This paper offers a cognitive analysis of selected Polish and English modified proverbs using the mechanisms of Conceptual Blending Theory as proposed by Fauconnier and Turner (Fauconnier and Turner 2002). Assuming that the speakers of a given language community have the ability to ‘chunk information by relating it to various juxtapositions of partial structure from multiple domains’ (Coulson and Oakley 2000: 280), it seems vital to explore complicated mechanisms that govern ‘the internal choreography of idiom modification’ (Delibegović Džianić 2007: 169) using Polish and English proverbs and applying Fauconnier and Turner’s theory to the linguistic analysis.
The paper focuses on three types of processes that might appear in the structure of modified proverbs, i.e. permutation as observed in Polish jaka mać, taka nać (fig.pej. like mother like daughter), formal blending as expressed by an English proverb the early bird is worth two in the bush, and clipping manifested in such proverb modifications as English make hay or Polish żeby kózka nie skakała (lit. if the goat didn’t jump). All three instances of proverb modification are to be subjected to conceptual blending analysis. It will be proved that Fauconnier and Turner’s approach, being a flexible and dynamic tool of interpretation, has a tremendous role both in producing and processing the internal cognitive structure of modified proverbs and in decoding their emergent meaning.