ЯЗЫКОВЫЕ ПРИЕМЫ КОМИЧЕСКОГО (НА ПРИМЕРЕ РАССКАЗА О.ГЕНРИ
"ПИМИЕНСКИЕ БЛИНЧИКИ") /
LANGUAGE
MEANS OF COMIC (TAKEN FROM "THE PIMIENTA PANCAKES" BY O.HENRY)
«Языкознание»
Сарычева
Татьяна Викторовна,
учитель
английского языка
INTRODUCTION
The relevance of this
work and the chosen theme is determined by the following main factors:
- The increase of the
researchers' interest to the issues related to the facts of language which define
and regulate the emotional sphere of human activity,
- The present study
broadens and deepens the already known views about the specifics of functioning
language units in artistic text and its impact on the reader.
The object of my study
is the phenomenon of comic. Subject of the present work is the language means
of comic in the short story "The Pimienta pancakes" by O.Henry.
According to the
aforesaid, the following objectives were set :
- Selection of the
material for further description and analysis;
- Determination of the
characteristic features of the language of O. Henry;
- Identification of
language and stylistic techniques to achieve comic effect in the work of O.
Henry for the subsequent analysis.
The linguistic and
comparative analysis have been used.
THE NATURE OF COMIC
I chose this theme due to several
reasons and one of them is that O. Henry is one of my favorite writers. It's
obvious that O. Henry's prose is a favorable material for researches in the
field of implementation of comic effect. He is the recognized master of the
short story. His works are characterized by inimitable individual style, subtle
flashing humor, puns and indispensable attention to details.
The other reason is that the research
of the linguistic nature of comic phenomenon in the artistic text is one of
current problems of modern linguistics. Mechanism of realization of this
phenomenon in the text is one of the most interesting subjects of studying in
stylistics of artistic speech, which is on the crossing of several areas of
research (linguistics, psychology, sociology, semiotics, cultural science).
So what is the comic? The sphere of
comic is extremely diverse, many various parties and shades are allocated in
it: from soft humor to frightening grotesque. Comic in all its modifications
possesses huge influence. The elements of comic are known to be components of
works of art creativity from the most primitive to the most developed.
The history of theoretical comprehension
of category of comic begins in Greece with Platon and Aristotle. In
the Middle Ages comic has been disappeared from the official art. During
Renaissance
people again turned to the comedy as a genre, and since then its development has
generated interest in the theory of comic.
Comic, along with fine, sublime, tragic and
heroic, represents one of the most considerable and at the same time very
difficult categories of an esthetics. But I should say that not all funny is
comical though comic is always funny. Besides what is ridiculous to one, to
another can be sad. And here we come to the main point - the real essence of
comic is in a contradiction. For example, ugly - beautiful, weak - strong, true
- false , etc.
But what is the indicator of comic? A
laughter - It goes without saying, that the most considerable indicator is laughter
which can vary from mild and good-natured bantering to ruthless castigation.
The techniques and forms of the comic are
expressed in the special nature of comic phenomena. In other words, what makes
one laugh must obviously have a special nature in order for it to be
intelligently processed and played up by a man. The most common feature of comic
is the availability of contradictions, duality.
So we come up to the next point. How are these comic
techniques embodied?
LANGUAGE
MEANS OF COMIC
Language means of comic cover all expressive
means of language. Phonetic, lexical, phraseological and grammatical means of
language are the material for any work and these means are used by all writers.
But the real master should use them in the comic plans, should be able to give
the means satirical or humorous color.
The main means of comic, which will be
considered in the present work are as follows:
1) comic metaphors;
2) allusions;
3) periphrases;
4) occasional
new words;
5) metathesis;
6) satire.
Comic metaphor - the word or phrase is used in the figurative sense of language employed by a picture
or figure of speech;
Allusion - when we speak about allusions we understand that it is
a very convenient term that indicates that the reader has a certain, namely,
historical and philological background knowledge. Allusions can be divided into
3 big groups: biblical and mythological allusions, allusions to the literary
texts and allusions to the famous personalities, historical events.
Periphrases is syntactic and semantic figure, consisting in the
replacement of single-word names of an object or action in a descriptive wordy
expression. It is known to be one of the most popular means of comic.
Occasional new words are used quite often though such expressions complicate
adequate translation into Russian.
Metathesis is – shift of syllables in nearby words. It also
creates comic affect.
Satire is merciless
ridiculous act.
ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE MEANS
OF COMIC TAKEN FROM "THE PEMIENTA PANKACES"
For this work the
short story "The Pimienta pancakes" by O. Henry has been analyzed. The
purpose of the research is the description of the mechanism of creation of
comic effect with use of the revealed language material.
One of the means of
comic used in the novel is the metaphor. For
example: "I crawled to the van with groceries and sprawled helplessly
under the conversational fire of Judson" - "fire with
words". Besides even in the title of the story there is a very interesting
idea: "pimienta" means "pepper" in Spanish,
so the author gives us another title- "The peppered pancakes".
The comic effect is
also realized when O. Henry uses the following comparison with an ironic
allusion to the Biblical legend that the first people - Adam and Eve - ate the
forbidden fruit, for which they were expelled from paradise, and knew
suffering: "I was feeling like Adam before the apple stampede"
- "I felt like Adam before the scandal with an apple". Here we see an
allusion to Eve in the same Biblical legend: "How a certain lady named
Eve started the fruit trouble" - "as a kind lady named
Eve, make a scene because of the fruits".
The next stylistic method
of creating the comic is paraphrase. It is widely used by O. Henry, we can find
a lot of examples in the text:
a) "my style
of encouraging the fruit canning industry" - literally: my style
is to encourage fruit and canning industry, namely: eating canned fruit;
b) "sheep
person" - literally: sheep person, meaning a shepherd;
c) "his
seeing arrangement" - its visual device, that is the eye;
d) "I was
thinking some of making orphans of your sheep" - "I had in
mind was to make your sheep orphaned", that is to kill the shepherd.
e) "there'll
be singing at your ranch, and you will not hear it" - "you
will be singing at the ranch, and you do not hear", the protagonist
clearly alludes to the fact that for his insolence shepherd lost his life.
O. Henry uses
occasional new words as well, for example "obmutescence" - keeping silent or mute ("Therefore, I was manna in the dessert
of Jud’s obmutescence").
In
"The Pimienta Pancakes" of O. Henry the comic effect is evident at
all levels of language. For instance, it is found at the morphological level
with a rare technique – metathesis: A friend of the main character tells about
his niece "She’s
gone riding with Jackson Bird, the sheep man from over at Mired Mule
Canada" . The main
hero is shocked and repeats: "She’s gone riding with Birdstone
Jack, the hired
mule from Sheep Man’s Canada". Here the use of a metathesis tells extreme bewilderment and
confusion of the hero and thus forms comic effect.
The
last language means of comic I'd like to mention is satire: "You are scoff or serious?"
CONCLUSION
The aim of my study was
to identify and describe the language means of comic in O. Henry's novel
"The Pimienta pancakes". To achieve this goal, the following tasks
have been performed: literary material has been selected for subsequent
description and analysis, then formal techniques have been identified and
analyzed. The results of the analysis of the language material showed that O.
Henry used a variety of expressive means to create comic effect in his stories,
among them there are allusions, comic metaphors. paraphrase, occasionalism
(occasional new words).
The ability to see a
subject, the phenomenon, the person from an unexpected side gives absolutely
special color to works of this writer. O. Henry
loved playing with words, using dialects, and coining new words. In fact, it
was him who coined the term "banana republic," which refers to a
small country that is economically dependent on a single export commodity, such
as bananas.
To sum up, I can
conclude that there is a currently increasing interest in studying of humor
and comic in literature. Speaking about O.Henry, I 'd like to add that the
language of his stories, rich vocabulary make his works relevant today.
Unsurpassed master of various methods of comic, O. Henry remains the most
widely read writer in the world.
I suppose that the use
of the examples from my work in the process of learning English will help
students to master their skills and it will certainly increase the interest to
the country of the studied language.
LIST OF USED LITERATURE
1. Лук, А. Н. О чувстве юмора и
остроумии / А. Н. Лук. – М. : Искусство, 1968. – 192 с.
2. Лихачев, Д. С. Смех как
мировоззрение / Д. С. Лихачев // Историческая поэтика русской литературы – СПб.
: Алетейя, 1999. – С. 342-403.
3. Гальперин И.Р. Стилистика английского языка /
И.Р.Гальперин. - М.: Высшая школа, 1981,319 с.
4. Гиленсон, Б. А. История
зарубежной литературы конца XIX – начала XX века: учеб. пособие / Б.А.
Гиленсон.– М. : Издательский центр «Академия», 2008. – 480 с.
5. Михальская, Н. П. История
английской литературы: учебник / Н. П. Михальская, Г. В. Аникин. – М. :
Академия, 1998. – 515 с.
6. Борев Ю.Б. Эстетика.
М.: Высш. шк., 2002. -511с.
7. Самохвалова Н.И.
История американской литературы, ч. I. М.: Просвещение, 1971. -344 с.
8. O. Henry. Heart of the West.
Maryland: Wildside Press, 2003. - 320 p.
9. Oxford Idioms Dictionnary: Oxford
University press, 2017. - 470p.
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