Structural and grammatical modifications of proverbs in German journalistic discourse

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to establish ways of structural and grammatical transformations of German proverbs in German publicistic discourse based on the publications of modern German periodicals. The theoretical part of the article describes the syntactic features of German paremias, their communicative-pragmatic aspect; the empirical part presents examples of nine syntactically and grammatically modified German proverbs: Kleinvieh macht auch Mist; Einem geschenkten Gaul sieht man nicht ins Maul; Der Apfel fällt nicht weit vom Stamm; Der Appetit kommt beim Essen; Aller guten Dinge sind drei; Reden ist Silber, Schweigen ist Gold; Viele Köche verderben den Brei; Hunde, die bellen, beißen nicht; Morgenstund hat Gold im Mund; Die Hunde bellen / Der Hund bellt, die Karawane zieht weiter. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the fact that for the first time, structural and grammatical modifications of the above-mentioned German proverbs are described and analyzed in a comprehensive and systematic manner to achieve successful communication. As a result of the analysis, it was established that in German publicistic discourse there are only six ways of structural-grammatical transformations of proverbs. The results showed that in quantitative terms, the vast majority of combined types of transformations are used.