Філологія 4.Синтаксис: структура, семантика, функція.

Мойсей Л.Т.

Чернівецький національний університет ім. Юрія Федьковича, Україна

The Levels of Gender Expression in English Fairy-Tales

Fairy Tales are stories that tell of miraculous and fantastic happenings. The main characters in fairy tales are often supernatural and can do all sorts of extraordinary things. These beings could be creatures such as fairies, goblins, elves, giants, witches and wizards.

According to Cambridge International Dictionary of English “a fairy tale or fairy story is a traditional story written for children which usually involves imaginary creatures and magic” [2; 495].

Fairy tale is a genre of folklore epos in many nations of the world. It is influenced by traditions which have been formed for many a thousand years. Each culture of the world has its own body of folk tales and fairy tales [1; 241].

The objective of this paper is to trace the category of gender of nouns and the ways it is expressed within the structure of fairy tales.

In modern English there is no grammatical category of gender. Gender is not also an inherent property of human beings: it is culturally conditioned and subject to historical change. The term is associated with the attribution of different characteristics, roles, abilities, behaviour, and appearance to primarily women or men. Sex is a biological property of living beings. Groups of people can be single- or mixed sex but individuals are either female or male. So, the subcategories of the term sex may be considered ‘female’ and ‘male’ [8; 80]. If combined, as both contain male and female properties sex/gender present interest from linguistical point of view. The gender properties female and male are not always expressed: child, adult are sex/gender neutral. Although a number of lexemes not expressing sex/gender may be associated primarily with women (nurse, secretary) or men (soldier, neurosurgeon). Thus, the properties male, female and gender-neutral are usually expressed lexically (woman, man, person); in compounds by the first or the last element (woman writer, chairman); in syntactic phrases by an adjective modifying a noun (male/female supervisors); morphologically (heroine, widower, supervisor), syntactically with the help of correlation of nouns with personal pronouns he/she/it in the sentence. If to speak of inanimate nouns they are considered to be neuter (table, chair, sky). Animals, according to the dictionaries, are neuter as well. As the analysis shows this classification may be violated depending on the type of discourse in which the nouns are used.

Let’s consider some examples from five fairy-tales under analysis:

ONCE upon a time, there was a mighty baron in the North Countrie who was a great magician and knew everything that would come to pass [6].

So one day, when his little boy was four years old, he looked into the Book of Fate to see what would happen to him [6].

Now the Baron knew the father of the little girl was very, very poor, and he had five children already [6].

'What is the matter, my good man?'[6].

…I've five children already, and now a sixth's come, a little lass… [6].

'Oh! that's easy to guess,' said the Baron; 'some yokel or other[6].

Take this letter to my brother in Scarborough, and you will be settled for life.'[6].

So she went on to the Baron's brother at Scarborough, a noble knight, with whom the Baron's son was staying [6].

Just then Mr Brown came home and saw Rufty Tufty near his pumpkin [3].

The little family were going to stay with Granny for their summer holiday [4].

An old widow lived in a lovely little house[5].

…and a little gnome was jumping up and down on it[5].

"I am a Prince and was put under a spell by the gnome” [5].

As we can see from the examples above the category of gender of nouns analyzed is expressed lexically and no rules are violated.

Interesting is the case in the following examples:

ALL the birds of the air came to the magpie and asked her to teach them how to build nests [7].

'Oh, that's how it's done,' said the thrush; and away it flew…[7].

'Now I know all about it,' says the blackbird, and off he flew…[7].

'The very thing!' said the sparrow, and off he went…[7].

'That suits me,' cried the starling, and off it flew…[7].

Rufty Tufty was a rabbit who wanted to see the world."What is the world like?" he said to everyone he met[3].

They pulled and pulled so hard that, at last, the eagle had to give up his prey [5].

According to dictionaries birds and animals should be neuter, but in fairy tales they acquire human qualities and may be feminine and masculine. This may happen because of personification. But the reference to this gender or another may be distinguished on a syntactical level only with the help of correlation of nouns with personal pronouns. The division of birds and animals to he/she/it is done, evidently, exceptionally by the author and according to his language picture of the world. One and the same noun (bird here) may refer both to neuter or masculine in different fairy-tales. It should be noted that the second example is taken from folk fairy tale and the first one from the tale by Jacobs Jacobson:

'Oh, that's quite obvious,' said the wise owl, and away it flew… [7]

The old owl looked wise, then he said… [3]

There was also mentioned a bird which was not syntactically marked, so we may consider it to be neuter.

…till the only bird that remained was the turtle-dove [7].

Take the bearer and put her to death immediately [6].

It might be a walker looking for shelter." But when Rose-Red opened the door a bear stuck his large head in[5].

The following nouns bearer and walker are morphologically marked and would be gender-neutral if they were not used in the sentence and didn’t correlate with pronouns her and his.

More seldom we find gender expressed in compounds:

…she floated, till she was cast ashore just in front of a fisherman's hut [6].

…and they made her the scullion-girl of the castle [6].

Thus, having analyzed five English fairy tales and taking into account personification, we may assert that, mostly, gender of nouns is expressed on lexical and syntactical levels.

Література:

1. Лексикон загального та порівняльного мовознавства. – Чернівці: Золоті литаври, 2001. – 636с.

2. Cambridge International Dictionary of English. Cambridge University Press, 1998. – 1774p.

3. Falk Tales / Rufty Tufty http://www.4to40.com/folktales/index.asp?id=1293

4. Falk Tales / The Sailor Mice http://www.4to40.com/folktales/index.asp?id=1293

5. Falk Tales / Snow-White and Rose-Red http://www.4to40.com/folktales/index.asp?id=1293

6. Joseph Jacobs. Fairy Tales / The Fish and the Ring http://www.sacred-texts.com

7. Joseph Jacobs. Fairy Tales / The Magpie's Nest http://www.sacred-texts.com

8. Kremer Marion. Person Reference and Gender in Translation: A contrastive Investigation of English and German. Tubingen, Gunter Narr Verlag, 1997. – 302p.