Ancient Arab proverbial Discourse : "A Literary Study"
Salem Al-Hadrusi, Department of Arabic, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan.
Abstract
This study deals with the significance of proverb as viewed by Arab men of letters and rhetoricians, and then pinpoints its most important literary characteristics, such as its succinctness, intensity of meaning, diffusiveness, occasion, usage, peculiarity, and citation. The paper also deals with common saying that take the same course as proverbs, such as proverb-like expressions, statements of preference and doubling, clichés, maxims, rare expression, metaphoric expressions, proverb nominal statements, proverbs of prophetic tradition, Quranic proverbs, as well as the basic features of all the above.