The topic chosen for this study is intended to provoke reflection on proverbs, the structure of which contains the name of an animal. This choice is not random and is justified by the anthropological interest of the study. The article determines to what extent proverbs belonging to different language communities represent similar or divergent lexical-semantic and syntactic combinations, expressing identical meaning. Configurations specific to the French and Ukrainian languages, which generate lexical, syntagmatic and perceptual variations, are also taken into account. Another aspect of our research is devoted to the interpretation of the expressiveness of proverbs using stylistic and syntactic means. The research conducted in this particularly rich sector of proverbs requires the integration of multidimensional analysis methods, starting from