MAIN DIRECTIONS OF THE LINGUISTIC STUDY OF APHORISMS

UDC 811

Ivanou Yauhen Yauhenavich – DSc (Philology), Professor, Head of the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics. Mogilev State A. Kuleshov University (1 Kosmonavtov str., 212022, Mogilev, Republic of Belarus). E-mail: ivanov-msu@mail.ru

DOI: https://doi.org/ 10.52065/2520-6729-2025-291-15.

Key words: aphorism, philology, linguistics, phraseology, paremiology, aphorism, theory, methodology.

For citation: Ivanou Ya. Ya. Main directions of the linguistic study of aphorisms. Proceedings of BSTU, issue 4, Print- and Mediatechnologies, 2025, no. 1 (291), pp. 108–119 (In Belarusian). DOI: 10.52065/2520-6729-2025-291-15.

Abstract

Determining the aspects of linguistic study of aphorisms plays a crucial role in the development of aphoristics as an independent branch of linguistic knowledge. The article presents an overview of the development and modern paradigm of the study of aphorisms as a speech work and as a linguistic unit over the past hundred years. The purpose of the research is to identify the main directions of the linguistic study of aphorisms in the second half of the 20th – early 21st centuries (based on more than 2.000 scientific papers published during this period and devoted to the description of aphorisms in different languages). As a result of the study, it was established that the linguistic understanding of the aphorism was greatly influenced by previously formed non-linguistic approaches to its study: literary criticism and folklore. This influence contributed to the development of two of the most traditional directions in the linguistic study of aphorisms: as a literary work and as a folklore text. From the mid-20th century to the present day, three main areas of linguistic study of aphorisms have been developing: phraseological, paremiological, and linguacultural. In parallel, another, semantic area of studying aphorisms as works specific in content is developing. In modern linguistics (since the 1990s), several more areas of studying aphorisms are developing: linguostylistic; linguatextual; idiostylistic; linguodidactic; structural; linguosemiotic; linguapragmatic; linguacultural; psycholinguistic. At the beginning of the 21st century, comprehensive descriptions of aphorisms in one language (Belarusian, Russian, Ukrainian) appeared. In addition, individual multi-aspect studies of the structure, semantics, and functions of an aphorism as a linguistic and speech unit are developing quite actively using the material of different languages. The study of the linguistic nature of aphorisms is very diverse and methodologically uncertain.

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10.01.2025