Proverbial markers and their significance for linguistic proverb definitions: an experimental investigation

Abstract Proverbs are notoriously hard to define, and various approaches to this problem are currently in use in the field of paremiology. The discussion in this paper develops a marker-based proverb definition based on linguistic criteria which is suitable for proverb research in linguistic paremiology. The basis of this definition is empirically supported by the results of an experiment with invented German proverbs containing different types of proverbial markers built on the design described in Arora (1984). The results of the experiment show the importance of proverbial markers for the successful identification of proverbs in discourse, thus allowing the establishment of a first hierarchy of proverbial markers. On a methodological level, the experimental design introduced provides insights into proverb structure and the nature of proverbiality. Furthermore, the results underline the fact that proverbial markers are not optional, but should be an essential aspect of every linguistic proverb definition.