Original scientific paper

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.29162/pv.43.1.1174

Towards an emic definition of the proverb in Greek folklore: metaproverbs, student definitions, and popular perspectives

Georgios Tserpes orcid.org/0000-0002-8648-2391 *

* Corresponding author.

Abstract

This article uses Greek metaproverbs—proverbs about proverbs—as an emic tool for defining the proverb, and then combines it with six student definitions and twenty-six popular (non-specialist) definitions gathered through fieldwork. Drawing a focused set from the Digital Repository of Proverbs (Hellenic Folklore Research Centre, Academy of Athens), the study close-reads eight metaproverbs to articulate the core properties they ascribe to the genre. It then places this emic picture alongside contemporary voices: those of emerging folklorists and informants with no folkloristic background. The comparison shows strong convergence on condensed communal speech used in situ to frame action, with divergence in the rhetoric of authority and in how form is foregrounded. The paper proposes a concise emic definition of the Greek proverb, consistent across the three corpora and argues that proverbial authority is realized primarily in use.

Keywords

proverbs; metaproverbs; oral literary criticism; emic definition; genre theory

Hrčak ID:

349777

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/349777

Publication date:

26.7.2026.

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