Abstract
Contradiction in proverbs has been noted over centuries. As a culture-specific phenomenon, contradiction is an important research topic for Conceptual Metaphor Theory. It must be asked why given proverbs contradict. The likely answer is that they express opposite meanings. Granted the metaphoricity of proverbs’ meanings, contradictory proverbs must be assumed to be motivated via opposite metaphors. This hypothesis is workable, but with the proviso that the metaphorical conceptualisations concerned are not standard conceptual metaphors but rather stereotypical metaphors – a kind of metaphors that emerge from stereotypes, that is, stereotypical thoughts that speakers within a speech community attach to concepts.
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