do not exclude conciseness; although idioms feature conciseness, they do not exclude image. Although most idioms have a four-character structure, some are composed of more than four characters; although common sentence structures vary in length, a small number are composed of four characters. Although most common sayings are spoken, they have been widely used in literary works and even in philosophy and science and technology books. With the improvement of people's education level, idioms are also often used in spoken language. In this way, common sayings and idioms may penetrate each other, and there will be overlap. For example:

① A fire broke out at the city gate, affecting the fish in the pond (image, eight characters, idiom → saying)

② Three days to fish, two days to dry the nets (image, eight characters, Idiom → common saying)

③ Add insult to injury (image, four characters, common saying → idiom)

④ Habits become natural (concise, five characters, common saying → idiom)

⑤Don’t dare to go too far (image, concise, seven-character, colloquial saying ← → idiom)

Spoken sayings are spoken, and idioms are written. These examples have some characteristics of both colloquial sayings and idioms. It seems that they can be included in both colloquial saying dictionaries and idiom dictionaries. Fortunately, there are not many such cases.

Spoken sayings and idioms may sometimes transform into each other and exist at the same time. For example:

① The bench is not warm ← → The seats are not warm

② I am afraid of breaking the jade bottle when hunting mice ← → Mouse-killing device

③ I can’t wait to look at my eyes. < /p>

⑦ Luban plays with a big ax in front of the gate← → Banmen plays with an ax

⑧ I have never drunk ink← → I have no ink on my chest

⑨ I don’t eat for fear of choking← → Stop eating due to choking

⑩What kind of medicine should be taken for any disease←→Prescribe the right medicine to the case

①①Catch all the fish in the river←→Catch them all in one catch

If the sentence structure of the proverb tends to be neat, it may be transformed into Idioms; if idioms add figurative elements, they may be transformed into common sayings. When a common saying is converted into an idiom, it can still maintain its image; when an idiom is converted into a common saying, if it lacks image, it must be supplemented, often turning it into a idiom. (See the idiom below) Common sayings and idioms are both related and different. Common sayings have the advantages of common sayings; idioms have the advantages of idioms. Common proverbs make descriptions lively and idioms make arguments powerful, both of which are worth learning.

2. Proverbs and maxims

Some books refer to proverbs and proverbs as proverbs and compile them together. The compilation together is understandable, but the two are not equivalent. Proverbs are just a part of common sayings. They are common sayings that summarize knowledge and experience and contain ideological meanings.

For example:

①White wine makes people’s faces red, gold makes people’s hearts black

②If you don’t listen to the old man’s words, you will suffer in front of your eyes

③No matter how small the country’s affairs are, they are still big. Yes, no matter how big a personal matter is, it is still small

④The train runs fast, all because of the headband

⑤The country is easy to change, but the nature is hard to change

⑥ When gold is broken into pieces, its weight is the same

⑦It relies on mountains to fall, and water flows

⑧If you keep the green mountains, you are not afraid of running out of firewood

⑨Ink can be ground thicker

⑩A man becomes bad when he is rich; a woman becomes rich when she becomes bad

①①When people unite, the mountains will move

①②A dog that bites will not reveal its presence Teeth

①③As long as you work hard, an iron ruler can be ground into a needle

The motto also summarizes knowledge and experience and contains ideological significance. But if you distinguish carefully, there are still slight differences. The knowledge and experience summarized by proverbs are mainly social aspects, mostly logical thinking, philosophical statements, and often come from famous works; while the knowledge and experience summarized by proverbs are not limited to social aspects, but also include natural science and production practice (such as agricultural proverbs) , it comes from the mouths of the people, mostly belongs to image thinking, and is a literary language. For this distinction, aphorisms should be classified into the category of written language, and proverbs should be classified into the category of spoken language. However, it is inevitable that there will be overlaps.

A, fullness brings harm, modesty benefits (written)

B, humility makes people progress, pride makes people fall behind (spoken)

A, those who are ambitious Things come true (written language)

B. Nothing is difficult in the world, only for those who are willing (spoken language)

A. Worry about the world's worries first, and rejoice after the world's happiness (written language)

B, hardship comes first, pleasure comes last (colloquial)

Strictly speaking, for the above three groups, A is a motto and B is a proverb. However, due to the improvement of people's education level, these classical mottos have also entered spoken language. We can only make distinctions as much as possible, but we have to admit that there are actually some overlaps

Part of the proverbs are proverbs, and the other part are descriptive sentences. They do not summarize knowledge and experience, but just express a mood. Such as:

①I don’t recognize the money for this pot of wine

②I don’t know which end of the kang is hot

③The cicada makes a faint sound as it flies across the other branches

④Pick your nose horizontally and raise your eyes vertically

⑤Patch your eyebrows and beard

⑥Get up early and rush to the evening market

⑦Please beg grandpa, sue grandma

⑧The moon in foreign countries is rounder than that in China

⑨Shaking your head doesn’t count

⑩Looking at it or not eating it at all

①①Open one eye, Close one eye

①②The one who left is wearing red, the one who is coming is wearing green

This part of the sentence is descriptive, different from the proverbs that summarize knowledge and experience, and there is no certainty The terminology is now only generally called colloquialism. It is really necessary to distinguish it from proverbs and give it a definite name.

Some books call it "idioms", but the language phenomena involved are "slang", such as: back to back, burning the midnight oil, playing the piano randomly, working hard, taking advantage of others, etc. In the preface of "Five Thousand Sayings", the author once used "idioms" to refer to descriptive sayings. The definition of the term idiom is not very clear. Some dictionaries use it as a term that is higher than common sayings and idioms, and the pronunciation of idiom itself is similar to that of "common saying". In some dialect areas, it is even a homophone. As a term, it has its shortcomings. After careful consideration, I thought it would be better to use "slang" instead.

Slang, this term is sometimes confused with colloquialisms, and is also called slang. This "slang" is related to the "li" in "countryside", which literally means "countryside people". Slang often refers to patois with dialect color. Since it is sometimes confused with colloquialisms, and "idioms" actually mostly refer to slang, it is better to borrow the word "slang" to specifically refer to these descriptive colloquialisms.

Four, idioms and witticisms

Idioms and witticisms are basically synonyms. Xiehouyu is a linguistic term, and witticism is a verbal term.

Xiehouyu is a half-word in form (the first half is an image or example, and the second half is an explanation or explanation). In fact, it is to make the words more vivid and specific. Therefore, idioms should be included in common sayings. However, the images in the idioms are often cartoonish, with a playful and ridiculing tone. It uses various rhetorical devices to modify characters, words, phrases, and sentences (including the proverbs themselves) to make them lively. Therefore, it is somewhat different from proverbs and descriptive sayings (renamed slang). Such as:

①The narcissus does not bloom, but it is pretending to be garlic (modifier)

②The cat cries like a mouse, fake compassion (modifier)

③The flood washed away the Dragon King In the temple, one’s own people do not recognize one’s own people (modify the sentence)

④The carpenter wears shackles, and it is his own fault (modify the idiom)

⑤Zhang Fei threads a needle, and his big eyes stare at the small eyes (modify the idiom) itself)

Some idioms are often transformed into idioms in order to enhance their image.

①Blowing fire with a rolling pin, knowing nothing about it

②Hitting birds with gold marbles is not worth the loss

③Embroidering peonies on green satin is the icing on the cake

④ Walking in the mill road, no head or tail

⑤Crabs crossing the river, all hands and feet

⑥Fifteen buckets to fetch water, all up and down

⑦The dung beetle became a cicada and climbed to the sky in one step

⑧Mix green onions with tofu, everything is pure and pure

⑨The prince of hell issued a notice and made a lot of lies

The good and bad comments are mixed, and some of the comments are good and bad. Neither the language nor the image is good, and some of them are even language rubbish and should not be abused. Some commonly used idioms have better images and are more closely combined with proverbs and descriptive sayings (slang). For example:

①The weasel looks at the chicken, and the more he looks at it, the chicken becomes rarer (the former is an image, the latter is an explanation, experience → proverb)

②Fetching water from a bamboo basket is in vain (the former is Image, followed by explanation, descriptive colloquialism → slang)

③ Sesame seeds are blooming, growing taller and taller (formerly image, followed by explanation, descriptive colloquialism → slang)

To sum up Said, proverbs, slang (descriptive sayings), and idioms, these three parts constitute the whole of the saying. Common sayings are spoken sentences, which are different from written idioms and maxims. They are the two major systems of spoken and written Chinese.

Proverbs are fixed sentences widely circulated among the people. They are the crystallization of the experiences and lessons summed up by the people in their long-term life practice. Although the proverbs are simple and popular, they reflect very profound truths.

Xiehouyu

Xiehouyu is a unique wisdom and interesting language of Chinese people, and it is also a popular grammar among the people.

Xiehouyu is a special language form created by the people in their daily life practice. It generally consists of two parts. The first half is a metaphor, like a riddle, and the second half is an explanation, like the answer to a riddle, which is very natural and appropriate.

For example:

A slap can’t make a sound - ;

Lazy woman’s bound feet - .

In ordinary language. Usually, as long as the first half is spoken and "xie" is removed from the second half, the original meaning can be understood and guessed, so it is called "xieyuyu".

The name "Xiehou" first appeared in the Tang Dynasty. "Old Tang Book." The so-called "Zheng Wu Xiehou Style" (a kind of "Xiehou" style poem) has been mentioned in "The Biography of Zheng Wei". But as a language form and language expression, it has appeared as far back as the pre-Qin period. Such as "Warring States Policy." "Chu Ce Four": "It is not too late to mend the fold after the sheep has been lost." This means that it is not too late to mend the sheepfold after the sheep is lost. This is the earliest comment we have seen today.

We have reason to believe that this was a popular saying among the people at that time and was based on the life experience of ordinary people. Although such ancient sayings are rarely found in written records, there are believed to be many among the people. For example, Qian Daxin's "Heng Yan Lu" contains: "Send goose feathers thousands of miles away, things are light and people's intentions are heavy, which is also the proverb of the Song Dynasty recorded in Fuzhai." This kind of postscript is still used by people today.

When studying the origin of Xiehouyu, some linguists and linguistics monographs also mentioned other related names. For example, Chen Wangdao, in "Rhetoric", listed the idioms in the "Tibetan Ci" section and introduced them; Guo Shaoyu, in "Research on Proverbs", pointed out that the idioms originated from "shooting fuyu" (a form similar to guessing puzzles). ); some other books also list names such as "argot", "riddle", "proverb", "slang", "quip" and so on. By comparison, most of them reveal some similarities and differences. Regarding the classification of idioms, Xiang Wuding said. What's more, there are many idioms, which have several properties. It is difficult to classify them scientifically. For the convenience of reference, we put all the homophonic words in the Xiehouyu entries into one category, and the rest are divided into three categories according to the nature of the metaphorical part.

First, homophones. For example:

An empty coffin is buried -

Scallions mixed with tofu -

This type of idiom uses homophones or near-syllables to harmonize, and derives another required meaning from the original meaning. This kind of idiom often requires several twists and turns to understand its meaning. Therefore it is more interesting.

Second, the metaphorical category. For example: