Deformation strategies in creation of anti-proverbs in Russian, English and German languages

The paper considers anti-proverbs as statements generated from traditional proverbs which are modified due to a language play (play on words, parodying, adding, omitting, etc.) to produce a novel utterance. The phenomenon under study is characterized by a range of synonymous terms used in current publications, terminological variation being observed in different languages. The key terms in this paper are "anti-proverb" and "proverb". Variability and the ability to vary are currently the main features of proverbs related to their functioning in modern languages. Study of the cognitive mechanisms underlying proverb formation enables us to penetrate into the nature of transformations in proverbial units. Due to the semantic capacity proverbs are actively reproduced, re-processed, reinterpreted and used by native speakers in a modified form. It is necessary to emphasize the complex nature of these verbal entities, which appear to be a source of interpretations and the basis for generating various kinds of anti-proverbs as a result of alternative interpretation of reality. Semantic and syntactic models in proverbs make it possible to use them as an instrument for derivation of meaning. It is quite reasonable to describe proverb modifications through deformation strategies that appear to be transformation mechanisms - relatively regular and subject to the language laws. Such issues as causes, ethno cultural peculiarities of deformations based on traditional proverbs which have become a mass phenomenon, penetrating into different spheres of contemporary life (press, advertising slogans, fiction, epigrams, quotations, toasts, graffiti, etc.) are of particular interest. Deformational strategies have a certain pragmatic potential, they are used when the need to break traditional forms of proverbs arises. Studying deformations is an important problem of paremiology, which is aimed at researching the proverbs in modern languages. Complex study of deformation strategies for transforming traditional proverbs into anti-proverbs in Russian, English and German languages seems relevant to understand the strategies tend to be universal and international. Consequently, the comprehensive analysis makes it possible to overview in the given paper the reasons of anti-proverbs emergence, as well as to describe the deformation strategies which prove the existence of similar trends. Being a result of intentional transformation of both internal and external forms of traditional proverbs, the anti-proverbs contradict or refute well established stereotypes, create comic effects, counteract mental cliches. It is a diverse human life that causes various semantic modifications of the traditional proverbial units. Anti-proverbs are often situationally determined, polyfunctional and applicable to different discourses, reflecting the ironic attitude of a person to a new phenomenon. Thus, deformation of proverbs is an objective and inevitable consequence of the language development which enlivens traditional forms, makes the process of their change smoother.

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