Siberian Federal University

Issue

Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences. 2026 19 (3)

Authors

Litovkina, Anna T.

Contact information

Litovkina, Anna T.: J. Selye University (Komárno, Slovak Republic);

Keywords

Anglo-American; anti-proverb; money; pun; homophone; homonym; patronym

Abstract

For centuries, proverbs have provided a framework for endless transformation. In recent decades, the modification of proverbs has taken such proportions that sometimes we can even meet more proverb transformations than traditional proverbs. Wolfgang Mieder has invented a term anti-proverb (or in German Antisprichwort) for such deliberate proverb innovations. Although proverb transformations arise in a variety of forms, several types stand out (which are by no means mutually exclusive), e.g., adding new words to the original text, replacing a single word, substituting two or more words, changing the second part of the proverb, melding two proverbs, adding literal interpretations. The main focus of the study is on the discussion of various types of punning in Anglo-American anti-proverbs about money. The article analyses and exemplifies the most frequent types of puns (such as paronyms, homonyms and homophones). It also considers some other types of puns (such as repetitive puns, double and triple puns, puns playing upon personal names, story puns, and bilingual puns). Last but not least, the study examines the choice of a word for punning. The analysis puts main emphasis on the formal features of the anti-proverbs and not on the themes emerging in them. The Anglo-American anti-proverbs discussed in the study were taken primarily from American and British written sources

Pages

536–546

EDN

UDOEZY

Paper at repository of SibFU

https://elib.sfu-kras.ru/handle/2311/158214

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).