Dixon, Izabela and Harald Ulland.

"He who sleeps…" formal and semantic typology of

implication proverbs: a cross-linguistic study [In:] ICP16. 10th Interdisciplinary Colloquium
on Proverbs. Tavira: Associação Internacional de Paremiologia / International Association of
Paremiology (AIP-IAP), 206-214. ISBN 978-989-98685-7-1.

'HE WHO SLEEPS…', FORMAL AND SEMANTIC TYPOLOGY OF IMPLICATION

PROVERBS: A CROSS-LINGUISTIC STUDY
Izabela DIXON, Koszalin University of Technology, Poland
Harald ULLAND, University of Bergen, Norway

Abstract

Although some proverbs condemn those who indulge in sleeping too much: He who sleeps all the morning, may
go a-begging all the day after, there are also many proverbial wisdoms connected with the beneficial effects of
sleep; take, for example, such proverbs as: Sleep is better than medicine; The beginning of health is sleep; or
Sleep is the poor man's treasure. In Norwegian, there is also a well known proverb claiming that if you are
asleep, you do not sin: Den som sover, synder ikke. This proverb seems to have its correlates in many other
languages, some of which will be investigated in this paper. These will include such languages as English: He
who sleeps, does not sin; German: Wer schläft, sündigt nicht; Polish: Kto śpi, nie grzeszy; and Portuguese: Quem
dorme, não peca. However, at this stage of the research it is difficult to say whether these proverbs are used to
any extent apart from in Norwegian (and Danish). Although the origin of the proverb in Norwegian can be traced
back to the Norwegian-Danish playwright Ludvig Holberg's 18th-century satirical play Erasmus Montanus, the
syllogism that explicates the supposed logic behind He who sleeps well does not sin is probably much older.
Although the authors of the presentation will delve to a degree into the morality of sleeping and drinking, the
paper will focus on the formal structure of implication proverbs as well as their semantic typology.

Key-words: implication proverbs, morality (sleeping and drinking), semantic typology, syllogisms.

Introduction

Much is known about the benefits of a good night's sleep. Women, for example, treasure so-
called beauty sleep, which they need to look radiant the following day. In general, a sound
sleep has the restorative properties needed for another day's work. In terms of axiological
charges, sleep may be found at either end of the positive/negative axis. As may be seen in the
following proverbs, sleep(ing) may be valued in a positive way (+): Sleep is better than
medicine. The beginning of health is sleep. Sleep is the poor man's treasure. In sleep all
passes away. He that sleeps bites nobody. He who sleeps does not sin. In these examples sleep
is perceived as something beneficial in terms of physical, psychological and even spiritual
health and well-being. It is also seen as something precious and safe. Sleep(ing), however,
may also be perceived in a negative way (-): There will be sleeping enough in the grave. He
who sleeps all the morning, may go a-begging all the day after. The sleepy fox has seldom
feathered breakfasts. The sleeping fox catches no poultry. These examples focus on the
negative aspect of sleeping too long and thus not being productive. The work ethic typifies
Anglo-Saxon cultures as this value is often characteristic of Christian, although, not
invariably, protestant communities.
Before considering the syllogism that is in a way central to this paper, attitudes
towards drinking should also be considered. Even though drinking is not generally
encouraged and alcoholic beverages around the world are heavily taxed, there are some old
proverbs that treat drink in a rather positive way (+): A good drink makes the old young. Wine
and youth increase love. Wine is a whetstone to wit. There is truth in wine [In vino veritas].
Good wine gladdens a person’s heart [Bonum vinum laetificat cor hominis]. Drunkards and
fools cannot lie. This selection of proverbs highlights the qualities that people often cherish:
youthfulness, love, cheerfulness, and having high regard for the truth. There are, however, a
number of proverbs which condemn this activity for its potential to cause a person's downfall.
The following examples attest to this negative valuation (-): Bacchus has drowned more men
than Neptune. There is a devil in every berry of the grape. He who drinks a little too much
drinks much too much. When wine is in, the wit is out. In the last proverb wit refers to the
ability to act rationally and sensibly.
In the contemporary world, perceiving a drunkard as someone blessed would seem
somewhat exceptional. However, there does exist a proverb which states that He who drinks is
blessed. In his lecture entitled The Morality of Proverbs, an Anglican bishop, Richard C.
Trench (2003: 94-96) states that the number of crude or immoral proverbs is rather small.
Indeed, the proverbs with a morally controversial message do not usually promote a particular
kind of inappropriate behaviour.
In spite of the popular belief that proverbs disseminate wise advice or contain astute
judgements concerning life, there are some proverbs which may not pertain to the category of
folk wisdom, especially when they are based on equivocation (fallacia aequivocationis). Such
fallacious reasoning is the basis for the syllogism in question in the present paper:

The syllogism
Whoever drinks well, sleeps well.
He who sleeps well does not sin.
 He who does not sin is blessed.
Ergo: He who drinks well is blessed.

Looking at syllogisms and the principle they are based on, Lakoff and Johnson (1999: 544)
state: "Categories are understood metaphorically as abstract containers. Syllogisms, as forms
of deductive reasoning, work via a container logic (e.g., A is in B, and B is in C, so A is in C)".
When applying the container logic to a popular syllogism:
All people are mortal.
Socrates is a human.
Socrates is mortal.

it may be explained in the following way:

if Y is Z Z=mortal
and X is in Y Y=people
then X is in Z X=Socrates (Kalisz, 2001: 46)

With reference to logical principles identified by Lakoff (1990) and Lakoff and Johnson
(1999), Kalisz (2001: 46) sees them as "abstraction (metaphorisation) of spatial reasoning,
rather than a reflection of objective relations existing in the world" (translation by I. Dixon).
To which may be added the medieval syllogism Qui bibit, dormit; qui dormit, non peccat; qui
non peccat, sanctus est; ergo: qui bibit, sanctus est and its English equivalent: Whoever drinks
well, sleeps well; he who sleeps well does not sin; he who does not sin is blessed; ergo: he
who drinks well is blessed. Known as the drinker paradox, the syllogism is based on a false
assumption concerning sinning which may be understood in two diverse ways: (1) not sinning
at all: thus being holy, (2) not sinning for a particular period of time, for example, during the

time of rest, but being a sinner at other times1. Since not sinning at all and not sinning for a
period of time yield different interpretations of the true nature of the supposed non-sinner, the
logical premise on which the syllogism is based can be doubted or exploited humorously in
the manner of the Norwegian-Danish playwright Ludvig Holberg.
It so happens that one of the sources of the proverb He who drinks well does not sin
and the inspiration for this paper is the play entitled Erasmus Montanus or Rasmus Berg, by
Holberg. Broadly, the play, which was first published in 1723 and first performed in 1747, is a
criticism of academic conceit and personal relationships in rural Denmark. The syllogism in
the play appears in a humorous dialogue between the two main characters, Montanus and his
father Jeppe:

MONTANUS. Listen, father! Will you admit that the man who drinks well is blessed?
JEPPE. I think rather that he is accursed, for a man can drink himself out of both reason and
 money.
MONTANUS. I will prove that he is blessed. Quicunque bene bibit, bene dormit. But, no, you
don't understand Latin; I must say it in Danish. Whoever drinks well, sleeps well. Isn't that so?
JEPPE. That's true enough, for when I am half-drunk I sleep like a horse.
MONTANUS. He who sleeps well does not sin. Isn't that true, too?
JEPPE. True, too; so long as a man's asleep, he doesn't sin.
MONTANUS. He who does not sin is blessed.
JEPPE. That is also true.
MONTANUS. Ergo: he who drinks well is blessed.
(Ludvig Holberg, Erasmus Montanus, Act II, scene 3)

Montanus is the pompous, if learned, son of a well-known, foolish, village drunkard, Jeppe.
Montanus's reasoning concerning the nature of drinking finds fertile ground with his father,
who is quickly convinced that drinking and holiness may in some way be equated. A similar
kind of logic would probably appeal to many people who like a pint of ale or a stiff glass of
something rather stronger. Interestingly, in another of Holberg's plays, entitled Jeppe of the
Hill, Jeppe appears again as a village drunk on whom a practical joke is played by the local
baron. The joke is supposed to be a lesson that Jeppe receives to make him understand his
own conceit and his drinking problem.
The syllogism and its universal message He who drinks well is blessed concerning the
nature of drinking problems have inspired the authors of this paper only in part, since its real
focus is implication proverbs.

Implication proverbs

Before using formal procedures, the authors first considered the existence of the He who
drinks well is blessed proverb in various European languages. This was based on the
knowledge that the proverb is quite well known in Norwegian and Danish (cf. Almenningen
(2005) and Jensen (1996)), although not so common in Polish.
By means of the Google search engine, as well as the application of various language
corpora, it was established that equivalents of the proverb He who sleeps does not sin can be
found in a number of languages:

German: Wer schläft, sündigt nicht

Polish: Kto śpi, nie grzeszy
Czech: Kdo spí, nehřeší
Russian: Кто спит, тот не грешит
 Ukrainian: Хто спить, той не грішить
Latvian: Kas guļ, tas negrēko
Portuguese: Quem dorme, não peca
French: Qui dort ne pèche pas

All these examples belong to a category that could be termed implication proverbs. The
French linguist Martin Riegel, describing twelve French proverbs of this type, sees them as le
pivot implicatif dans les énoncés parémiques [the implicational pivot in paremiological
utterances] (Riegel 1987: 87). A comparative French-Italian analysis has been carried out by
Conenna (1988). Logically, such proverbs form an implication structure (if… then…): if a
person sleeps, then this person does not sin. Proverbs following this syntactical structure will
always contain two propositions, the first one implying the second one, and the two
propositions having an argument (the syntactical subject) in common. This syntactical subject
is rarely explicitly expressed (except in English, where it often takes the form he or they, and
in Norwegian: den. The meaning of «den» in Norwegian is «the one». Thus «den som» means
«the one who»). It can be said that den som, he who, kto, qui, quem, etc., are always
equivalent of «human beings» in general. To illustrate, the examples above, we use VP
referring to verb phrase, hence VP1 and VP2 stand for the two propositions (if …VP1, then
VP2…):

English: He who VP1, VP2

German: Wer VP1, VP2
Polish: Kto VP1, VP2
Czech: Kdo VP1, VP2
Russian: Кто VP1, VP2
Ukrainian: Хто VP1, VP2
Portuguese: Quem VP1, VP2
French: Qui VP1, VP2
Norwegian: Den som VP1, VP2

It seems that in many languages, proverbs belonging to this type will only contain a relative
or interrogative pronoun without an antecedent and the two VPs. In Norwegian, an antecedent
is obligatory and most often it has the form den. In English, it is usual to have an antecedent,
which is normally he or they. If he is used, it practically never refers exclusively to males, but
represents human beings in general. Some English proverbs of this type have no antecedent;
the relative pronoun used then can be whoever or who. Below are further examples in English
with their variants:
 He who dares wins / Whoever dares wins
He who begins many things, finishes but few
Who says A, must say B
He that/who promises too much means nothing
They that/who sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind

In Polish, it is not common to use an explicitly expressed antecedent, but the

relative/interrogative pronoun kto can be «echoed» by the pronoun ten. However, this
«echoing» does not seem to be obligatory:

Kto nie pracuje ten nie je [lit. Who does not work the one doesn't eat]
Kto smaruje ten jedzie [lit. Who lubricates this one that goes]
Kto burzę sieje, pioruny zbiera [lit. Who sows storm gathers thunder]
Kto chce zbierać, musi siać [lit. Who wants to reap has to sow]

In French, the lack of an antecedent is a typically paremiological structure. However, this

gives an archaic impression. In non-paremiological Modern French, the use of an antecedent
is normally expected (celui/celle/ceux/celles qui):

Qui cherche, trouve [lit. Who searches finds]

Qui dort dine [lit. Who sleeps dines]
Qui aime bien châtie bien [lit. Who loves well punishes well]
Qui donne aux pauvres prête à Dieu [lit. Who gives to the poor lends to God]
Qui va à la chasse perd sa place [lit. Who goes hunting loses his place]

As is demonstrated by following example, in some cases, the order of the two VPs can be
reversed:

Rira bien qui rira le dernier [lit. Will laugh well the one who laughs last]

The reversed structure can also be found in Polish:

Ten się śmieje, kto się śmieje ostatni [lit. The one who laughs is the one who
laughs last]

as well as in German:

Wer schnell gibt, gibt dobbelt / Dobbelt gibt, wer schnell gibt [lit. The one who
gives rapidly, gives double / Gives double the one who gives rapidly]

The (antecedentless) pronoun used in Portuguese is quem. The proverbial structure Quem VP1
VP2 is extremely common. According to Jorge Baptista (University of Algarve), there are no
fewer than 12,450 proverbs starting with Quem in Portuguese. Some examples:
Quem boa cama fizer nela ha se deitar [lit. Whoever makes a bed will lie down
in it]
 Quem não arrisca, não petisca [lit. Who doesn't risk doesn't snack]
Quem com demo anda com ele acaba [lit. Whoever walks with the devil will
finish with him]

The following are some examples of translational equivalents for implicational proverbs,
taken from Gyula Paczolay (2015):

Ger: Wer zwei Hasen zugleich jagt, fängt keinen [lit. Who chases two hares
catches
none]
Pol: Kto dwa zające goni, żadnego nie złapie [lit. Who chases two hares catches
neither]
Por: O que corre duas lebres, nenhuma alcanca [lit. Who runs after two hares
catches none]
Fre: Qui court deux lièvres, n'en prend aucun [lit. Who runs after two hares
catches none]
Eng: If you run after two hares, you will catch neither

Ger: Wer gut schmiert, der gut fährt [lit. Who lubricates well is the one that goes
well]
Pol: Kto smaruje, ten jedzie [lit. Who lubricates is the one that goes]
Fre: Pour faire aller le chariot, il faut graisser les roues [lit. To make the wagon
go, it is necessary to lubricate the wheels]
Eng: If you grease well, you speed well

Ger: Wer zuerst kommt, mahlt zuerst [lit. Who comes first grinds first]
Pol: Kto pierwszy, ten lepszy [lit. Who first, the one the better]
Por: Quem primeiro chega, primeiro é servido [lit. Who comes first is first
served]
Fre: Premier venu, premier moulu [lit. First come, first grinded]
Eng: First come, first served

What can be seen from these comparisons is that there are alternative structures to express the
implication: In English, the prototypical implicational structure if…then is used in some
proverbs. This is not common for proverbs in other languages. An interesting alternative is
also the pure juxtaposition of the two VPs, which can be found both in French (Premier venu,
premier moulu) and English (First come, first served).

Concluding remarks

The implication proverbs of the type described in this study follow a discernible reasoning
pattern: if you…, then …. . The grammatical formula to express a proverb of the kind: He who
drinks doesn't sin in a number of languages representing Germanic, Romance, Slavic, and
even Baltic languages, shows a certain degree of grammatical/syntactical variation: Two VPs
are the obligatory part (VP1 implies VP2). In addition there seems to be always an
interrogative/relative pronoun, with or without antecedent; sometimes there is an «echoing»
pronoun (Polish, German). The use of simple juxtaposition of the two VPs as an alternative to
the structure described in this paper is found in English and French (possibly also in other
languages, although this has yet to be investigated).
What, however, appears particularly interesting is the very existence of the proverb
He who drinks doesn't sin in a number of diverse European languages, which indicates a
common ancestry. As far as proverbiogenesis is concerned, Villers (2016: 373) points out that
"The only certainty shared by paremiologists is that the main sources for proverbs are the
Bible and Erasmus's compilation of Latin and Greek proverbs, by way of translations into
"modern" languages. The very nature of the drinker paradox syllogism suggests Christianity
as the common source, and hence Christianity would be seen as the propagating agent
(Villers, 2016: 374). Although it may be something of a conjecture, it was not uncommon for
monks to take to stronger beverages, many recipes for which they developed. The fact that the
proverb exists in many languages but is not particularly well-known in most of them, while in
Norwegian and Danish it seems to be relatively common, may indicate that there was a
stronger facilitating agent (Villers, 2016: 374) in those two countries – namely the play
Erasmus Montanus by Ludvig Holberg.
As concerns the drinker paradox Whoever drinks well, sleeps well; he who sleeps well
does not sin; he who does not sin is blessed; ergo: he who drinks well is blessed, it is difficult to
judge the wisdom of the individual proverbs within this syllogism. Wisdom itself, as Čermák
remarks, is difficult to define. "Experiences of generations accumulated over the years per se
should mean that there is a lot of wisdom behind the bulk of problems. Yet, given uncertainty as
to the boundaries of the field, one is best advised to be circumspect here" (2014: 197). Since it is
difficult to resolve conclusively the issue regarding the value of sleeping and drinking, it may be
best to leave the final judgement to the reader. However, the words attributed to Sir Francis
Bacon may give some guidance on the nature of, at least, sleeping: "He sleeps well who is not

conscious that he sleeps ill"2 – the implication of this quote fits the VP1+VP2 formula.
Hopefully, this text will inspire its readers, as is implied, to get some sound and restorative sleep,
not necessarily alcohol induced.

Endnote
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinker_paradox (Visited 3.4.2017)
2. http://www.sirbacon.org/links/baconquotes.html (Visited 3.4.2017)
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