České příslovečný, německé sprichwörtlich a anglické proverbial the English proverbial
The uses and functions of the Czech word příslovečný, the German sprichwörtlich and

Summary/Abstract: Based on data extracted from language corpora and the Internet, the paper analyses the changes in the use and semantic structure of the Czech words příslovečný, příslovečně and their equivalents in German (sprichwörtlich) and English (proverbial(ly)). The focus is both on their use in their different meanings ‘of a proverb’, ‘typical of proverbs’, ‘expressed in proverbs’; ‘(proto)typical’, ‘archetypal’; ‘well-known’, ‘commonly spoken of’, ‘characteristic’, and their different functions (the words being used as introducers of a variety of phrasemes, as pointers to fables, anecdotes, stories and prototypical situations). Special attention is given to the specific line of recent development in English where in some phrases the proverbial has been used as a replacement for offensive nouns.

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