Linguo-cultural aspect through comparison of lexics in english and spanish folktales

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Linguo-cultural aspect through comparison of lexics in english and spanish folktales

folk tale cultural component

Diana Biriukova,

PhD in Philology, Assistant Professor, Assistant Professor at the Department of Foreign Philology, Translation and Professional Language Training University of Customs and Finance (Dnipro, Ukraine)

The article is devoted to the study of the lexical aspect in English and Spanish folk tales through the prism of the cultural component. The national linguistic specificity is vividly presented in folk art, namely ballads, epics, folk songs, sayings andproverbs, legends, anecdotes, myths, and especially in folk tales. After all, folk has always been expressed in messages to the people in simple words based on life experience and acquired wisdom. The culture, morality and traditions of the people have always been described in the folk tales ofall nations, so thatfuture generations could learn their history and culture and pass it on to the next generations, preserving all its specificity. Culture especially influenced the language. Folk tales provide an opportunity to consider ethno cultural vocabulary. A specific lexical component is observed in the folklore text. A folk tale is one of the brightest embodiments of the national linguistic picture of the world and an inexhaustible source of reflection of mental worldview. The text of the folk tale helps to explore the stages offormation of the national linguistic picture of the world in the history of one or another nation. Also, the text, namely the lexical component, helps to reveal and learn the originality of traditions, beliefs and views ofpeople of the past. Folk tales of England and Spain were taken for this study, because English and Spanish languages belong to the same group of Romano-Germanic languages and have many interesting similarities in the lexical aspect, which is considered through a cultural prism. For this study, tales were considered, because afolk tale is a symbol ofthe culture ofany nation. Traditions, customs, morality and spiritual state are reflected in the folk tale, and the folk tale is created with the help oflexics. It is the lexics ofEnglish and Spanish folktales that is attractive for comparison from the point ofview of linguistics.

Key words: folk tale, linguo-cultural aspect, English, Spanish.

Діана БІРЮКОВА, folk tale cultural component

кандидат філологічних наук, доцент, в.о. завідувача кафедри іноземної філології, перекладу та професійної мовної підготовки

Університету митної справи та фінансів (Дніпро, Україна)

ВИВЧЕННЯ ЛІНГВОКУЛЬТУРНОГО АСПЕКТУ ЧЕРЕЗ ПОРІВНЯННЯ ЛЕКСИКИ У АНГЛІЙСЬКИХ ТА ІСПАНСЬКИХ НАРОДНИХ КАЗКАХ

Стаття присвячена дослідженню лексичного аспекту у англійських та іспанських народних казках через призму культурологічної складової. Національно-мовна специфіка яскраво представлена у народній творчості, а саме баладах, епосах, народних піснях, приказках та прислів'ях, легендах, анекдотах, міфах, а особливо у народних казках. Адже народна творчість завжди виражалась у посланнях до народу простими словами на основі життєвого досвіду, придбаної мудрості. Культура, мораль та традиції народу завжди описувалися у народних казках усіх народів, щоб наступні покоління могли вивчити свою історію та культуру і передавати їх до наступних поколінь, зберігаючи всю її специфіку. Культура особливо вплинула на мову. Народні казки дають можливість розглянути етнокультурознавчу лексику. У фольклорному тексті спостерігається конкретний лексичний склад. Казка є одним із найяскравіших утілень національно-мовної картини світу і невичерпним джерелом відображення ментального світосприйняття. Текст народної казки допомагає дослідити етапи становлення національно- мовної картини світу в історії того чи іншого народу. Також текст, а саме лексична складова допомагає розкрити та пізнати самобутність традицій, вірувань та поглядів людей минулих часів. Для даного дослідження було взято народні казки Англії та Іспанії, адже англійська та іспанська мови входять до однієї групи романо-гер- манських мов і мають багато цікавих сходжень у лексичному аспекті, який розглядається через культурологічну призму. Для даного дослідження були взяті народні казки, адже саме казка є символом культури будь-якого народу. В казці відображені традиції, звичаї, моральність та духовний стан, а казка створена за допомогою лексики. Саме лексика англійських та іспанських народних казок є привабливою для порівняння з точки зору лінгвістики.

Ключові слова: народна казка, лінгвокультурний аспект, англійська, іспанська.

Formulation of the problem. Acquaintance with the culture of the country of any language being studied has been one of the main tasks since ancient times. Studying or teaching of a language is impossible without cultural aspect being examined. Learning a foreign language through the prism of culture is the basis of the cultural approach. Any language is born in a particular culture that is the system of people who make and reborn it with each further generation. Looking at the pastime languages were born in simple communication between peoples. They were creating various tales, stories using words and phrases inherent in their culture. Folklore is determined to be the initial step to develop a language and its lexical aspect.

Research analysis. Folktales of different cultures have been studied since the beginning of 20th century. Some of researchers have been studying folktales as a subject of teaching children, for example, a scientist Gomez J.A. studies them as a tool of pedagogy (Gomez, 2016:.18), while Davidenko G.V. analyzes linguistic and structural characteristics of folktales (Davidenko, 2004: 19).

The aim of the article. The following article is dedicated to the research of lexical aspect comparing English and Spanish folktales. These languages have been taken into consideration due to the fact that they are the part of Romano-Germanic languages group. The aim of the research is to analyze similarity in lexical phenomenon both in English and Spanish folktales.

Presenting the main material. Folklore with good reason is considered as a world's masterpiece heritage containing an incredible collection of fictional stories about culture, people, animals, traditions and moral principles. From the earliest times folklore has been an integral part of all peoples' life playing one of the major roles in the development of the human world. Folklore has been passing cultural and traditional features from generation to generation revealing characteristics of ethnics, culture, personal moral beliefs and thoughts. We can see and perceive the culture through the folklore.

Folklore consists of several genres such as:

folk epic which contains proverbs, riddles, legends, fables, parables, anecdotes, myths, folktales, historic songs;

folk drama which mean folk stories revealing some conflicts between people through songs;

folk lyrics meaning poethic folk stories

folk lyric epic - ballades, thoughts.

Folklore being a mirror of the culture has been passing history, knowledge, morality and valuables from a mother to a child, from a grandfather to a grandchild making an influence on their lives and

the lives of further generations. (Dundes, 2007: 53). Folktale is one of the best appropriate means to share the experience of the previous older generation with younger one expressing a simple form of beingness of simple people.

According to Joseph Campbell, the folktale is the hornbook ofthe image language ofthe soul. (Campbell, 1969: 32). A folktale appears in a human's life from his or her birth and remains in the heart forever. It forms the groundwork of child's understanding of good and evil, how to conceive the beingness, the inner world, the whole picture of the world etc. Folktales create cognition, conceptualization and reasoning of a person which remains with him forever as childhood concepts are not forgotten in the further life.

Folktale is a symbol of culture. (MupKOBm, 2017: 86). It expresses spiritual order, morality, traditions and customs of a certain nation. Folktale is a completed story which happened at a particular period of time in a particular family, for instance, and tells about life of certain heroes and how they interact with other participants and cope with some circumstances. In general, folktale main target is to show how good fights evil and wins.

English and Spanish languages are part of Romano- Germanic languages group. These two languages have various similarities in part of lexicological aspect. Both languages originate from Latin. Therefore, for this article English and Spanish folktales have been chosen to be studied for the subject of lexical similarity.

Lexicology is the branch of linguistics which studies lexics of a specific language. Also it analyzes the relation between words. With the help of lexics we divide the surrounding and our inner world into parts and give each of them a substitute name. Lexics helps us to conceive the world and its phenomena. Each nation's wealth and heritage is measured with its linguistic completeness, lexicological components and their variability. The development of any nation is considered by its richness in lexics. Generally, lexics is divided into four types.

Folktale is a folklore component that is based especially on household, abstract and emotional lexics. The folktale brings emotional and abstract brightness into a child's life while he/she listens to it.

Besides, it tells about household activities in frames of moral background and motive. A folktale is filled with emotional sentences and vocabulary, sentences are built on the basis of contrasts, and as it known contrasts send abstract and emotional signal. There are objective and argumental dialogues in folktales, social, cultural and national reflections of people in folktales.

If to speak about English folktales, lexical peculiarities of English folktales have been studied by Golubovska I.O. (Голубовська, 2004: 284), in particular, metaphors of English folktales have been studied by Zubkova O.S. (Зубкова, 2011: 334).

Here is an example of household lexics in the folktale:

She lived all by herself and did all her work on her own.

Another example of emotional lexics in the folktale is the further: I have a plan to catch that irritating hen. Household lexicology used in English and Spanish folktales especially reflects the cultural aspect of people.

All types of lexics are brightly represented in both English and Spanish folktales. English folktales were created to teach, to show the moral side of life. English folktales describe life of simple people and conditions they face, tell how they overcome some difficult situations and especially evil people or animals. Spanish oral folk tales (suento aureo - a golden tale) are small prose stories of the oral tradition. (Наваренко, 2012: 197). They were retold at some gatherings, in villages and towns both among ordinary poor people and noble kings and queens. Spanish folktales were told just for fun and enjoyment. However, both English and Spanish folktales contain all the above types of lexics. Synonyms, antonyms, idioms are most brightly represented. If to speak about synonyms in English folktales, here is the example:

Close by lived a middle-aged fox with his old mother. And, as you can imagine, if the fox was a little elderly.

Thus, we can see that synonyms elderly and middle-aged were used to describe the age of a fox in the English folktale “What's for dinner!”

In Spanish folktales the sample of synonymic application is as follows:

The children grew up and were so good and gentle.

Their foster-parents loved them as well or better than their own, who were quarrelsome and envious.

Idioms are an important part of everyday life. Idioms themselves brightly reflect cultural aspect of this or that nation. As folktales tell us about everyday people's life and routine, idioms are common thing in English and Spanish folktales.

“Yes it is boiling hot. Just right for the hen,” replied the mother.

My good or evil fortune, ' replied the boy, `I know not which.

Titles in English and Spanish folktales tell us about the originality of these folktales and also show the interrelation with cultural aspect. Also they show the attitude of the author to the folktale. (XygHK K.E, 2021: 223). Mostly English and Spanish folktales are named after their protagonists. English ones are the following: “Lazy Jack”, “Tom Tit Tot”, “Mr. and Mrs. Vinegar”, “The Seal-Catcher”, “Henny-Penny”, “Molly Whuppie” and others. Thus, in these folktales the plot is built on the main heroes' lives, activities or problems. In the folktale Molly Whuppie, for instance, almost all sentences start from her name: Molly wondered why he did that. So Molly did not fall asleep. Molly crept out and reached over the bed. So Molly ran off to the king with the gold ring. Another bright example of the English folktale where the title is named after the character and in all sentences her name is used, is “Henny-Penny”: Dear me!” said Henny-Penny. “Certainly, ” said Henny-Penny. Henny-penny knew something was wrong.

Spanish folktales, as it was said above, are also named after main heroes in folktales, for example, “Barbara, the Grazier's wife”, “King Robin”, “Lady Clare”, “Good St. James, and the Merry Barber of Compostella”, “Elvira, the Sainted Princess” etc. There are some examples of application of names in the folktale “King Robin”: King Robin was now master of the situation. Then King Robin ordered the wolves to dig a large grave. King Robin watched the putting together of the figure. In the folktale “Elvira, the Sainted Princess” all the events are built around Elvira, a young princess and her fiancй Alaric: Elvira, unknown to her father, had been in the custom of carrying bread to the poor prisoners. Elvira and Alaric were led among a strong body of men. Elvira was to be allowed to remain close to the staff. Alaric was married to Elvira.

Although folktales tell about not real stories, toponyms are used there. Toponyms themselves express the cultural idea of the very nation. There are toponyms that describe names of imaginary places where people of the storytelling lived. Here is the example of toponyms in English folktales:

She ran, and he ran, till they came to the Bridge of One Hair.

At Hilton Hall, long years ago, there lived a Brownie that was the contrariest Brownie you ever knew.

If to take into account Spanish folktales, here a big variety of toponyms is represented. There are some examples:

There was once a student in Tuy who was so very poor that, if faith in Providence be not reckoned, he possessed no riches.

Here Tuy is a short name of astionyms, a type of toponyms, Providence is a name of the city, therefore it is also the astionym. Homonyms are also used in Spanish folktales: In a village called Darque, on the banks of the Lima, there lived a farmer. Here Darque is a homonym, an imaginary name of the village.

Unlike the real proper names used in the Spanish folktale mentioned above, in Spanish folktales many imaginary places are used: Ask me no questions, as the Archbishop of Compostella said to the pretty widow. Another example is the following: She rode through the streets of Alcantara.

Conclusions

To conclude, both English and Spanish folktales make up a significant part of world folklore treasure. Folktale is one of the most widespread and common type of folklore. Folktales are a source of a culture, they hold moral side of people's life and beingness, they carry the worldview and show the reality of life, how people or animals interact, how they withstand difficulties or problems. Folktales represent folk wisdom. Folktales include spiritual values, traditions and customs, the definition of good and evil, some particular beliefs and ideals, history and culture. All these factors are introduced through a prism of lexical means of linguistics. In English and Spanish folktales dominate lexical means, such as titles which reflect the characters of a storytelling from the very beginning, toponyms that tell about locations either imaginary or real moving us to those places, synonyms and antonyms showing the opposition of characters, idioms helping to evolve the reader into the element and feel the spirit of the folktale, lexical means of expression of fabulousness that traditionally show magic aspect of the folktale, magic creatures etc. All these lexical means are used in English and Spanish folktales to reveal the atmosphere of a folktale and deepen a listener or a reader into sociocultural life of people of past time.

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