WEB-ресурс научно-практических конференций

Zhebchuk I.V .

Ukraine

LEXICAL WAY OF THE EXPRESSION OF THE CATEGORY OF GENDER IN THE WORKS OF EPIC FANTASY

The author’s discourse is an expression of his/her subjective worldview based on the objective worldview of the community. This influences the choice of the language means to convey the message. In this article we investigate how the concept of gender is realized in the discourse of epic fantasy as the example of the author’s discourse and what regularities are peculiar for this genre.

Since Modern English is the period of zero flexions, the morphemic way of gender expression is the less frequent and can even be considered rudimental. As the result of the gradual disappearance of morphemic means of gender expression the latter were replaced by the syntactic ones [1, p.311].

The most frequently occurring way of gender expression in this period is a syntactic one. In other words in Modern English the category of gender is expressed by the correlation of nouns with the personal pronouns of the third person singular. Since various transpositions are possible here (nouns can change their gender) and every noun can correlate with a definite pronoun, we claim that every noun in English is capable of expressing its covert gender.

However, there still remains a number of words capable of expressing their gender lexically, i.e. by their meaning. They are animate personal nouns denoting human beings. Peculiar phenomenon of Modern English period is the growing number of nouns referred to as nouns of dual or common gender, i.e. they can be both masculine and feminine depending on the context they occur in. Their gender is differentiated by means of correlation with pronouns or contextually [3, p.220].

Consequently, we can state that the category of gender is a diachronic constant , i.e. it exists on every stage of language development. Synchronically it is the dominant way of its expression that changes with the changes in language structure, from morphemic in Old English to syntactic in Modern English. In the works of epic fantasy we trace instances when syntactic correlations violate the traditional tendencies and their use can be possibly explained by the author’s intention, i.e. it proves that the particular use of the language means serve some particular purpose.

Speaking about lexical expression of gender we consider animate personal nouns and in part nouns of dual and common gender, as inanimate nouns are all neuter irrespective of their lexical meaning.

In the context of epic fantasy conceptual realization of gender is very well outlined – it is exclusively masculine. Even nouns of dual/common gender are mostly perceived as masculine, though in the present-day discourse they would evidently perceived as both masculine and feminine in equal proportion. This can be explained by the fact that the described worldview is masculine in its concept as well, thus reflecting the medieval worldview. [2 , p.2 ]

The sphere of masculine gender prevails in the following spheres: family (e.g. father, son, brother, nephew, grandfather, ancestor, widow’s son etc.); authority (e.g. lord, master, chief, king, elfish-lord etc.); war (e.g. hero, soldier etc.); professions (e.g. grocer, burglar, treasure-hunter, farmer, driver etc.); mythological and magic powers (e.g. hobbit, dwarf, hobbit-boy, dragon, goblin, giant, elf, troll, dwarf-of-yore etc.); negative characters (e.g. burglar , evil-goblin, booby, faggot etc.); friendship (e.g. friend, fellow, chap etc.); depended persons (e.g. prisoner, slave etc.)

Other exclusively masculine notions include nouns like man, victim , Mr ., lad etc. It also should be mentioned that i n the narrator’s discourse the word Men is used to fulfill a number of functions:

· to distinguish humans from other races ( e.g. … and many a song was sung unheard by men or elves…);

· to define humanity as a whole ( e.g. And men looked up with faces pale..)

· consequently when used in singular the word man denotes any person (e.g. Goblets they carved there for themselves and harps of gold; where no man delves there lay they long..);

· to denote people of some country (e.g. the Men of the Hill)’

· to denote somebody’s people (servants, adherents etc.) ( e.g the Chief’s Men, the king's men).

Along with it the words peopl e and folk are widely used but in somewhat different meaning. Here it denotes what is meant by German Leute of Ukrainian народ .

Feminine nouns are not numerous and limited to the following spheres: family (e.g. mother, daughter, widow, niece etc.); mythological creatures (e.g. hobbit –girl ). Here, however, we can refer this noun to lexico-morphological way of expression.

Moreover, we can observe that in the inanimate objects in epic fantasy discourse transform themselves into animate ones and vice versa, and this transformation is obviously reflected in their gender. Consequently, most instances of gender use can be interpreted and explained only referring to the segments larger than a sentence where they occur of even to the whole text, always taking into consideration the author’s intention.

Literature:

1. Мазуряк Л.Т. Контрастивне дослідження родової семантики (у діахронії) // “Семантика мови і тексту” Збірник статей VIII міжнародної наукової конференції. – Івано-Франківськ: Плай, 2003. – С.311-314.

2. Садовник Н.В. Lexical way of expression of the category of gender in the works of epic fantasy . // Матеріали IV Міжвузівської конференції молодих учених "Сучасні проблеми та перспективи дослідження романських і германських мов і літератур" 1-3 лютого 2006 року. -Донецьк: ДНУ, 2006. - С. 154-157.

3. Blokh M.Y. A Course in Theoretical English Grammar. – M.: Высшая школа , 2003. - 383p.