La motivazione simbolico-culturale alla base della distorsione paremiologica: Una golondrina no hace verano

Abstract

In paremiology, a given expression may exhibit specific variations in reproduction, as in the case of the proverb Una golondrina no hace verano, which will be examined through a contrastive lens (Sevilla Muñoz and Pérez, 2000; Martí Solano, 2017) across the major Romance languages (French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish). Based on the earliest attestations of the proverb (García Romero, 2008) and supported by consultation of relevant linguistic corpora, the analysis seeks to shed light on the process that led to the distinct semantic specialisation of the terms primavera and verano in Spanish and Portuguese, where the two terms Phrasis 82 Dicembre 2025 coexist within the paremiological construction under study. This serves as a paradigmatic example of how the lexical structure of a proverb can become fixed over time, potentially generating interpretative distortions – in this instance, the topos of the swallow as a harbinger of spring.