Linguistic pecularities of english-american fable

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, SCIENCE, YOUTH AND SPORTS OF UKRAINE

IVAN FRANKO NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF LVIV

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

 

 

 

LINGUISTIC PECULARITIES OF ENGLISH-AMERICAN FABLE

 

 

 

 

 

Graduation paper

presented by

Patskal  Natalia

a fifth year student

of the English department

 

SUPERVISED BY

N. Nera

a lecturer

of the English department

 

 

 

Lviv 2012

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………...3

Part I. Theoretical background of fable as a genre ………………………………….6

1.1. Genre of fable in literature and its history…………………………………………..6

1.2. Form and content of fables.......................................................................................11

1.3. The main characteristics of fables ………………………………………………...15

1.4. History of English and American fable……………………………………………18

 

Part II. Means of actualizing irony in English-American fable of 18^th and 19^th centuries ……………………………………………………………………………

1. Satirical irony of English-American fables of 18 century……………….……24
2. Humorous irony of English – American fables of 19 century ……………….36
3. Comparative table of English – American fables of 18-19 century ………….45

 

Conclusions…………………………………………………………………………….48

Summary ……………………………………………………………………………….52

References ………………………………………………………………….………..  53

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction

Fable is a short tale that illustrates universal truth, and is one of the simplest of narratives. It sketches a setting, describes an action, and shows the results. It often involves a characters  who face a moral dilemma, or make a questionable decision and then suffer from the consequences. A fable generally relates a single, simple, consistent action, without extraneous detail or distracting circumstances [19; 113-131].

Fables have been used in a variety of social contexts, such as pedagogical, therapeutic or religious, usually for the purpose of teaching or reaffirming a moral value. The close study of the internal structure of such type of texts is therefore a valuable aid to teachers, psychologists and related professionals in their current practices. 
     Many scholars differentiate various approaches to the study of nature of fable. Some of them are the following ones:

1. Ontological, in the course of which scientists are trying to determine: “What is fable?”
2. Gnoseological, in the course of which the question is asked: “For what it is?”
3. Psycholinguistic, representatives of which intend to find the answer: “How fable affects the reader?”
4. Structurally- semantic, is trying to find the solution to the question: "How the text of the fable acquires connectivity, integrity and internal unity?"

The aim of the diploma paper is to study thoroughly English-American fable, demonstrate its linguistic peculiarities; to highlight the main features of fable, its peculiarities and the differences between fable, parable; to determine linguistic peculiarities of the fable on the basis of English- American fables; to carry out structurally - semantic and functionally -stylistic analysis of irony as the dominant means of the fable;

Realization of the tasks has been accomplished with the help of the following methods:

• componential analysis(attempts to reduce meaning to its smallest components);
• contextual analysis(method of observing words in actual speech, as well as their influence on one another in speech );
• semantic analysis ( the process of relating syntactic structures, from the levels of phrases, clauses, sentences and paragraphs to the level of the writing as a whole, to their language-independent meanings. It also involves removing features specific to particular linguistic and cultural contexts, to the extent that such a project is possible. The elements of idiom and figurative speech, being cultural, are often also converted into relatively invariant meanings in semantic analysis.)
• descriptive method which involved gathering information about the history of fables and creative activities, examining it deeply and thoroughly and for analyzing the text proper;
• method of text interpretation to study the fables properly.

The object of the diploma paper is English-American fables of 18^th and 19^th centuries.

The subject of the diploma paper is to find linguistic peculiarities of English-American fables.

Practical value of the research : results and conclusions of our paper consist in using them in stylistics, lexicology courses, in literature and English teaching practice.

     Our research consists of introduction, two chapters, conclusions, summary and the list of references.

       The first chapter deals with theoretical backgrounds of fable as a genre, history, and structure. The main characteristics of the fable are described.

The second chapter consists of analysis of linguistic peculiarities of fable on lexical and syntactical levels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER I

Genre of fables in literature and its history

         A fable is a very short story which illustrates or teaches us a lesson which is also called morale. Usually, if not always, fables are stories with animal characters that talk like humans.

  Despite the widespread dissemination and consumption of this genre, there have been few studies on fable criticism . Most of the research in the field is oriented towards readers’ understanding of moral values, as well as the socio-historical influence of fables on other kinds of literary genres in terms of style. Whereas their contribution is insightful for the reception of this genre by its audience, they do not address the characteristic features that lead readers to treat different fables as belonging to the same generic category.

One can find many definitions in different dictionaries. According to Oxford dictionary, fable – is a traditional short story that teaches a moral lesson, especially one with animals, as characters; these stories considered as a group: Aesop’s Fables [12; p.522].

According to Macmillan English dictionary , fable is traditional  story,  usually about animals, that teaches a moral lesson [9; p.493].

The American Heritage Dictionarygives its explanation of fable: fable is a literary genre; it is a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects or forces of nature which areanthropomorphized (given human qualities), and that illustrates a moral lesson [ 14 p.453].

   Merriam Webster dictionary : narration intended to enforce a useful truth; especially: one in which animals speak and act like human beings [10; p. 543].

        The term ‘Fable’ is used in two senses, with two distinctive meanings.

        First, as ‘fabula’it isemployed to denote the myths or fictions which, by the aid of imagination and superstition, have clouded, or have become blended with, the history of the remote past. Such are the stories related of Scandinavian and Grecian heroes and gods; beings, some of whome  doubtless had an actual human existence , and were wise and valiant and powerful, or the reverse, in their day, but around whosenames and persons have clustered all the marvelous legends that are to be found in mythological lore. The better name for these is ‘romance’.

    Secondly, as fabella, it is used to signify a special branch of literature, in which the imagination has full play, all together unassisted by superstition in any shape or form. The fabulist confers the powers or gifts of reason and speech on the humbler subject over whom he exercises sway, and so has ample scope for his imaginative faculty; but there is no attempt on his part at any serious make-believe in his inventious. On the contrary, there is a tacit understanding between him and his listeners and readers, that what he narrates is only true in the sense of its application to corresponding circumstances in human life and conduct.

The fable or apologue has been variously defined by different writers. Mr. Walter Pater, paraphrasing Plato’s definition, says that ‘   fables are  medicable lies or fiction ,with a provisional or economized truth in them, set forth under such terms as simple souls can best receive’[8; p.225].

     The sophist Antiphon , talking the same view, defines the fable as ‘a false discourse resembling truth [15; p.277].

     Dr. Johnson , in his ‘Life of Gay’, remarks that “A fable or epilogue seems to be , in its genuine state, a narrative in which beings irrational , and sometimes inanimate – are , for the purpose of moral instruction , feigned to act and speak with human interests and passions”[ 13; p. 277 ].

    Dodsley says that ‘It is the very essence of a fable to convey some moral or useful truth beneath the shadow of an allegory’ [3;p. 277].

     Boothby defines the fable as ‘a maxim for the use of common life, exemplified in a short action, in which the inhabitants of the visible word are made the moral agents.’[3; p. 277 ]

G. Moir Bussey states that ‘the object of the author is to convey some moral truth to the reader or auditor, without encroaching the province of the professor  or lecturer. The lesson must therefore be conveyed in an agreeable form, and so that the moralist himself may be as little prominent as possible.’ [3; p. 277 ]

     Mr. Joseph Jacobs says that ‘The best fable may be defined as a short humorous allegorical   tale, in which animals act in such a way as to illustrate a simple moral truth or inculcate a wise maxim.’ [3; p.277 ]

    Speaking about fables it is important to mansion about Aesopian fable.  Fable‘s appearing is closely connected with the name of legendary Greek fabulist Aesop. The fables were in the first instance only narrated by Aesop, and for a long time were handed down by the uncertain channel of oral tradition. His fables had been written in prose.    Many common sayings come from Aesop’s Fables like” Honesty is the best policy”, and “Look before you leap” are familiar examples of fables. What is certain, however, is that the Aesop’s Fables are timeless. They are so wonderful that they have been told over and over again for several thousand years. 

         The Aesopian fable or apologue is a short story, either fictious or true, generally fictious, calculated to convey instruction, advice or reproof, in an interesting form, impressing its lesson on the mind more deeply that a mere didactic piece of counsel or admonition is capable of doing. We say a shot story, because if the narration is spun out to a considerable length it ceases to be a true fable in the ordinary acceptation of the term, and becomes a tale, such, for example, as a fairy tale. Now, a fairy or other fanciful tale usually or invariably contains some romance and much improbability; it often deals largely in the vehicle for conveying a moral. The very opposite holds good of a fable.  Although animals are usually the actors in the fable, there is an air of naturalness in their assumed speech and actions. The story may be either highly imaginative or badly matter-of-fact, but it never wanders beyond the range of intuitive (as opposed to actual or natural) experience, and it always contains a moral. In a word, a fable is, or ought to be, the very quintessence of common-sense and wise counsel couched in brief narrative form. It partakes somewhat of the character of a parable, though it can hardly be described as a parable, because this is more sedate in character, has human beings as its actors, and is usually based on an actual occurrence. Though parables are not fables in the strict and limited meaning of them, they bear a close family relationship to them. Parables may be defined as stories in allegorical dress.

    The history of the origin of the fable is very long and interesting. The folk tale is the expression of that fanciful heritage spontaneously created in any kind of culture, for the man's innate needs. 
At first it was handed down by word of mouth, then it was collected by enthusiasts and scholars, and in the end, it was revised by the individual inspiration of story-tellers and fabulists, who added some elements of personal invention. The exigency of fancy often joins the reality of the environment where the fable was born: so, together with certain natural elements common to the folk creative power (contrast between the good and the bad, the sly and the fool, the tyrant and the victim; a happy ending at the conclusion of a succession of more or less intricate adventures), it is not difficult to find in the types, in the names used, in the outlined customs, the characteristics which mark its country of origin.

      The fable  has its own evolution in the time, according to the development of the people expressing it. Some famous collections belong to the oriental traditions, which, in that way, handed down warnings rich in ancient wisdom or adventures rich in extraordinary fact, tricks and unexpected events. Other collections, the Greek and Roman ones, show religious elements (the origin of the world or cosmology, the stories of gods, heroes and men), where we can search for the fanciful transfiguration of the struggles of man against nature, of his advance towards his redemption from ignorance and from atavic terrors: these are exactly called “myths”.

      With the advance of society it is asserted the need of a different kind of fable, more critical towards man and society itself: so it was born the Aesopic fable which, employing the animals as main characters, intends to represent, by them, well-defined human types: the bully, the insatiable, the sly, the fool, the vain, the arrogant, etc. 
This genre of fables is the one which has had the best luck and has produced the greatest number of imitators; in fact, although the progress changes the aspect and organization of society and man's habit, the human instincts and vices are timeless and, luckily, the exigency of condemning their deceits, passions and faults is kept alive at the same rate. 
       Aesop's fable was taken to Rome by Phaedrus who renewed its language and spirit; it revived in the Middle Age in France, when, during the XI century the Aesopic matter was collected by some French authors who worked together to compile the “Roman de Renart” (Romance of the Fox), which tells the fox and wolf's adventures. In it, with eloquent and acute vein, are told the adventures of the sly fox, which always succeeds, with unpredictable and funny tricks, in making fun of Ysenguin, the wolf.

        The Eighteenth century, the age of Enlightenment and of education, was the golden age of the fable, whose theory was then formulated by Lessing (1759). 
Among the Italians we can remember A.Bertola, author of a Saggio sopra le favole (Essay about fables) (1788), L.Pignotti, G.B.Roberti, etc. The Romantics, who also preferred the fairy tale, rejected the fable as too didactic and not very naive. 
Today a magnificent animal epos is The Jungle Books by R.Kipling (1894-95), which, however, are different from the fable and the fairy tale, while the Roman poet Trilussa refers back to the tradition of fables.

In the more modern texts, above all in the fables of our century, the authors more frequently bring out the behaviours which are different from the ones of most people (the non conformist attitudes) and explain that truth and justice do not always triumph, in this way they offer a not much optimistic outlook on society, but also a more truthful and didactic one, with pedagogical aims. 
Remarkable are the differences between yesterday's and today's fables: in the latter ones, besides, the characters and places are described in detail and the story appears better-constructed.

Our time has not lost its liking for the fable, but it has put in it a sharper critical, symbolical and moralistic potential, or it has studied this literary genre, through the researches, collections and interpretations of the folk fable heritage. The political allusions, the satire of the present society peeps out through the modern fable, which keeps on pursuing, today too, the aim for which it was born: to warn while entertaining (warning while entertaining).

The fable is one of the most enduring forms of folk literature, spread abroad, modern researchers agree, less by literary anthologies than by oral transmission. Fables can be found in the literature of almost every country.

 

Form and content of the fables

              A fable should carry its moral without the telling; nevertheless the application is often worth supplying, because it puts, or should put, the lesson taught by the fable in a terse and impressive form. Above and beyond all, a fable should possess the quality of simplicity, and whilst easy to be understood, it should have force and appropriateness.

      It is a question in casuistry (game of words) how far justice and injustice are done to the inferior animals and the members of the vegetable kingdom by this liberty that is taken with them in the fable. If they had the knowledge of the fact, and the power of remonstrance, it may be conceived that some of them, at least, would repudiate the characters and propensities which we in our superior conceit so glibly ascribe to them in the fable.  And, indeed, there is doubtless a good deal of unfairness in our habit of stigmatizing this one with cunning.  That one with cowardice and the other with cruelty, or stupidity, or dishonesty, as suits our purpose.  Possibly if some of the humbler creatures thus branded were gifted with the power of writing fables for the benefit of their fellow creatures and associates, they might be able to point to characteristics in the higher order of beings which it is desirable to hold in reprobation, and this, too, with as much or more reason and justice on their side than we have on ours. But, in truth, the fabulists themselves tacitly admit the force of this argument, in as much as the failing and defects and general qualities which they ascribe to the characters in the fable are, of course, those of the human species. A fable of Aesop, The Man and the Lion, is very much to the point here:

           A fable is generally a fiction, as has been already said. It is a singular paradox, however, that nothing is truer than a good fable. True to intuition,  true to nature, true to fact. The great virtue of fables consists in this quality of truthfulness, and their enduring life and popularity are corroboration of it.  If not true in the sense of being reasonable, they are nothing , or foolish , and therefore intolerable. We instinctively feel their truth , and are encouraged, or amused.  Or conscience-smitten by the narration, for they deal with principles which lie at the very root of our human nature.

     It is a remarkable feature of this species of composition that a departure from the natural order of things loses its incongruity in the fable; and although this view has been controverted, the argument against it fails to carry conviction in face of the excellent examples that can be adduced.  By way of illustration, take the fable of the man and his goose that laid the golden eggs. We do not remember ever meeting with a goose of this particular breed out the fable.  There are numberless geese in the world –  human and other. But the goose that lays a golden egg every morning is a rare sheep.  Nevertheless, she has a veritable existence in the fable, and we would as soon think of casting a doubt on our own identity as on that of the fabled bird. The  story has always been, and will contribute to be, and we never  recall it without sympathize the untimely end of the poor obliging goose, and thinking , at the same time , what a goose its owner must have been the fortunate owner of such an uncommon fowl, one golden egg each day would have contended us!

        Certain early authors, with the formalism which characterizes their writings, have attempted an arrangement of fables under three distinct heads or classes, designating them, respectively, Rational, Emblematical, and Mixed.  The Rational fable is held to be that in which the actors are either human beings or the gods of mythology; or, if beasts, birds, trees, and inanimate objects are introduced, the former only are the speakers. The Emblematical fable has animals, members of the vegetable kingdom, and even inanimate things for its heroes and these are accordingly gifted with the power of speech. The Mixed fable, as the name implies, is that in which an association of the two former kinds is to found.  The distinction, though perfectly accurate, serves no useful purpose and need not be observed. As a matter of fact, all fables are rational or reasonable from the fabulist’s standpoint; and all are emblematical or typical of moods, conditions, and possible or actual occurrences in daily life, whoever and whatever be the actors and speakers introduced.

      Marshall McLuhan in “Understanding Media” makes a number of arguments pertinent to the study of fables as a form. The first is that the form of communication has proliferate psychic consequences that are independent of content. To briefly illustrate, reading a play in the quiet of one's home and attending a live performance of the same play will be different psychic and social experiences [11; p.23].

     Fables s as a form can be better understood against this background of illustrations. They are stories, of moderate length, amenable to repeated readings in one short sitting. They surprise the reader, arrest the regular “processing” of information and, in so doing, irritate the psyche. The reader cannot quite let go, because letting go is usually conditioned on closure which in the case of a true parable cannot be reached [ 18; p.95 ].

Thus when the fable is officially “ended”, the reader cannot serenely put the fable to rest. It sits in the psychic craw as a piece of unfinished business.

      Fables are cool, inviting and participatory, unless sabotaged. The more powerful the fable, the more furious the involvement, the more sustained and profound the impact [16; p.56-59]. Many complain that the words of the wise are always merely fables and of no use in daily life.

   According to Marshal McLuhan several features of fables are distinguished [11; p. 443-444].

• The parable allows deep communication between the narrator and the reader. The fable begins “benignly”, disarming readers, drawing them in, and encouraging them to compare features of the story to their own experiences. They identify with a certain character or characters, and with the characters encounter dilemmas or unanticipated circumstances that call for choices. At this point the story teller departs and readers must tap their own resources, moving more deeply into self examination.
• The fable involves indirect communication that provokes self discovery. Direct communication conveys information and, by reference to authorities, endorses certain lines of thought.
• Experiences with indirect communication cultivate the capability for developing the self. Whereas direct learning does not change the capability of a person (learning simply adds to knowledge) indirect communication jolts the person out of mental routines once and for all. Rather than a simple change in information there is a change in consciousness
• And the last is that fables are memorable and amenable to oral tradition.