Добавил:
ivanov666
Опубликованный материал нарушает ваши авторские права? Сообщите нам.
Вуз:
Предмет:
Файл:Вопросы современной лингвистики и методики обучения иностранным языкам в школе и вузе. Материалы X Международной конференции FEELTA «Раздвигаем горизо
.pdf
Linguistics
61
More gender-related preferences are found in the use of various subtypes of the direct
threat pattern I (Subject) will do X (Action) to you (Object).
The most widespread variant of the main pattern is a threat verbalized in a complex
sentence with a conditional clause. The main clause names a threat, and the subordinate
clause names an action which should or should not be performed to cancel the threat.
[male character] If I ever learn that you harm Liz, I’ll break your nose.
[female character] If you fail me now, I’ll never let you forget the day!
The use of a conditional clause proves once again that the main purpose of a threat is
not to cause damage to Hearer, but to make a change in Hearer‘s behavior. The material
shows that women produce far more threats with a condition than men do, probably due to the
general tendency to cooperate with their opponents.
Another variation of a direct threat is a simple sentence with an infinitival phrase in
the function of an adverbial modifier of purpose.
[male character] To defend my own, I’ll break your neck!
[female character] I’ll chain you to save you from your own foolishness.
If Speaker explains why the objectionable action is necessary, a threat to Hearer
becomes less categorical. Both gender groups use this kind of threat equally often.
Another effective way to make a threat less direct is to name an undesirable harmful
consequence of Speaker‘s threat without naming the threatening action proper.
[male character] Arrogant fool! If you as much as move a finger, you will die!
[female characters] You shall be sorry. Oh, that you shall be! / Leave now, and you’ll
never see me again.
The study material shows that this subtype is typical of women‘s speech. Women tend
to threaten others with implicit unpleasant consequences of one‘s actions while men tend to
make explicit threats.
The use of subjunctive mood forms and modal verbs makes a threat altogether
uncategorical as it acquires hypothetical quality. This subtype is unpopular with both gender
groups, possibly because it fails to express directive intention properly.
[male characters] … if you didn’t complete your agreement, I’d break your neck or
maybe your back, haul your carcass into the jungle, and let whatever finds you feast away. / A
word more and I’ll have to shut you up with my fist in your mouth.
[female characters] I would have you disabled on my order if I thought that you were a
threat to me. Do you take my meaning, smart one? / We can leave you in here just as easily,
mind it.
Linguistics
62
In a few cases menacives are combined with directive speech acts. The study material
shows that male communicants tend to combine speech acts of threat and order while female
ones favor the combination of threat and advice.
[male characters] Freeze or I’ll blow your head off. / Tell me where he is, and I won’t
touch a hair on your head.
[female characters] Do not say it or you will regret it. / You’d better not start getting
clever with me, because I can snap your neck a lot faster than anyone can come help you. /
You shouldn’t do it. Hit me and you are a dead man.
A threat may also turn into a request, a suggestion, a promise, and a reproach which
are far less disruptive for communication than a direct threat.
[male characters] Don’t make me hurt you, sweetheart. (request) / You shouldn’t force
my hand, man! (suggestion) / You be ever so careful now. If the weapon goes off, it’ll burn
your eyes out. (warning) / I shall be sorry for you, guys. (promise).
[female characters] Mom, please! Don’t make me take you back to the asylum.
(request) / For your own sake, you’d better stay out of it. (advice) / Haven't you had any
proper teaching? Has anyone ever given you a good beating? (request).
These vague implicit threats are not popular with either men or women, and there are
few cases of such pragmatic transpositions in both gender groups.
On the whole our analysis shows that in a threat-provocative communicative situation
male characters tend to be more direct and persuasive than female ones. Speakers of the male
group avoid uncertainty and prefer traditional direct threats in both every-day communication
and in life-threatening circumstances when a threat is a response to harmful external
influence. Men make fewer threats than women, but men‘s threats are usually rather
aggressive, with a prospect of physical violence. Dynamic and directive, these threats serve as
a means of changing unfavorable circumstances.
Female communicants make various threats ranging from very direct ones in lifethreatening circumstances to mild uncategorical threats in ordinary communication. Speakers
of the female group employ diverse linguistic means, and they make ―soft‖ threats more often
than their male counterparts do. Women are more emotional in communication and
consequently more than men prone to verbalize threats in their discourse. However women‘s
threats rarely imply severe physical damage to Hearer and focus instead on minor harm or
even more often on psychological discomfort to Hearer. A threat of this kind often serves as a
means of expressing emotions and not as an instrument of changing unfavorable
circumstances.
Linguistics
63
Communicative priorities of male and female Speakers differ in case of verbalizing a
threat, and the difference can be described by the opposition action vs. emotion. Men‘s threats
are mostly oriented to various kinds of physical activity, and women‘s threats are typically
connected with emotional aspects of social interaction. Thus, the study material indicates that
pragmatic factor gender is relevant for Speaker‘s choice of menacive patterns. However
gender-related differences in speech styles are not absolute as gender interacts with other
pragmatic factors such as social status, age, nationality, character traits, occupation, etc.
Speaker‘s particular menacive patterns are due to the combination of Speaker‘s and Hearer‘s
personal characteristics and numerous circumstantial factors.
References:
1. Беляева, Е.И. Грамматика и прагматика побуждения: английский язык / Е.И.
Беляева. – Воронеж: Изд-во Воронеж. ун-та, 1992. – 168 с.
2. Земская, Е.А. Особенности мужской и женской речи / Е.А. Земская, М.А.
Китайгородская, Н.Н. Розанова // Русский язык в его функционировании / под ред.
Е.А. Земской и Д.Н. Шмелева. – М.: Наука, 1993. С. 90 – 136.
3. Кирилина, А.В. Гендер: лингвистические аспекты / А.В. Кирилина – М.: Институт
социологии РАН, 1999. – 189 с.
4. Никитин, М.В. Курс лингвистической семантики / М.В. Никитин. - СПб.: РГПУ им.
А.И.Герцена, 2007.- 819 с.
5. Почепцов, Г.Г. Прагматика предложения // Теоретическая грамматика современного
английского языка / И.П. Иванова, В.В. Бурлакова, Г.Г. Почепцов. – М.: Высшая
школа, 1981. – С. 267-281.
6. Coates, J. Women, Men and Language (A Sociolinguistic Account of Sex Differences in
Language) / J. Coates. – London: Longman, 1986. – 346 p.
7. Lakoff, R. Language and Woman‘s Place / R. Lakoff. – New York: Harper and Row,
1975. – 175 p.
8. Leech, G. N. Principles of Pragmatics / G.N. Leech. – London: Longman, 1983. – 250 p.
9. Tannen, D. You Just Don‘t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation / D. Tannen. –
New York: Ballantine Books, 1990. – 233 p.
Linguistics
64
УДК 81
THE ETHIC CONCEPTS OF FAITHFULNESS AND BETRAYAL:
METAPHORIC REPRESENTATION
Savartseva N.V.
Amur State University of Humanities and Pedagogy,
Komsomolsk-na-Amure, Russia,
e-mail: natalia.savartseva@mail.ru
Summary:
This article gives an insight into the ethic concepts of Faithfulness and Betrayal on the
level of their verbal representation. Basing on the assumption that the word is a key to the
concept we analyzed the lexical units which carry out the verbal realization of the given
concepts and finally concluded that their lexical compatibility is mainly determined by their
figurative representation. We managed to detect the following metaphoric characteristics of
the concepts of Faithfulness and Betrayal: anthropomorphous, artifact, zoomorphous,
vegetative, theomorphous and other characteristics.
Keywords / phrases: Concept, Ethic Concept, Faithfulness, Betrayal, Metaphor
This article aims to cover the metaphoric representation of the ethic concepts of
Faithfulness and Betrayal. The topicality of this research is determined by the choice of
Anthropocentric Linguistics as a scientific paradigm. The problems discussed are included
into the investigation of the semiosphere of the inner world of the person. It is of the most
priority-driven trends in modern Russian Linguistics.
The semantics of the inner world of the person is represented by abstract and
generalized meanings, it is constituted by a number of universal constants. The total
combination of these constants makes up a certain semiosphere. The inner world of the person
is contrasted to the outer world, in linguistics it is viewed as an enclosed semiosphere that is
beyond visibility, sense perception, direct observation and verification of a cognizer – a being
that is able to cognize, that is to perceive, to know, to learn. The inner world of the person is
made up by psychic constituents: will expression, character of the person, his / her emotional
and mental peculiarities, tastes, predisposition, attitude to other people and him/herself [5, p.
7]. Moral phenomena, such as Duty, Faith, Conscience, Honour, Shame, etc. occupy a
Linguistics
65
considerable space in it. Their semantics is determined by social and psychophysiological
nature of the person: it is formed in the process of socialization of the individual and it is not
inherited by birth. The ethic concepts of Faithfulness and Betrayal are integral constituents of
this semiosphere.
The interest of modern researchers to ethic concepts is based on their ethnolinguistic
nature. Their content is determined by the norms of the society we live in. They represent
idealized world, the idea of ―life as it should be‖, and, unfortunately, it does not often
correspond to reality. The urge, the wish of people to shorten this distance between real life
and ―life as it should be‖ makes ethic concepts always vital.
Following the assumption that the word can serve as a means of access to a concept as
a mental unity we analyzed the lexical units which carry out the verbal realization of the given
concepts. Thus we studied abstract names faithfulness and betrayal, their synonyms loyalty,
disloyalty, fidelity, treachery, etc. and their derivatives.
When we studied the syntactic properties of the verbal representatives of the concepts,
we came to the conclusion that their lexical compatibility is mainly determined by their
figurative representation. It can be explained by the fact that abstract names nominating the
concepts in question represent the phenomena of ideal invisible world – the world that can be
comprehended only when compared to the real actual existing, material world. That‘s why the
compatibility of abstract names is open for metaphorization.
Here are the essential features of metaphors in theoretical conceptions of some
linguists:
metaphor is a powerful means of cognition that represents a method of considering
one sphere of reality through the prism of another one – abstract notion is
comprehended in comparison with the well-known, familiar sensibilia (what may be
sensed) [2, p.221; 3];
in its nature metaphor is anthropometric: measuring different essentialities it compares
them with the person, it measures the world with the help of the human scope of
knowledge, ideas, the system of cultural values; the ability to think metaphorically is
characteristic of homosapiens, understanding of a metaphor is in some cases a way to
self-understanding [4, p.91];
metaphor aims to catch ―the soul‖ of objects, their constant features, which it makes
available for sense perception due to its imagery [1, p.279].
We analyzed verbs and adjectives used with the abstract nouns that nominate the
concepts we studied in their direct meaning. This literal interpretation of words used with
Linguistics
66
concept names allowed to find metaphors that project these phenomena of the inner world of
the person on the material world.
We managed to detect the following metaphoric characteristics of the concepts of
Faithfulness and Betrayal:
- anthropomorphous characteristics;
- artifact characteristics;
- zoomorphous characteristics;
- vegetative characteristics;
- theomorphous characteristics;
- location characteristics, etc.
Temporal characteristics.
In the whole body of analyzed material there are a lot of utterances in which lexical
units that carry out verbal realization of the concept ―faithfulness‖ combine with time
markers: for over thirty years, over the years, for nearly forty years, the long … years and so
on, which shows that faithfulness has a processual character. It lasts for many years, can
continue till death and increase day by day.
The characteristic of spatial extension ―length‖ reflects temporal extension of
faithfulness:
(1) ―Charles really was very sweet and she was determined to reward him at last for
his long devotion‖ (Maugham).
The concept ―betrayal‖ has a temporal characteristic of the time of day – ―midnight‖:
(2) May the United Nations ever be vigilant and potent to defeat the swallowing up of
any nation, at any time, by any means – by army with banners, by force or by
fraud, by tricks or by midnight treachery (Lodge).
Location characteristics.
The concepts of the semiosphere of the inner world of the person have two
pragmatically different types of localization: а) localization inside the human body and b)
localization of objects of the inner world of the person in ideal (imaginary) space [5, p. 296].
In the space of the inner world Faithfulness can be found inside the body which serves
as a container for feelings and emotions. The realization of the cognitive model Body is a
container for faithfulness takes place in the following contexts:
(3) Eve refused to leave Alexandra‘s side. Mrs. Chandler thought she had never seen
such devotion in a sister. It was truly touching (Sheldon).
Linguistics
67
Faithfulness as the majority of constants of the inner world of the person concentrates
in the heart, which causes frequent combinability of the word heart with the lexical units that
represent the concept ―faithfulness‖:
(4) ―…Now and always you have my faithful and devoted heart, dear Mathew...‖
(Christie).
In the space of the inner world blood is not just the red liquid that circulates in the
arteries and veins of humans, carrying oxygen to and carbon dioxide from the tissues of the
body, but is a locus of soul and feelings:
(5) She was shining black, pure African, devoted to her last drop of blood to the
O‘Harras, Ellen‘s mainstay, the despair of her three daughters, the terror of the other house
servants (Mitchell).
Betrayal as faithfulness can locate inside the human body. It is expressed by the
metaphor Body is a container for betrayal:
(6) Wise married women don‘t trouble themselves about infidelity in their husbands
(Johnson).
The heart as the centre of spiritual life of the person contains not only positive but also
negative emotional feelings and properties of the human nature. Location of betrayal in the
heart is expressed by the lexical units telltale, false combined with the word heart:
(7) …features Jean Gabin in his robust glory as a master of thief with a telltale heart
(The New Yorker).
Anthropomorphous characteristics.
Faithfulness is personified: it is flesh and blood, personality with its peculiarities
showing in social relationships and interaction. Faithfulness can be personified by definite
person who is its embodiment.
Realization of the cognitive model Faithfulness is a person is possible with the help of
various linguistic means. Personification of faithfulness is specified by the metaphors
Faithfulness is a mother and Faithfulness is a sister:
(8) Devotion and her daughter Love Still bid the birsting spirit soar… (Byron);
(9) Fidelity is the sister of justice (Horace).
In the cited above examples the concept ―faithfulness‖ has ―female‖ features that says
for gender differentiation of the concept.
Faithfulness has ―male‖ features, that is proved by the existence of the metaphor
Faithfulness – fighter. Asa fighter it wins the right to tell the person the whole truth (not
always pleasant) about his /her behaviour:
Linguistics
68
(10) Doro looked at him – a look Isaac had come to recognize, a look that gave him
permission to say what Doro would not hear from others. Over the years, Isaac‘s usefulness
and loyalty had won him the right to say what he felt and beheard – though not necessarily
heeded (Butler).
Anthropomorphism of faithfulness is realized in the metaphor Faithfulness is a dumb
person:
(11) Everyone knew his dumb devotion to her (Mitchell).
One of the most widely-spread metaphors is the metaphor Faithfulness is a blind
person. Faithfulness is ascribed the following characteristics: ―blindness‖, ―inability to see‖
that sometimes get negative judgement:
(12) Surrendering the self to the person and to the will of another took many other
forms. But when one‘s headlong capitulation to obsession grew deadly, the consequence of
unseeing devotion was catastrophe (George).
Blind loyalty with which a loving person is ready to protect the object of his/ her love
causes admiration:
(13) Yes, Melanie had been there that day with a sword in her small hand, ready to do
battle for her. And now, as Scarlett looked sadly back, she realized that Melanie had always
been there beside her with a sword in her hand, unobtrusive at her own shadow, loving her,
fighting for her with blind passionate loyalty, fighting Yankees, fire, hunger, poverty, public
opinion and even her beloved blood kin (Mitchell).
Betrayal like a person has a mouth, hands, face:
(14) These things put arguments into the mouth of infidelity (Twain);
(15) …we should have had no note of warning and might all have perished by the
hand of treachery (Stevenson).
As for betrayal, it has not one, but two faces, which indicates insincerity:
(16) …Melanie knew all the pettiness, the meanness, the two-faced disloyalty and the
hypocrisy that were in here (Mitchell).
Anthropomorphous characteristics of betrayal are also revealed in vital features of this
phenomenon.
Betrayal like a person has life:
(17) It (betrayal) feels bigger than you, and seems to have a life of its own (Hedva).
Betrayal is a disease, and to cure it one needs special remedies:
(18) …his remedy for such a betrayal might be to seek vengeance (Mason).
Linguistics
69
Betrayal shatters the emotional calm of the person, and it is metaphorically expressed
by wounding. It can be traced in the metaphor Betrayal is a wound:
(19) …you developed to cope with your earlier betrayal wounds… (Hedva).
Theomorphous characteristics.
Faithfulness is sometimes defined with the help of such epithets as «imperishable»,
«undying», «eternal», typical of some Supreme Being that has heavenly godlike
characteristics. In this case it is possible to single out the metaphor Faithfulness is Divinity:
(20) It certainly did her good at that moment to be assured that Charles Tamerley, so
distinguished, so cultured, so elegant, loved her with an imperishable devotion (Maugham).
Immortality or Eternity is a common feature of faithfulness and God.
If faithfulness is associated with God, betrayal is an action provoked by Satan, Devil:
(21) …banishing a rogue disloyal thought Satan… (Fielding).
Zoomorphous characteristics.
Understanding of the person in the categories of flora and fauna is characteristic of
many languages and cultures, it is based on the idea of unity of the person with wildlife and is
expressed in various linguistic forms [6, p.685].
Zoomorphous characteristics of faithfulness are revealed in the usage of the verbal
representatives of the concept with the adjective doglike, which is explained by the fact that in
different cultures the dog is a symbol of faithfulness and loyalty:
(22) His love for Isabel was a delight to see; he adored her beauty and thought her the
most brilliant, fascinating creature in the world; and his doglike devotion to Larry was
touching (Maugham).
The dog‘s loyalty has become the fine example of loyalty that should be looked up to
by human beings.
Vegetative characteristics.
Vegetative characteristics of faithfulness are found in the metaphor Faithfulness is a
plant.
Like a plant faithfulness has the capacity to fade or not to fade:
(23) … this makes me a bigot in the fadeless fidelity of man… (Melville).
Artifact characteristics.
Faithfulness can be conceptualized as a material object that one can give or present
somebody as a very expensive gift:
(24) ―But your kinsmen had given me their loyalty. That is no small thing‖ (Butler).
Linguistics
70
One can find faithfulness as an object, show it, bind it around one‘s neck, lay it at
smb‘s feet:
(25) Do not let loyalty and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck, write
them on the tablet of your heart (Bible);
(26) I was to be Martha, keeping busy with household chores in the background; she
was to be Mary, laying pure devotion at Alex’s feet (Atwood).
The image of faithfulness as an object is supplemented by the physical characteristic
of weight. The metaphor Faithfulness is an expensive item of goods is realized in the
following context where one ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness:
(27) An ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness (Hubbard).
Betrayal as an object is inconspicuous, one has to find it, lay it bare, reveal:
(28) Immediately, we are led to wonder what betrayal the narrator will reveal
(Mason).
Artifact characteristics of the studied concept are supplemented by the metaphor
Betrayal is a sharp razor that deeply wounds the person:
(29) ―Betray‖ was a strong word, and it sounded as sharp as it was: a blade of a word,
slicing Martin deep inside (Rice).
Conceptualization of betrayal as an object results in the fact that it can have the
following object characteristics: «size», «form» that can vary depending on circumstances,
«depth», «perceptivity» а) visual perception, b) taste perception – the taste of betrayal is
usually bitter, c) acoustic perception – betrayal has the ability to resonate:
(30) The bitter sense of betrayal felt in China about its communist neighbour…
(Callick);
Thus, the described above characteristics which are often based on metaphors help us
get a more definite idea of the concepts ―faithfulness‖ and ―betrayal‖. The images they
convey make the studied concepts more visually compelling and as a result more
comprehensible. So, metaphor serves as an important tool with the help of which we
understand abstract notions pertaining to the inner world of the person.
References:
1. Arutyunova, N. D. Yazyk i mir cheloveka / N. D. Arutyunova. – 2-е izd., ispr. – М.:
«Yazyki russkoy kultury», 1999. – 896 p.
2. Bally, Ch. Frantsuzskaya stilistika / Ch. Bally / per. К. А. Dolinina; pod red. Е. G. Etkinda;
vstup. st. R. I. Budagova. – М.: Izdatelstvo Inostrannoy literatury, 1961. – 393 p.
Соседние файлы в предмете [НЕСОРТИРОВАННОЕ]