Authors
- Alexeeva Tatyana E. PhD (Philology)
Annotation
The article considers the English proverbs containing comparison as a grammatical category and a stylistic device (simile). The paremiological fund of the English language holds a great number of proverbs with comparative structures as the mental operation of comparison forms the basis of many other intellectual activities. Using the methods of continuous sampling, structural-semantic and quantitative analysis the author has found that the evaluative adjectives good and bad in their comparative and superlative degrees are by far the most frequent words in the proverbs with comparison. The comparative degree of the word good is used more often than
its superlative degree. The typical structures of the English sayings with comparison are the impersonal sentences beginning with (It is) better as well as the comparative structure better than. Many proverbs are based on the stylistic device of antithesis that involves opposition of words and ideas achieved mostly through antonyms. Comparative structures with positive connotation prevail over the negative attitudes. In terms of quantity, the synthetic and suppletive forms of comparison prevail over the analytical ones, which can be explained by the proverbs’ origin and such features as brevity and rhythmicity. The stylistic device of simile is often used in English proverbs as a means of describing a person or an object in a most simple, concise and effective way. The research materials may be used for teaching English at various levels of studies.
How to link insert
Alexeeva, T. E. (2023). COMPARISON IN ENGLISH PROVERBS AS A GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY AND A STYLISTIC DEVICE: STRUCTURAL-SEMANTIC ANALYSIS Bulletin of the Moscow City Pedagogical University. Series "Pedagogy and Psychology", 2023, №3 (51), 50. https://doi.org/10.25688/2076-913X.2023.51.3.05
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