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14Ученые записки Крымского федерального университета имени В. И. Вернадского. Филологические науки. Научный журнал. Том 7 (73). № 3. С. 113-119._______
УДК 811.111-26
LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF THE NOVEL “SPY”
BY JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
Baldanova E. A., Dondokova N. B.
Transbaikal Railway Transport Institute of the Irkutsk State Transport University, Irkutsk, Russia
E-mail: jenny_july@mail.ru
The article examines the linguistic features of the novel "The Spy" by the classic of the American literature James Fenimore Cooper. The purpose of the work is to correlate the selected linguistic features of the novel "The Spy" with the linguistic norm of the modern literary English language. The object of the research is the discourse of heroes, saturated with the dialogues that carry a vivid emotional coloring of the conversation between representatives of the historical past of America at the beginning of the 19th century. The stylistic originality of the heroes’ speeches of the novel "The Spy" is associated with the use of vernacular language, which recreates the physical and psychological forms of the heroes of the novel. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that it focuses on the stylistic devices that the author uses to denote the personality of the characters by linguistic means. The practical significance of the work lies in the possibility of using the analysis of the linguistic features of the novel in further studies of the English-language literature, or when delivering lectures and special courses on intercultural communication, cultural linguistics, cultural studies, cognitive and corpus linguistics, methods of teaching a foreign language.
Key words: dialectism, archaism, speech characteristics, stylistic features, colloquial expressions.
INTRODUCTION
The famous novelist and satirist James Fenimore Cooper pioneered American literature. The writer’s work, his quotes and aphorisms do not lose their relevance. Fenimore Cooper was considered the founder of a new genre in the world of literature - the Western novel. Several generations of American writers have referred to Cooper as a teacher and inspiration.
In his novels, Cooper, although he used certain plot cliches that were entrenched in literature thanks to the work of Walter Scott, nevertheless enriched them with those features that distinguished his works, making them independent, inimitable, and even, on the contrary, gave impetus to numerous imitations already to Cooper himself [1].
MAIN PART
Cooper’s artistic discovery was the depiction of the Indians, despite the fact that some predecessors had already touched on this topic. The author described the tragedy of the Indian people: the white colonialists robbed, drunk, corrupted and exterminated them. The indigenous people of America were persecuted with inhuman cruelty, they were credited with all kinds of vices. But James Fenimore Cooper destroyed this myth by showing that Indians are often morally superior to whites. Stories dedicated to the faithful friendship between “redskins” and “pale-faced” are among the best works of the writer. In the novels “Pioneers”, “The Last of the Mohicans”, “Prairie”, “Pathfinder” and “Tutsan”, the writer managed to create an epic about the fate of the Americans and those people who used to live on this land.
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Fenimore Cooper pioneered the historical novel in America as well. Cooper provided an opportunity for readers to emotionally relive America’s heroic past with the novel “The Spy”, and this novel can be considered the beginning of Cooper’s biography. The novel gained popularity not only in America and England, but throughout the world. The importance of the book for the history of American culture can hardly be overestimated. As Cooper’s younger contemporary Gilmore Simms wrote, “Cooper’s merit is that he was the first to awaken in us respect for ourselves, the consciousness of those spiritual possibilities that we constantly doubted and which our provincialism constantly denied. To take the first step is to overcome half the road, to strike the first blow is to win half the battle ” [8]. “Never before any American work had anything like such a triumph” [3].
“The Spy” takes place during the Revolutionary War. The main char acter of the novel is Harvey Birch. This modest American, who occupies a seemingly rather low and unremarkable place in society, actually collects military information for the Continental Army, and he does it in the territories controlled by the British troops [6].
In the image of Harvey Birch, the peculiarities of the American national character are visible [4]. The origin of the hero is rather characteristic: Harvey Birch is a commoner, he comes from the very midst of the American people, who “did not differ in any way from the local commoners, except for his ingenuity, and also that his actions were always shrouded in some kind of mystery”. Cleverness and resourcefulness are a bright positive characteristics of many of Cooper’s future heroes, including Leather Stocking. Birch’s simple lineage is an important trait. Among the Americans there were many more such people - of simple origin, with an unclear ancestry, and not the descendants of high-ranking people, nobles. Harvey Birch is the embodiment of the people who will gradually, after gaining independence, become the American people [2].
Fenimore Cooper was a great storyteller and his novel is interesting from an artistic and stylistic point of view. The heroes of the novel embody certain intellectual, moral and ethical values. The author was distinguished by great skill in depicting pictures of nature, an amazing ability to develop an adventure plot entertainingly and create bright strong characters, as in the novel Harvey Birch and women of the people: Betty Flanagen and Katie Haynes who are not at all heroines, but are remembered, one is sincerity and love of life, the other - ambition and tenacity.
Along with this, in his descriptions of nature, Cooper shows extraordinary rigor in the selection of linguistic means. For example, the beginning of Chapter XV, where the onset of winter is described in several lines: “The weather, which had been mild and clear since the storm, now changed with the suddenness of the American climate. Towards evening the cold blasts poured down from the mountains, and flumes of snow plainly indicated that the month of November had arrived; a season whose temperature varies from the heats of summer to the cold of winter... the trees bending to the force of the wind, that swept through the valley with an impetuosity that shook even the buildings; and the forest, that had so lately glittered in the sun with its variegated hues, was fast losing its loveliness, as the leaves were torn from the branches, and were driving irregularly before the eddies of the blast.” [7, p. 187].
We are interested in the novel from a philological point of view, and how everything can be traced in the language of the novel. E.M. Mednikova analyzed the Cooper’s works
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as follows: “Cooper wrote unevenly. Above all, the book is replete with that sublime rhetoric that characterized the early 19th century. At the same time, Cooper, widely borrowing from Latin, revealing an adherence to verbosity and complex phrases, wrote a little florid and archaic even for his time” [5]. For example, we can see the floridity and archaism in the following quote from chapter XIII of the book: “The savor of preparation which had been noticed by Captain Lawton began to increase within the walls of the cottage; certain sweet-smelling odors, that arose from the subterranean territories of Caesar, gave to the trooper the most pleasing assurances that his olfactory nerves, which on such occasions were as acute as his eyes on others, had faithfully performed their duty: and for the benefit of enjoying the passing sweets as they arose, the dragoon so placed himself at a window of the building, that not a vapor charged with the spices of the East could exhale on its passage to the clouds, without first giving its incense to his nose” [7, p. 165] .
At the same time, Cooper describes the situation very humorously [7, p. 166]. Humor is generally one of the novel’s distinctive features - and the manner of presentation plays an important role and, oddly enough, organically coexists with frank melodrama.
Returning to the archaisms, we note that there are essentially two types of archaisms in the text - what seems archaic to the modern reader and what sounded outdated, old-fashioned already at the beginning of the 19th century. However, reading the novel today, we are not aware of these subtle differences, but we feel the general flavor of the past, which is so vividly conveyed by the means of language.
Among the most obvious archaisms we will name:
(1) an interrogative form without an auxiliary verb, for example: “think you that figure was made ...?” [7, p. 254]; “How say you, Betty?” [7, p. 276]; “And call you this the interior of America?” [7, p. 288]; “Bring you tidings of mercy?” [7, p. 313]; “Think you ...?” [7, p. 326].
(2) constrictions like “tis”, “twill”, “twould”.
(3) formulas for addressing the interlocutor, for example: “Pray, Colonel, Wellmere” [7, p. 41]; “I conjure you” [7, pp. 59, 190, 360].
(4) individual phrases and words, for example: require smb’s pleasure - to know what you want [7, p. 27]; intimate smth - to hint at something (is it intimated any are in agitation? - do they talk about something definite? [7, p. 41]; inmate - a guest, to partake - take a bite [7, p. 33]; near friends - close friends [7, p. 37]; by dint of - through (with the help) of something [7, pp. 49, 54, 171]; quit smth - to stop doing anything (the aunt quitted her employment - aunt quit her business [7, p. 51]; wallet - knapsack [7, p. 219]; at that day - in those days [7, p. 129]; he suffered himself to be persuaded - he allowed himself to be persuaded [7, p. 367]; acquiesced in the proposal - agreed with the proposal [7, p. 369], etc.
The most interesting stylistic moment in the novel is the speech characteristics. Here we can talk about two types of such characteristics: social speech characteristics and individual ones. The first type is, as it were, an undivided general way of expressing one's thoughts. It is inherent in all “noble” characters in the novel, i.e. Wharton, Dunwoodie, Harper, Francis, Sarah, etc. - on the one hand, and all “low-born” characters - on the other one. In other words, this is a speech inherent in a certain social group, which does not in any way characterize each character separately.
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Only a few characters are endowed with individual speech characteristics in the novel. They are Harvey Birch, Betty Flanagan, Katy Haynes, Caesar, and Dr. Sitgreaves. The peculiarities of their speech speak of the writer’s keen observation and keen hearing.
Of these characters, all but Sitgreaves are common folk, and the speech portraits immediately reveal this. And although one or two common features in their speech can be named, they cannot be confused - the reader immediately recognizes the speaker - they are so specific and peculiarly colorful.
Betty Flanagen’s speech is frankly for common people, which is expressed primarily in pronunciation (fixed in writing). For example, she says [i] instead of [e]: ind (end), divil (devil), ligant (elegant), expict (expect), frind (friend), niver (never), piddler (peddler), forgit (forget ), remimber (remember), inimy (enemy), sich (such), jist (just); or [ei] instead of [i]: for example, baste (beast), slaping (sleeping), dacent (decent), lave (leave), un’asy (uneasy), ating (eating), discrate (discreet), mane ( mean), convanient (convenient), waping (weeping), trate (treat), or [a:] instead of [e]: sartin (certain), vartue (virtue), yarbs (herbs); or [au] instead of [ou], for example, sowl (soul), ould (old), sould (sold).
Betty speaks grammatically wrong too. There are irregular forms of the past tense, such as “expose the baste (beast) to be hurted” [7, p. 265], and the singular verb instead of the plural, for example, “ye’s” instead of “you are”, and the particle “no” instead of “not”, for example, “it’s no long he’d tarry to chat”, etc. She sometimes uses long words that she learned from the officers and that sound funny in her mouth, for example, “slanderize, calunmn’ated, complimentaries (compliments)”, etc.
The speech of Katie Haynes, also an uneducated simple woman, differs significantly from Betty’s speech, which is explained by the difference in their characters and social status: Betty is a waitress, she is happy with her fate, kind, cunning, cheerful. Katie expects to marry Harvey and thus take the position of the owner of the house, mistress. She has her own opinion on any issue and expresses it in a categorical, even aphoristic, form: “an unquiet life makes an uneasy grave [7, p. 136], he is good only who does good” [7, p. 136], and so on. Trying to have a self-assertion, she persistently uses, most often out of place (malapropism), “cultural”, “learned” words, sometimes unexpectedly funny distorting them, for example, “it’s a scandalous disparagement” [7, p. 276]; “such conversations... that you can have no idea on” [7, p. 294]; “I lived in his house for a long concourse of years” [7, p. 295]; “unaccountables” [7, p. 275]; “disposable” [7, p. 147]; “incumberments” [7, p. 276]: “botherment” [7, p. 85]; “Harvey was a mystified body” [7, p. 294]; “Harvey is a man that no calculation can be made on” [7, p. 294].
At the same time, her speech is illiterate, like Betty’s speech, it is characterized by irregular forms of the verb, for example, “if he know where he be, why don’t he dig him up” [7, p. 136]; “if you was to hear him” [7. p. 149]; “the opinions of such unbelievers is not very consequential” [7, p. 148]; “I know’d” [7, pp. 277, 293], etc., she forms incorrectly the comparative degree of adjectives, for example, “twill be much convenienter” [7, p. 27] and sometimes gets lost in the colloquial pronunciation: “Jinit” (instead of Jeanette), “sin” (instead of since), etc.
The greatest difficulty in reading the novel will be caused by the use of phonetic-morphological and lexical dialectisms and colloquial expressions that are beyond the literary norm, in the speech characteristics of the dark-skinned Caesar. Therefore, we
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present the most general of his statements. From a phonetic point of view, the main features are the pronunciation of [d], [t] instead of “th” and [b] instead of [v]: gib (give), berry (very); in the omission of the final g: “feelin” (feeling); in contraction like gemman (gentleman) and Massa (Master).
However, the main thing for Caesar’s speech is a complete disregard of the gra mmar rules. So, there are no forms of a person for him, a kind of tense, he often simply omits the verb. For example, “Miss Fanny take care of he fader” [7, p. 56] (instead of “took care of her father”); “A black man so good as white so long as he behave heself’ [7, p. 52]; “Miss Sally like a t’ree shi line when she give ...” [7, p. 54]; “I t’ought he time war’ come” [7, p. 136]. “He” - this is the main, if not the only, personal pronoun for him. For example, the Bible is “he” (look him t’rough, read in him [7, p. 135]), mankind - he [7, p. 136]. He speaks about himself, as a rule, in the third person.
Sitgreaves’ speech immediately reveals his profession - his comparisons are always medical; for example, “I should define poetry as an emollient, rather than as a succulent” [7, p. 235]. The main topic of his conversations, wherever they begin and whatever they are caused, will always be surgery. Using many Latin words, he generally speaks as if he were making a diagnosis; for example, “What can she mean, Archibald?”, “Tis probably a wandering of the reasoning powers, created by the frequency of intoxicating drafts,” observed the surgeon ...” [7, p. 195].
Perhaps the funniest passage in the novel is the conversation between Sitgreaves and Cathy in Chapter XI about the causes of diseases and their treatment. Harvey Birch’s speech is mostly correct, neutral, although here there are some phonetic and grammatical deviations, it is characterized not so much by individual external moments as by the general manner of speaking vaguely, indefinitely, in hints and omissions. When he poses as a priest or dresses in the dress of Betty Flanagen, he copies someone else’s speech very cleverly.
It is necessary to say about the more important moment for the general stylistics of the novel. Each chapter is preceded by an epigraph, which in poetic form outlines the nature of the theme and its development in the chapter following it. The epigraph reveals the general meaning of the described events. At the same time, the connection between the epigraph and the following chapter, as a rule, is so direct that the epigraphs themselves do not need interpretation.
CONCLUSION
These are the main linguistic features of one of Cooper’s novels “The Spy”. We must pay attention to the fact that in the novel, despite the heroic theme and melodrama of the plot, there is a lot of humor. Basically the humorous effect is achieved precisely through individual speech characteristics. Stylistic strategies are used by the author to indicate the individuality of the characters with linguistic means, and contribute to an objective portrait of the main characters.
The stylistic originality of the heroes’ speeches in the novel is associated with the use of vernacular vocabulary, which recreates the physical and psychological forms of the heroes of the novel - prominent representatives of the historical past of America at the beginning of the 19th century. The obtained analyses show a high degree of artistic skill of Fenimore Cooper, which clearly illustrates the variability of linguistic ways of expressing them.
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Список литературы
1. Аносов, П. В. Проблемы американского менталитета в социально-философских концепциях Т. Джефферсона и Б. Франклина [Текст] / П. В. Аносов // Вестник Томского государственного педагогического университета. - 2006. - С. 74-80.
2. Журавлева, А. П. Переосмысление мифа о Земле Обетованной в творчестве Джеймса Фенимора Купера [Текст]: дис. ... канд. филол. наук: 10.01.03 / А. П. Журавлева. - Москва, 2016. - 206 с.
3. Иванько, С. Фенимор Купер. [Электронный ресурс] / С. Иванько // Жизнь замечательных людей. № 713. Москва: Молодая гвардия, 1990. - 267с. Режим доступа: https://www.e-reading.club/chapter.php/24018/7/Ivan%27ko_-_Fenimor_Kuper.html
4. Матвеева, Е. М. Американский характер глазами русских в начале XX века [Текст] / Е. М. Матвеева // Вестник рязанского государственного университета имени С. А. Есенина. - Рязань: Изд-во Рязанского государственного университета. - 2012. -С. 64-75.
5. Медникова, Эсфирь Максимовна. Значение слова и методы его описания: [Текст]: на материале современного английского языка / Э. М. Медникова. 2-е изд. - Москва: URSS, 2009. - 201 с.
6. Чудиновских, Н. Г. Тематическая группа "Американский студент" [Текст]: дис. ... канд. филол. наук: 10.02.04 / Чудиновских Наталья Геннадьевна. - Москва, 2004. - 213 c.
7. Cooper, James Fenimore. The spy: a tale of the neutral ground / J. F. Cooper. Moscow: Progress Publ., 1975. - 430 p.
8. Simms W. G. Views and Reviews in American Literature, etc. First Series. Cambridge, Mass., 1962, pp. 266-267.
References
1. Anosov P. V. Problemy Amerikanskogo Mentaliteta v Sotsial’no-philosophskih contseptsiyah T. Jeffersona i B. Franklina [Problems of the American Mentality in the Socio-philosophical Concepts of T. Jefferson and B. Franklin]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 2006, pp. 74-80.
2. Zhuravleva A. P. Pereosmyslenie Mifa o Zemle Obetovannoi v Tvorchestve Jamesa Fenimora Coopera: Dis.... Cand. Filol. Nauk [Rethinking the Myth of the Promised Land in the Works of James Fenimore Cooper. Thesis]. Moscow, 2016. 206 p.
3. Ivanko, S. Fenimore Cooper. Zhizn’ Zamechatel’nyh lyudej [Life of Wonderful People]. Moscow: Molodaya Gvardiya Publ., 1990, no 713. 267 p. Available at: https://www.e-reading.club/chapter.php/24018/7/Ivan%27ko_-_Fenimor_Kuper.html.
4. Matveeva E. M. Americanskij haracter glazami russkih v nachale XXveka [American Character through the Eyes of Russians at the Beginning of the XX Century]. Vestnik Ryazanskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta Imeni S. A. Yesenina. Ryazan: Izdatel’stvo Ryazanskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta Publ., 2012, pp. 64-75.
5. Mednikova E. M. Znachenie Slova i Metody Ego Opisaniya na materiale Sovremennogo Anglijskogo Yazika [The Meaning of the Word and Methods of Its Description Based on the Material of Modern English]. Moscow: URSS, 2009. 201 p.
6. Chudinovskih N. G. Tematicheskaya Grupa “American Student”: Dis. ... Cand. Filol. Nauk [Thematic Group “American student” Thesis]. Moscow, 2004. 213 p.
7. Cooper, James Fenimore. The Spy: a Tale of the Neutral Ground. Moscow: Progress Publ., 1975. 430 p.
8. Simms W. G. Views and Reviews in American Literature History and Fiction, First Series. Cambridge, Mass., 1962, pp. 266-267.
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LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF THE NOVEL "SPY"...
ЯЗЫКОВЫЕ ОСОБЕННОСТИ РОМАНА «ШПИОН» ФЕНИМОРА КУПЕРА
Балданова Е. А.,
Дондокова Н. Б.
В статье исследуются лингвистические особенности романа классика американской литературы Джеймса Фенимора Купера «Шпион». Цель работы - соотнести выделенные языковые особенности романа «Шпион» с лингвистической нормой современного литературного английского языка. Объект исследования - дискурс героев, насыщенный диалогами, несущими яркую эмоциональную окраску разговора представителей исторического прошлого Америки в начале XIX в. Стилистическое своеобразие речей героев романа «Шпион» связано с использованием просторечной лексики, которая в совокупности воссоздает физические и психологические облики героев романа. Научная новизна работы заключается в том, что в ней сделан акцент на стилистических приемах, которые автор использует для указания языковыми средствами на индивидуальность персонажей. Практическая значимость работы заключается в возможности использования анализа языковых особенностей романа в дальнейших исследованиях англоязычной литературы либо при чтении лекций и спецкурсов по межкультурной коммуникации, лингвокультурологии, культурологии, когнитивной и корпусной лингвистике, методике обучения иностранному языку.
Ключевые слова: диалектизм, архаизм, речевые характеристики, стилистические
особенности, разговорная речь.
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