The characteristics of the Proverbial Criteria

The aim of this work is to study the characteristics of proverbial criteria in order to give a stable definition to proverbs. These criteria can be necessary mandatory sufficient or not according to the theory of Svensson M. H. 2004). In order to make the analysis of the relevance of the criteria our study was based on the already existing criteria. Many people have studied these criteria but the results are still under discussion. The definition of the proverb remains a debate because a new result leads to a new problem. The problem arises from the distinction of proverbs from related statements to their defining characteristics. In order to take part in this research we have chosen a theme concerning a study of tsimihety proverbs. The aim is to focus on the indispensable and distinctive features of proverbial sentences. To do this we started by examining the metalinguistic criteria that characterize proverbs and then we moved on to the linguistic domains of semantics and syntax in order to distinguish them from their counterparts.