Proverbs transpose from a domain to another. Generic phrases do not. By looking for minimal contrasts between proverbs and generic phrases, we show that the former have two distinctive gestaltist/semantic features: a strong relational architecture and an articulation without rests. These two features are based on a broader principle related to semantic coherence. From this perspective, transposability from one domain to another is typical of schematic structure with a high degree of internal coherence. Coherence being a matter of degree, we argue for a continuum from prototypical proverbs (for which both coherence-based features are realized) to simple generic phrases (for which neither feature is realised).