本論文的主要目的， 是以日文中含有食物詞彙的諺語為例， 考察諺語的語義問題。 諺語在意義上具有普遍性， 同時具有特殊性。其特殊性隨著民族語言地區時代的不同， 而賦予特別的意義。而所謂的普遍性， 正是諺語忠實反映人類的狀況所產生的。例如「米」、「餅」、「食う」、「酒」、「味噌」等詞彙，經常出現在日文食物詞彙諺語中。 諺語相當於引用句，其詞彙構造不容許更動。少數可以更動的單詞，可視為諺語本身的變異體。此外， 也有極少數的兩個不同的諺語，具有完全相反的意義者，此乃等同於互成反義句的諺語。 日文的食物詞彙諺語從語義上可以分為三類。第一類是僅使用本義的諺語。第二類為僅使用衍生義的諺語。第三類是本義與衍生義兼用的諺語。僅使用衍生義的第二類諺語中，食物詞彙本身的語義功能退化，其詞彙本身所代表的意義完全喪失。

The main purpose of this paper is to discuss the meaning of the Japanese proverbs having to do with the food. The meaning of a proverb can be universal, and at the same time, unique. The unique meaning depends on the nation, region, and the time of its origin. The universal meaning reflects the real life of the human beings. There are many food-related proverbs with such words in the Japanese language as, kome （ rice）, mochi （ rice cake）, kuu （ eat）, sake and miso. Proverbs have the same function as quotations and each word of the proverbs is not allowed to change. Sometimes, we can find the different proverb with the same meaning. They are so called the variations of a proverb. On the other hand, there are proverbs with opposite meanings. Such pair could be called antonym proverbs. Besides, some of the proverbs have more than one meaning. The Japanese food-related proverbs can be divided into three groups by their meaning. The first group uses the literal meaning of the words. The second group uses words metaphorically. It’s the type with deep structure of the meaning. The third group uses both metaphorical and literal meanings. The second group of food-related proverbs looses their literal meaning and its words referring to the food become vestigial.