Re: proverbs?

At 8:52 pm -0700 26/9/01, Heather Rice wrote:
>I was just going through my conlang filling in details
>on the grammar, when I chanced to glance at my
>proverbs section.  Now, we all know that pronouns are
>substitutes for nouns or noun phrases, but why not
>have substitutes for verbs or verb phrases.  I call
>these proverbs (I think there is some other term that
>uses the word "proverb", but I can't remember what.)
No, no - that is the term.  Some people write it as 'pro-verb' to
distinguish it from 'proverb' = 'maxim, saying'.

The most common pro-verb in English is "do"

>Are there languages that have proverbs?
English - indeed, I think all languages have words that can function as
pro-verbs.

Indeed, other parts of speech and even whole clauses (e.g. "I said so"
where "so" is the proform for a whole clause).  The general term is
'proform' (which some write as 'pro-form') ; the pronoun is the proform for
nouns, and the proverb/pro-verb for verbs.  One can, and does, have
pro-adjectives (e.g. "so" in 'John is very tall and so is his sister').

Ray.

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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                     [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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