Abstract
Within the current linguistics paradigm there is a high interest in studying proverbial collections of different ethnic groups. Paroemiographic collections serve as an informative resource for linguistic studies. Along with this, it is necessary to pay attention to the issues of paroemiography. The theoretical bases of this area of lexicography have already found practice in compiling various types of proverbial dictionaries. The article presents an overview of some dictionaries of Russian and English proverbs and sayings. The authors considered the lexicographic principles used in the compilation of the studied sources of proverbs and sayings. The article provides a comparative analysis of the representation and description of proverbs and sayings in such collections. In addition to distinctive features, the obtained results revealed a general trend in the arrangement and description approaches of paroemias in the considered dictionaries. Studying the concepts applied in the presentation, comparison, meaning interpretations, illustrative examples of usage and origin of the proverbial units in lexicographic practice determine the outlooks in the compilation of new dictionary publications and further cross-cultural linguistic research in contemporary paroemiography.