Vol. 4 No.1 January 1985
The Centre for English Cultural Tradition and Language THE CENTRE FOR ENGLISH CULTURAL TRADITION AND LANGUAGE The Centre for English Cultural Tradition and Language is a research institution which acts as a national repository for material on all aspects oflanguage and cultural tradition throughout the British Isles. Located at the University of Sheffield, where it forms part of the Department of English Language, it has close links with the Department of Linguistics and the Division ofContinuing Education at the University and also the Departments ofFolklore, English and Linguistics at the Memorial University of Newfoundland The Centre aims to stimulate interest in language and cultural tradition, encourage the collecting and recording of traditional material through individual contributors, societies and organisations, colleges and schools, and provide a forum for discussion on all aspects oflanguage and tradition. Through its Archives, the Centre c~operates with local libraries, museums, record offices, societies and organisations, to draw attention to our traditional heritage through publications, courses, lectures, displays and exhibitions. Material gathered in the form of taperecordings, written reports, questionnaires, manuscripts, books and printed sources, and i terns of material culture, is deposited in the Centre's Archives, providing a basic resource for reference and research. The Archives include a reference library ofbooks, periodicals, original monographs, dissertations, pamphlets, and ephemera. In addition the Audiovisual section of the Archive includes photographs, slides and illustrations as well as some 2,000 audio-tapes and over 600 films and videotapes. The Archives include detailed information on regional and social dialects, slang and colloquialism, blason populaire, occupational vocabulary, proverbs and sayings. In the area of folklore studies the Centre holds a substantial body ofdata on childlore, custom and belief, traditional music, dance and drama. Special collections include: the Russell Wortley Collection (traditional dance and custom); the Edgar M Wagner Collection (European folkdance and topographical films); the Richard Blakeborough Collection (Yorkshire folklore and local history); the Geoffrey Bullough Collection (nineteenth century literature); microfilms of the Alex Helm, Maurice Barley and James Maddison Carpenter collections (traditional drama and custom); copies of the papers of Thomas Fairman Ordish (traditional drama); recordings and copies of field notebooks for the English and Welsh section of the Atlas Linguarum Europae; copies of the workbooks for the Survey of English Dialects. The Centre's Museum includes a wide variety of items representative of urban and rural traditional occupations, pastimes, arts and crafts. Special collections include basketmaking, knifegrinding, silversmithing and filecutting, in addition to handicrafts, costume and domestic equipment. A selection of exhibitions is available for hire. In association with colleges of education, schools and other interested groups and individuals throughout the British Isles, the Centre sponsors and directs numerous projects in the general field ofchildren's language and folklore such as the role oftradition in teaching linguistic and social skills to children. In addition a systematic investigation oftraditional verbal social controls is being conducted- attention being concentrated on the verbal constraints used by adults in controlling the behaviour of children. Material is being assembled for a wide range of projects in the field of traditional drama, with special reference to geographical distribution and textual variation, context of performance and the influence of chapbook texts. A close liaison with the Traditional Drama Research Group has also been established The Archives continue to gather information on occupational vocabularies and traditions, calendar and social customs and the rites of passage and on various aspects of belief, traditional health systems, and the lore of cosmic phenomena, plants and animals. Folk narratives, anecdotes and jokes are also well representated In the field offolklife the Centre is conducting a nationwide study of the traditional lore and language of food. Bibliographies and machine-readable files are being prepared on various aspects of English language and tradition. An extensive publication programme has also been developed, including a journal Lore and Language, a series of research guides, facsimiles, bibliographies, community studies and conference papers. There is also a series of occasional publications, and the recently inaugurated Folklore Research Register, which is published annually. The Centre contributes to both the postgraduate and undergraduate programmes in the Department of English Language at the University ofSheffield. The Department offers undergraduate courses in Folklore and Contemporary English, and postgraduate students may read for the degrees ofM.A in Modem English Language and English Cultural Tradition (by examination and dissertation) and M Phil and Ph.D. in Language and/or Folklore (by dissertation). The Centre is also actively involved in the MA. Course in Mrican Studies offered by the Department ofEnglish Literature, and has responsibility for the University Certificate Course in English Cultural Tradition offered by the Division of Continuing Education. Each year a variety of conferences is sponsored by the Centre. In addition to hosting the annual Traditional Drama Conference, it has hosted conferences on Fieldwork in Folklore and Oral History; Language Varieties; Perspectives on Contemporary Legend; 13th Meeting of the European Ballad Commission. WORKING WITH AND THROUGH CECTAL The Centre relies greatly on voluntary help at all levels. Ifyou are interested in any aspects ofthe Centre's activities you are invited to write for further information to: The Director, Centre for English Cultural Tradition and Language, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, SlO 2TN. (Tel: 0742-78555, Ext.6296). FEB 13 1- ...... EMORIAL UNIVERSITY , EWFOUNDLAN[) DEPA TMENI 01: fOLKLOR
Vol. 4 No.1 January 1985
Contents
Gujerati Proverbs: An Analytical Study R Doctor 1
The Folktale Structure in Amos Tutuola's The Palm-Wine Drinkard 0 A Asagba 31
Solihull: A Note on a Placename Pronunciation C S Upton 40
Further thoughts on the Labovian Interview Graham Shorrocks 46
The Lost Slinfold Bell: Some Functions of a Local Legend Jacqueline Simpson 57
A Selection of Proverbial Material from "Tail Corn" J B Smith 68
The Lady on the Mountain: A Century of Play Rhyme Tradition Nigel G N Kelsey 78
Letters to the Editor 86
Notes and Queries 89
Reviews 90
The Centre for English Cultural Tradition and Language © The Centre for English Cultural Tradition and Language, University of Sheffield, 1985 ISSN 0307 - 7144 No part of this journal may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission from the Editor. Gujerati Proverbs: An Analytical Study
R. Doctor
Introduction
This paper aims to give a brief analytical survey of Gujerati folksay with specific reference to proverbs used in Standard Gujerati and also in its non-standard forms, especially Parsi Gujerati. Gujerati, a language of the Indo-Aryan family, is the official language of the State of Gujerat in the North-West region of India. It is also spoken in Bombay where the Gujeratis, businessmen by nature, have settled down. Parsi Gujerati is spoken in the coastal regions of Gujerat, where the Parsis first settled in the eighth and ninth century A.D. after the Muslim conquest of Iran; and also in Bombay, Poona, Nasik and Hyderabad: towns to which the Parsis emigrated in due course of time. The data (amounting to around 5000 proverbs) was collected in Bombay, Poona, Hyderabad, Surat, Baroda and Ahmedabad. In addition data was also obtained from informants hailing from other towns and villages of Gujerat who had emigrated to the above-mentioned towns in search of employment (see map). Collection and collation was done with the help of a collection-slip which not only incorporated the name, the age, the sex and the place of origin of the informant, but also the context in which the specific proverb or saying was used, since the proverb is best studied within the frame of reference of its occurrence in a specific situation of discourse. In the cases in which the informant had spontaneously furnished a series of proverbs (which generally did not exceed eight to ten), he was asked to visualise the situation in which he would normally use them. Gujerati possesses a specific word for the proverb: kehavat, derived from the verb kehavu: to say; the proverb being taken as a directed activity. Interestingly, it is the verb to say from which the word for a proverb is derived and not from bolvu: to speak, since for the Gujerati speaker a proverb is a specific directed activity and not just a passive speech act. In this paper no specific definition of the proverb will be supplied at the outset. However the term will be treated as being co-terminous with a " Complex linguistic argumentative 1 structure used in a certain frame of reference". This loose definition, based simultaneously on the structure of the proverb and its context of occurrence, permits the paremiologist to better encompass the reality of the proverb. In other words, Gujerati proverbs will be treated at two specific levels: - the Structural i.e. the inner structure of the proverb. - the Argumentative i.e. the outer application of the proverb or the way in which a proverb is applied to a specific situation.
1 English translations of the proverbs will be furnished everywhere except where there exist acceptable proverbial equivalents in English.
1. The Structural Level A proverb like any other linguistic structure may be said to possess simultaneously a Form and Substance and an Expression and Content. The interaction of these four concepts in a Hjelmslevian sense yields four specific levels: 1. Form of Expression or the Epiphonemic Level. 2. Substance of Expression or the Phonemes and their arrangement. 3. Substance of Content or the Thematic Level. 4. Form of Content or the Semiotic and Logical Level.
Levels 1 and 2 which deal mainly with Expression may be jointly summed up as the Epiphonemic Level. Level 3 deals with the "meat" of the proverb: its Thematic content. Level 4 treats of the Formal level of the proverb: its Semantic and Logical components.
1.1 The Epiphonemic Level: This level may be taken as the Surface Level of the proverb or the level at which the proverb manifests itself in the language. At this level the proverb is a collocation of lexematic units in a certain specific order and whose maximal efficacity depends on the reproduction of the units as well as the order. 2 Hence the importance of the level of expression of the proverb. The Epiphonemic level through its various devices ensures that the proverb becomes a cohesive mnemonic unit in full harmony with the prosody and rhyme scheme of the language. Gujerati proverbs conform to the inner rhyme scheme of the language and to its metrics and are so arranged in terms of expression as to be retained almost automatically by a native speaker. The Epiphonemic level can be subdivided into three hierarchical sub-levels:
The Phrase-Structure of the Proverb: Both Greimas (1960) and Milner (1970) have alluded to the rhythmic structure of the proverb. Gujerati proverbs are of two kinds: (a) The Balanced Phrase Type: In this type the proverb is a rhythmically balanced phrase such that its rhythmic sub-components balance each other. Thus: 1. agal dod/ne pachal cod: haste makes waste 2. ek hath ghima/ne ek hath golma: to profit from both ends. 3. jeno hoy vag/teno pese pag: he who has influence goes far. This impression of balance and counterweight can be of various sub-types:
2 ------~-- -
The most common is that in which the proverb is divided into two parts or the bipartite unit. 3 The above examples are all of this bipartite type. Below are given further examples: 4. ghardo vaid/ne juvan joshi: One must always have an old doctor and a young astrologer. 5. uth chore akro/ne bakri chore kakro: the camel leaves the thorn, the goat leaves nothing. (Used for rapacious persons.) Very often the two sub-divisions rhyme with one another as is the case with 1, 2, 3 and 5. Over 80°/o of the Balanced Phrase type of proverbs in Gujerati are of this type. Tripartite Proverbs: Here the proverbs possess a ternary rhythm with three equal divisions of the proverb: 6. gadi gujarat/aguse lat/pichuse bat: for a mischievous dog, a heavy clog. 7. khatina gal/nahtina bal/satya nahi rahe: truth will out. 8. ghasni ganjiparno kutro/khay pan nahi/ ne khava de pan nahi. Like the dog in the manger, he will neither do nor let do. 9. kel aq.e vaghan/ek var phale/ek var jane: the banana tree and the tigress are fertile but once and give birth once. (Used for something rare.) Quadripartite Proverbs: These are extended bipartite proverbs in the sense that the proverb is split into four rhythmic sense-groups: 10. cade te pade/shu padshe pisnari// bhage te dhanwant/shu bhage bhikari. Every ascent has a descent. 11. elar gayo pelar gayo/ne sikhi avyo vani//vatar karta jan gayo/ne khatla nice pani. Too much knowledge is a dangerous thing. 12. jala tya janjal/kacro tya kakas/ukardo tya dukkar/ne ga~ar tya das/ where there are cobwebs, there is trouble; where there is rubbish, there are quarrels; where there is a dungheap, there are pigs and where a gutter there are mosquitoes. (Used to illustrate the idea that dirtiness breeds misery.) Certain proverbs have a multipartite structure. However these are very rare and only two such exist in the whole corpus. 13. nari, phul ne cakar/ye tran kaca bhala pan, pa~el ne pradhan/ye tran paka bhala vahan, varsad ne vivah/ ye tran avya bhala tav; tamas ne tala~i/ ye tran gayla bhala woman, flower and servant, these three are better raw (i.e. young) the betel leaf, the mayor and the minister, these are better ripe (experienced) the ship, rain and marriage; it is better they should come fever, anger and the tax-collector; it is better they should go.
3 14. khaf kharce ne rakhe mayo/enu nam ~e pehlo dahyo va~ kare ne nahi jay vahyo/enu nam ~e bijo dahyo ghar bandhe ne nakhe payo/ne dhad pa~e ne nahi jay vahyo/enu nam te trijo dahyo. The first wise man is he who spends and does not become bankrupt The second he who talks but discloses nothing The third he who builds a house and does not spend all his savings. Multipartite and quadripartite proverbs are not often quoted entirely. Generally only the first part or the relevant part (as the case may be) is quoted. The result is a kind of truncation and often with the passage of time the proverb is reduced only to the part quoted, the rest being consigned to oblivion. This is the case with 10 where only the first part is generally quoted and also the case with the two proverbs given below:
15. ~ungar ~urthi raliyamna/ pase jay ~e bihamna. Mountains attract from a distance and repulse from near. 16. ~ipe ~ipe sarovar bharay/ ne kakre kakre pal bandhay. The lake is filled drop by drop and the wall built stone by stone. This is partly the reason why proverbs that were of the balanced type have become non-balanced, reduced to a single element. (b) The Non-Balanced Phrase Type: One reason why one comes across this type in Gujerati is truncation (cp. supra). However there do exist true Non-Balanced Phrase Types. These are generally terse and pithy sayings which by their concision are retained in the memory. A random sampling of around 1000 proverbs showed that longer proverbs always possessed a bi- or quadripartite structure; shorter ones, though not always, were of the non-balanced type. 17. paiso bole che: Money talks. 18. jibhne kai ha~ku nahi: The tongue has no bone, i.e. it can say anything. 19. gayi va~ gujri: Bygones are bygones. 20. cori no hadlo dhakyo na rahe: Theft can never be concealed.
1.1.2 The Prosodic Level: Prosody constitutes a very important part of proverb structure. In fact there exists a proverb in Gujerati that stresses the role of alliteration and rhythm in the proverb: 21. jya pras ne anupras, tya hoy kehavat. Where there is rhythm and alliteration, there is a proverb. In fact Gujerati uses three prosodic devices to give to the proverbs their characteristic appearance:
4 A large number of proverbs both of the non-balanced and balanced type are alliterative in nature. The following proverbs (not-translated because they are judged only on their prosodic value) illustrate the importance of alliteration in Gujerati proverbs:
22. gupt ganga gay 23. patre pani pavvli. 24. muva mor mohkam. 2 5. lankama lari lutay. 26. mogolne mo~e marvu. The second favourite technique in Gujerati is internal rhyme. This is especially evident in the Balanced Phrase Type where there is often a short pause ( cp. infra 1.1.4) before attacking the next unit. Internal rhyme can also be found in short proverbs linked by a conjunction, e.g. 32 and 33 below: 2 7. dahyo dohro ne varyavno ohro. 28. tamashane tedu nahi ne bavaljane khedu nahi. 29. ha<;lma hzlo ne khabama khzJo. 30. ek anar ane so bimar 31. jivtani ganti ne muvani bharti. 32. rok be thok 33. na nam/ na dham A third mnemonic device, though sparingly used because of its structural constraints, is the chiasma or the inversion of the relation between two words in the second part of the proverb: 34. khame te khay I ne khay te khame. He who suffers, eats and he who eats suffers. 35. je kahe te kare nahi/ je kare te kahe nahi. he who speaks does not and he who does speaks not. i.e. the greatest talkers are the least doers. 36. jya caro tya cali nahi; jya cali tya caro nahi. where there is abundance there are no children; where there are children there is no abundance. There exists a close relation between the phrasal structure of the proverb and its prosody as can be illustrated through the following table:
Alliteration Internal Rhyme Chiasma
Non-Balanced Type + rare Balanced Type rare + +
5 ------
Balanced Phrase Types favour internal rhyme and chiasma because of their length; the shorter non-balanced types resort to alliteration as a mnemonic device.
1.1.3
An interesting phenomenon little explored in paremiological analysis is the close link between the proverb and its intonation and stress patterns. The proverb, at its highest level, is a "poetic" product and hence possesses as such a specific intonation and rhythm. An analysis of the proverb when actually used shows interesting phonetic features: Firstly the proverb is accompanied by a certain change in voice timbre. It was noticed that speakers, both male and female, tended to adopt a graver or acuter voice timbre respectively, as if to demarcate the proverb from the rest of the discourse; and as j1 if to show that the enunciator of the proverb is not the speaker himself but another whose presence is denoted by a change in pitch and timbre. In the case of proverbs of the Balanced Phrase Type, there was often a significant pause at the end of the first unit. This pause was not merely intonative; but because of its length gave the impression that the enunciator wanted the hearer to join in and share a commonly shared structure. On several occasions, the rejoinder was in fact supplied by the hearer who completed the second half of the proverb. Gujerati proverbs are time stressed, the language possessing free stress like English. Often in the case of bipartite structures where one of the halves possesses more syllables than the other, the speaker manages to produce both halves with nearly the same time beat thanks to free stress which falls mainly on the lexematic units, thus maintaining the same number of stressed syllables per half: 37. andhlo kahe je bhztl ne behro kahe je masjid six syllables eight syllables The longer half is pronounced in the same time as the shorter half, thanks to a faster rate of delivery. In this, Gujerati proverbs are different from proverbs of syllable languages such as French in which the syllable marks the time beat and hence the two halves tend to have the same number of syllables: Quand Dieu ne veut/ Le saint ne peut. (four syllables each) Point d'argent/ Point de suisse (three syllables each) The Gujerati proverb thus enjoys at the Epiphonemic Level a certain prosodic "status" which demarcates it from other elements of discourse and gives it its own particular structure.
6 ------~
1.2 The Thematic Level Thematically a proverb may be conceived of as a topos or a reflection on a specific theme through a certain number of associations. The theme is generally extrospective in nature, in the sense that a proverb never has one particular person as its theme but is a general truth based on the interaction of man in general with his environment. An analysis of Gujerati proverbs in terms of their thematic content shows the following pattern:
SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT ?- ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT MAN ~PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT FATE AND HEREDITY
The nucleus of the proverbs is MANKIND, its failings, its virtues and vices. However, man lives in society and hence a large number of proverbs deal with his social surroundings, especially his blood relations. In a commercial society where money plays a vital role, economic considerations become very important. Hence over 300 Gujerati proverbs deal with money. The physical environment: the weather, the flora and the fauna are equally part of a culture's ethos and hence quite a few proverbs use animal or plant imagery, and there exist quite a few sayings about weather especially in a country so reliant upon the monsoon for its harvest. Finally a large number of proverbs deal with fate and heredity since these two factors are also part of the Indian ethos in general and the Gujerati culture in particular. Thematically therefore Gujerati proverbs depict the society within which they function. I shall try to amplify and illustrate each one of the above centres of interest through a limited number of proverbs.
MANKIND: Under this generic head may be listed the following subtypes: (a) The Seven Ages of Man: age is a prime consideration as the following descriptive proverbs illustrate: 38. sole shyan, vise gyan, tise dhyan. Calise puro ne pacase utaryo. sa~hi ne buddhi na~hi. Siter varasno ghardo, ne gharna cokra kahe, kay nahi marto muwo tardo. At sixteen beauty, knowledge at twenty, reason at thirty. At forty maturity and at fifty decadence. At sixty senility and at seventy the children wonder as to why the old man does not die. This proverb or rather set of proverbs is never quoted in full but only in the parts that are relevant to the situation. On the other hand the following is often quoted 1n toto:
7 39. calis pachi balad, sa~h pachi kutro, hesi pachi baglo. An ox at forty, a dog at sixty and a stork at eighty. i.e. At forty one works like an ox; at sixty the voice is as hoarse as a dog barking and at eighty one is bent like a stork's neck. (b) Physical Defects: Three main defects are commented upon by the proverbs: blindness, deafness and being one-eyed, the first two being associated with stupidity, the last with cunning. 40. adhlo guru, behro celo: The blind teacher and the deaf disciple. i.e. Blind leading the blind. 41. adhlo dale ne kutro ca~e: the blind man grinds and the dog profits. i.e. One man sows and the other reaps the harvest. 42. adhlo kahe je bhit ne behro kahe je masjid: The blind man calls it a wall and the deaf man a mosque. i.e. I talk of chalk and you talk of cheese. 43. kanathi khoda pan bejar: Even God fears the one-eyed because of their cunning. 44. 'fha~ha ~hu~ha siter fanda; majra fanda hesi, tuk garadanya savaso ne kanano to paraj nahi. The crippled man has seventy tricks up his sleeve; the green-eyed eighty, the short-necked man has 125 and the one-eyed has a limitless number. Similarly height is associated with cunning or stupidity. 45. Batki bala: he who is short is cunning. 46. Lamba so bewakoof: He who is tall is stupid. (c) Virtues and Vices: In Gujerati, proverbs, as in other cultures, certain virtues are extolled and certain vices condemned. Thus patience, honesty, honour, frugality, prudence, self-reliance are considered as necessary qualities: 4 7. dhiraj na phal mitha che: The fruits of patience are sweet. 48. gay abru pachi nahi avti: Lost honour can never be retrieved. 49. khadhu dhan ne gayu man: You ate the food and lost your respect. 1.e. Self respect should not be sold. 50. sabse badi cup: silence is golden. 51. bolyo bol ne maryo tir, kadi pacha na ave: A word once uttered and an arrow once shot never come back. 52. hath kare te sago hap bi na kare: What one's hands can do, one's father won't do. i.e. Self reliance is its own reward. Similarly tolerance and self-control are praised: 53. bhundano badlo balathi valvo: Return evil with good. 54. indriyo jiti te jag jityo: The master of one's passions is the master of the world. 55. balthi nahi thay, te kal thi thay: What strength cannot, wisdom can.
8 ------
On the other hand vices such as sloth, borrowing money, drinking and lying are condemned: 56. alas daridranu mul che: sloth is the mother of misery. 57. na kare cakri te na pame bhakri: He who works not shall not eat. 58. karajdari akhar kuhari: Borrowing is the last blow. 59. je piye sharab tenu khunu kharab: He who drinks, ruins his house. 60. juthani avarda car ghadi: A lie is shortlived. (d) Woman and her Role in Society: A large number of proverbs turn around the woman and her role. Curiously Gujerati proverbs have a negative attitude towards woman and paint her as a chattel who is fickle. 4 Thus a man who remarries is said to have changed his slippers and there are over twenty proverbs in which a woman is compared to a shoe or slipper. 61. pagmanu khasdu pagmaj rakhelu bhalu: always keep your slipper (wife) under your foot. 62. bayri ne khasn1 barabar: the wife and the slipper are to be treated alike. The woman is considered to be devoid of sense: 63. strini akkal e<;lima: The woman's wit is (so little as to be) in her heel. 64. randni buddhi panima: A woman's wit is in the water (trifling). 6 5. rand, sandh ne arni bhes: mar budha ne kar sudha: The woman, the dog and the walnut-tree; the more they are whipped the better they be.
THESOCMLENVmONMENT: Like their counterparts in other Indian Cultures Gujarati proverbs concentrate around blood relationships. This is mainly because kinship has played and plays even today a vital role in Gujerat. Hence there are a large number of proverbs concerning kinship which reflect the attitude of the culture towards these different relations. Parents are considered to be objects of love and veneration, the mother more than the father: 66. bapna rajma nahi samay ne mayna kholama samay: The mother's lap is more fulfilling than the whole of the father's kingdom. 67. mana garaj koithi nahi sare: No one can repay the debt he owes to his mother. Son and daughter: despite the importance of the son as the one who performs the final funeral rites of his parents, the daughter is more prized. Thus: 68. <;likro maro danno divo ne behest ujarda fave <;likri mari gha<;lani thikri, ne an vakhat kam ave The son is necessary to go to heaven (since he performs the rites) but the daughter is useful on earth.
9 However in other proverbs the daughter is looked upon as a burden to be married off as early as possible, owing to the social customs of the country that require the girl to be married and sent to her in-laws at an early age. 69. <;likri te parku dhan: A daughter is somebody else's (her husband's) wealth. 70. <;likri sasre ke masane shobhe: The daughter is fit for her in-laws or the cremation-ground. In other words a dead daughter is better than an unmarried one. Brother and sister: There are contradictory proverbs regarding this kinship. On the one hand the brother is seen as his sister's protector: 71. bhai malyo etle parmeshwar malyo: A brother is like God. But on the other hand the girl is warned not to trust her brother, especially after her parents' death or after the brother is married: 72. bhai ne bharose rehti na ne vehli neue jaje. Do not rely on your brother; get married as early as possible. Husband and wife: proverbs pertaining to this kinship reveal the impact of the patriarchal system in Gujerat, where the husband despite his defects has to be venerated. 73. matino mati pan pujya che: Even a worthless husband must be venerated. The woman is considered happier when her husband is alive than when he is dead and the son, by right, administers his father's estate: 74. dhani raj ne maha raj; put raj ne bhut raj. The husband's reign is a fruitful reign; the son's, a reign of terror. Hence there exist a large number of proverbs that enjoin the wife to obey and respect her husband: 75. khavind te khoda barabar: The husband is a God. 76. dhanini cori karvi ne khodani cori karvi barabar che: To steal from the husband is to steal from God. In fact the word used for husband in 76, dhani: owner, clearly indicates the wife's status. Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law: there are over forty proverbs dealing with this relationship. Proverbs favouring both parties are quite common: 77. sasuma so vak; pan vahuno vak nikle: The mother-in-law has a hundred defects, but the daughter-in-law is always at fault. 78. treats of the converse situation: sasu jay ubhi holi ne vahuji khay khir ne poli: When the mother-in-law is away, the daughter-in-law regales herself.
10 The remaining proverbs of this type stress the same situation. The son-in-law: Curiously, unlike in many other Indian cultures, the son-in-law is not respected in Gujerat. He is considered as a low object not worthy of respect, mainly because of the high dowry he has extorted from his parents-in-law. I have collected, especially around the coastal region and among certain castes where the parents are compelled to support the son-in-law and his entire family till their death, a large number of proverbs of this type: 79. jamaini jaga khasda agal: The son-in-law's place is next to the slipper. i.e. the most distant from the seat of honour. 80. jamai ne jam barabar: The son-in-law is the same as inviting trouble. From the above proverbs, a clear picture of Gujerat emerges: a patriarchal society with the husband as the master of the house, the wife being relegated along with her daughter to a very low position. The same is true of the in-laws, especially the son-in-law with whom relations are mainly on a commercial plane, the father being compelled to pay a high dowry for his daughter. Curiously Gujerati proverbs do not mention caste excessively: only around eight proverbs, which is strange when one considers the role of caste in Gujerat. Apart from one (81) which stresses the importance of caste, the others are quite sceptical, which shows that caste was accepted as a social obligation but nothing more: 81. jat vana bhat na male: There is no food out of caste. i.e. Caste is necessary for social survival. Other proverbs disdain the caste-system: 82. jat janay pan manna janay: You may know his caste, but not his mind. 83. jat jatno vari: Your worst enemy is from your own caste. 84. jat thane parjat bhali: A person not of the same caste 1s better.
THE MATERIAL ENVIRONMENT: Gujarat being an important commercial centre, a large number of proverbs treat of economic considerations. Grosso modo these proverbs can be subdivided into two main classes: (a) Occupations: One of the oldest proverbs deals with the choice of occupation and it is not astonishing that in a society where agriculture is vital, the following proverb is prevalent: 85. uttam kheti, madhyam vepar, kanisht cakri ne nidan bhikh: Agriculture first, business next, service follows, but avoid begging. Different occupations have different traits attributed to them.
11 Thus the potter is stupid: 86. kumbhar karta gha<;ledha dahya: A donkey is smarter than the potter. The tailor and especially the goldsmith are associated with theft and cunning: 8 7. sai core kapdu ne soni core rati; hajam shu core mathama kai nathi The tailor steals cloth, the goldsmith gold; but the poor barber can steal nothing, since there is nothing in the head (worth stealing). 88. soni sagi maino sallo utravo: a goldsmith will cheat his own mother. 89. sonine kate sharam nahi: the goldsmith knows no shame. The tailor and cobbler never stick to their promise. Hence the proverb: 90. saini saj ne moci nu vahanu, eni par na ave: There is no limit to the excuses made by a tailor or a cobbler. The carpenter is similarly ridiculed: 91. sutharni so<;lma ne luhwadni ko<;lma beswii nahi: Never be found in the company of a carpenter or a blacksmith. The barber, by virtue of his profession, occupies a low position in society and has become a symbol of humiliation and lowliness: 92. hajam sarkhu tacak: His stature is as low as a barber's. The astrologer is also an object of ridicule: 93. joshi josh juve che to eni <;likri kam randayc: If the astrologer can read fortune, how is it that his daughter gets widowed. 94. so joshi ne ek doshi: One old woman (with her experience) is worth a hundred astrologers. The priest or the Brahman fares no better. In a country where rite and ritual occupy a prominent place, the Brahman has become the epitome of greed and indifference as the following sayings attest: 95 . brahman mage ne magave: The priest only knows to demand (money). 96. brahman ne la<;lu malya etle badhu malyu: When the Brahman has got the ladu, he has everything. (The ladu is traditionally served after the meal, i.e. when he has eaten his fill, he cares for nothing more.) 97. bhukhyo brahman devne vece: A hungry priest will sell his temple-gods. Gujerati proverbs thus find, in different occupations, metaphoric equations with different kinds of vices: greed, concupiscence, cheating and procrastination.
(b) Money: 98. paiso bole che: Money talks says a Gujerati proverb and it shows the hold of money over the minds of the people. I have been able to collect nearly 300 sayings associated with money. Both counsel
12 ------
and admonishment are given. Proverbs 99-103 deal with the force of money as a social power: 99. paisana go lam sau: Everyone is a slave of money. 100. paisa mara parmeshwar: Money is my God. 101. paisa vagar nu jivtar balyu: Existence is worthless without money. 102. paisa hoy to rajani behn sat}le parne: With money you can marry the king's sister. 103. paisa male tyare saga bhi male: Money brings new relatives. O ther proverbs stress the value of money by comparing the states of poverty and wealth: 104. paisawalani bakri mari te badha game jani; gar ibni cokri mari te koiye nahi jani. All the town knew that the rich man's goat died; when the poor man's daughter died, none came to know of it. A similar variant is also very popular: 105. paisawalane hath pitalnu kacJu sunnanu, garibne hath sonane kacJu pitalnu. A brass bracelet on a rich man's hand is thought to be gold, and a gold bracelet on the poor man's hand is taken to be brass. However there are also proverbs that denigrate money: 106. jar, joru ne jamin, koina nahi thai: Money, wives and land belong to none. 107. shows there are other things in life than money: paiso gayo pacho ave, pa~ gay pachi na ave Money lost comes back; honour lost never.
PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT: Since a proverb is a reflection of man's outer environment, in every culture one comes across proverbs dealing with seasons, weather, days of the week, flora and fauna etc. 5 Below are given the most popular proverbs of this type: Days of the week: Each day of the week has a saying attached to it. Thus Monday is the day of luck and Tuesday that of misfortune: 108. som peharave sacJi ne mangal nakhe facJi: Monday dresses you, Tuesday tears off the dress. 109. budh ne kam kare shudh: Wednesday and all goes well. 110. brehaspatvar, 9a9a hormazdno var: Thursday is the day of God. 111. shukar ne kam thay mukkar: Friday and work goes well. 112. Shanwar ne sasorto war: On Saturday things go astray. These sayings are derived evidently from the deities after whom the days are named. Tuesday being named after Mars and Saturday after Saturn, both of whom are considered inauspicious, nothing can go right on these days.
13 Similarly the various months of the Hindu Calendar have different proverbs attached to them, notably the monsoon months. These sayings had a particular relevance for the farmer who was guided by them. Today they are often used during the particular months to which they relate but have lost their importance as meteorological paremiology. Below are given a few examples along with the necessary explanations: 113. shravan jay kordo to kane bhare ordo. Shravan is the first rainy month of the year when the monsoon sets in and rain falls intermittently. The seeds that have just started to germinate do not in fact need excessive rain. Hence the saying that if the month of Shravan is dry, the granary will be overfull. On the other hand the month of Bhadarva, when the monsoon really sets in, is associated with greenery. Hence the proverb: 114. bhadarvani bhes liluj dekhe: The buffalo in the month of Bhadarva only sees green. The month of Chitra is associated with heavy rains, sometimes so devastating that the houses in villages tend to collapse. 115. jo varse chit, to bhaje bhit: If it rains in the month of Chitra, the walls will collapse. 116. jo varse magha to dhan thay dhaga. Rain in the month of Magha gives the crops, which have now reached a respectable size, the necessary water to give abundant grain. Hence the proverb says that should it rain in the month of Magha, there will be an abundance of grain. The last month of the Monsoon is Ashad. Often in this month there are heavy rains which flood the whole countryside. This is the source of a saying: 117. asho ne megh nahaso: Should it rain in the month of Ash ad, even the clouds will swim in the rain. The Monsoon exercises such an important role in the life of the farmer that he tends to classify the different varieties of rain under different names. Below are given a few sayings associated with these different "nakshatras", as the varieties are called: 118. je gaje bhad, to kuva kathe khad.: If the heavy bhad rain falls, the wells will overflow. 119. jo varse arudara, to bare mahina padhra If the rain known as arudara falls, the crop will be so good that there will be no want for the whole year. 120. jo varse otra to dhan nahi khay kutra. If the rains known as Otra come, the harvest will be so abundant that even the dogs won't want to touch grain.
14 121. jo varse purva, to kanbi betha zurva. If the Purva rains come, the harvester will have a lot of grain to harvest. 122. jo varse sant, to vage na tant. If the rains known as Sant fall, then the cotton harvest will be entirely destroyed and the carder will have no work to do. 123. jo varse has, to pake adharo vas. If the rain known as Has (the rain of the elephant) falls, eighteen types of grain will grow, i.e. grain will grow in abundance. With a few exceptions, the meteorological proverbs deal with an abundant harvest. Is it because, psychologically, the Gujerati farmer does not want to think of a harvest that has failed? Plants and trees are a rich source of proverbs, some of which are medicinal in nature (124, 12 5 ). A majority of these plants are native to India alone and hence pose problems of translation. Below are given proverbs where such difficulties do not arise: 124. amli gun batris, to harde gun chatris: The tamarind has thirty two qualities, the curcuma root has thirty six. 12 5. bing marcu ne amli, so pari ne tel, jo kanthno khap kare, paco vastu mel. A mixture of asafoetida, green peppers, tamarind, oil and betelnut is soothing for those who use their throat a lot. The mango and tamarind are quite common in Gujerati proverbs: 126. amli ropi amba ni asha na karvi: Do not expect mangoes from a tamarind-tree, i.e. small efforts do not yield big rewards. 127. amba amli dekhadva: To show mangoes and tamarinds, i.e. confuse someone. 128. ambani garaj amli thi na sare: The need for mangoes cannot be satisfied by tamarinds, i.e. a great need remains unsatisfied if partly satisfied. 129. ambani kamay amblima gamay: Hard-earned money is spent on trifles.
Gujerati proverbs abound in animals and birds. Generally these have a metaphorical value and illustrate qualities or vices. Below are given a few representative samples of this bestiary which amount to over 300 proverbs. The dog represents a person who has a selfish or an unpredictable nature: 130. kutrani dosti, rizyu to moh cate, khijyu to dapu mare: A dog's friendship, if he is happy he will lick you, if angry, bite you. 131. kutrana mohdama hadku avyu: A bone in the dog's mouth, i.e. a dog in the manger. 132. kutrane rotlino tuk<;lo nakhelo bhalo: It is better to feed a dog, i.e. Cast a bone in the devil's teeth and it will save you.
15 The donkey represents not only stupidity but also an undeserving person: 133. gadha kya jane jafranki bat? What will an ass know of saffron? Used for someone without any discernment. 134. ga<;lhedana vasa par jin: A saddle on a donkey. Used for an honour given to an undeserving person. The cow represents a meek nature: 13 5. gayna pete varu sha janme? Can a cow give birth to wolves? i.e. a meek person cannot do an evil act. 136. gayna mo<;lhe thi kadhi go<;lhane mo<;lhe bharvu: To feed the horse and deprive the cow, i.e. to deprive the poor and favour the rich. The horse often represents pride: 13 7. go<;lho mastan thay tyare mathe matodu liye: When the horse ts angry, he swallows dirt, i.e. pride goes before a fall. The camel and the goat represent rapacious persons: 138. uth chore akro, bakri chore kakro: The camel leaves the thorn behind, but the goat leaves nothing behind. Among the birds it is the sparrow that figures the most: 139. calie bor galyu, nahi galatu ke nahi mukatu: The sparrow swallowed a plum: she can neither swallow it nor spit it out. (Used for somebody who after accepting a task can neither do it nor abandon it.) 140. calino chanyo ne uthno jamo: a sparrow's kilt and a camel's coat. Used to illustrate the futility of doing something which cannot be done; also used in the sense of "pouring water over a duck's back".
FATE AND HEREDITY: The irrevocable nature of fate and heredity are amply illustrated in Gujerati proverbs. Curiously, proverbs dealing with fate and destiny are closely tied up with fortune, since in the Gujerati ethos the two go hand in hand. 141. karam vina kodi na male: Without fate you can earn nothing. 142. bhagyama hoy to gher betha male: He who is destined to be rich will be so without moving a finger. 143. nasibma lakhyu hoy te thay: What is written in one's destiny, happens. 144. bhagyama hoy tetluj male: One earns what is in one's destiny. The same fatality is seen in the case of heredity. A variety of metaphors are used in the proverbs to bring home the truth that "blood will tell" and that "a leopard cannot change his spots'': 145. gadhedu nahadave go<;lhu na thay: A washed donkey does not become a horse.
16 146. so man sabue siddhibhai kalo: An African remains dark even if bathed with tons of soap. 14 7. kacJve limcJe kacJvo vas: A bitter tree (neem tree) will have a bitter smell. Gujerati proverbs, of which a small representative sample has been given above, encompass a vast gamut of social rites and mores, habits and particularities of the people; and, like all other folklore, furnish us with a profound glimpse into the ethos of the people.
1.3 The Semiological Level There is more to a proverb than just its content arranged in a certain order. Were it not so, creation of new proverbs would be as easy as producing an utterance. Standard linguistic theory which can partly explain the production of an utterance, cannot explain why a proverb has such an argumentative efficacity which other sentences or utterances do not have. This force de frappe of the proverb can be explained by postulating a semiological level at which the inner "mechanism" of the proverb can be formalised. Considerations of space do not permit a fully expanded version of the theory. In this paper its most salient aspects in application to Gujerati paremiology will be treated. The starting point of this level is the Structure of the proverb. A proverb comprises basically two types of linguistic elements: - the lexemes or the elements that carry the sense of the proverb - the operators or the grammatical elements that bind the lexemes in a certain logical relation. An analysis of over 3000 Gujerati proverbs shows that these two elements are always present in the proverb, implicitly or explicitly, thus one-word proverbs do not exist. Every proverb necessarily has both the lexematic and grammatical components.
1.3.1 The lexematic level. In an analysis of Gujerati proverbs based on the number of lexemes per proverb, it becomes evident that every proverb contains two and at least two lexemes. Thus in proverbs such as: 98. paiso bole che; 100. paisa mara parmeshwar; or, 148. junnu te sunnu: old is gold, one immediately realises the presence of two lexical elements per proverb:
1 2 pat so bole pats a parmeshwar JUnnu sunnu
17 However both elements do not play the same role in the respective proverbs. The elements in Table 1 are nodal in nature and constitute the theme of the proverb. The elements of Table 2 tell us something more about the themes of Table 1, and constitute a semantic commentary on the first. In other words every proverb comprises a theme and a rheme. The arrangement of theme and rheme within a given proverb gives rise to various formal sub-classes. Grosso modo two main sub-classes can be distinguished: Simple lexeme classes. Complex lexeme classes. Simple lexeme Classes possess just two lexemes: the Theme and the Rheme. It is to this class that the non-balanced phrase-types belong. Generally proverbs about meteorological phenomena or simple comments about objects and states of being belong to this category. Proverbs 98, 100 and 148 are all of this type. Complex Lexeme Classes have more than one Theme with as a result more than one Rheme. Thus in 149 generally applied to warn someone about letting down his guard: 149. ughto bolakno jagto cup: The sleeper is talkative, the wide-awake silent one finds two Themes: sleeper, wide-awake, and the two corresponding Rhemes: talkative, silent. Depending upon the nature of the Semantic Relationship existing between the Themes of the proverb and their consequent Rhemes, two main sub-types can be postulated: (a) Conjunctional: In a conjunctional proverb the Themes and the Rhemes stand in a certain complementary relation to each other, each Theme strengthening and reinforcing the argument advanced by the other(s). 150. ganarani jibh ne nacnarano pag sakhno nahi rahe: The singer's tongue and the dancer's leg cannot stand still. i.e. What is bred in the bones will come out in the flesh. Here the two Themes, the singer's tongue and the dancer's leg, share the same Rheme: impossibility of standing still. They constitute so to say the same paradigmatic class and share the same reference within the frame of the proverb. In other words, they are in Conjunction, and the second Theme confirms and reinforces the first. Conjunctional proverbs are of three main kinds depending upon the nature of the Conjunction: Simple Conjunctional proverbs. In the simple Conjunctional proverb two Themes and their Rhemes are in complementary relationship; Proverb 150 was of this kind since both the Themes and the common Rheme reinforce one another and thus strengthen the argument they convey. In 151 we have distinct sets of Theme-Rheme complementing one another:
151. ghanu cale te ~hake, ghanu bole te pastay
18 ------
He who walks much gets tired, he who talks much regrets.
T 1 R 1 T2 R2 excess walk: fatigue excess talk: regret
152. gaya git gava mitha nahi, randhya dhan randhwa cav nahi Songs once sung and sung again are not sweet; rice once cooked, cooked again is tasteless.
T 1 R 1 T2 R 2
songs resung: Not sweet Rice recooked: Tasteless
As can be seen from the above examples there exists a common semantic link based mainly on analogy between the Theme-Rheme sets. In other words the Themes and the Rhemes act as form-classes of a wider semantic category which can be more easily deduced from two cases than from one alone. Thus in 150 the wider generalisation: One cannot help doing what one is habituated to, can be immediately deduced through the two cases given and the common Rheme. Similarly 151 permits us to generalise that: All excess is harmful since both Theme-Rheme sets have this generalisation in common. 152 through two sets of Theme-Rheme illustrates the generalisation that Actions when repeated lose their value. Thus in the conjunctive type of proverb a generalisation is arrived at through two Theme-Rheme sets which are linked by a Semantic Analogy. Scalar proverbs. Conjunctive proverbs can be scalar in nature. A good example of a Scalar proverb is: 153. jevi dyanat tevi barkhat: As the conduct, so the wealth. In this proverb there are two Themes: conduct and wealth whose Rhemes are implicit, and are in direct relationship to the Themes: Conduct:good :: wealth:more conduct: bad :: wealth:less
Conduct:very good :: wealth:much more Conduct:very bad :: wealth:much less
In other words a kind of argumentative and informative scalar relationship is built up between the Themes and their implicit Rhemes. The scale of conduct with the Rhemes ranging from excessively bad to excessively good matches that of wealth with the Rhemes ranging from most to least. Thus here a scalar relationship is established between the two Themes and their implicit Rhemes. Other examples of such Scalar proverbs are:
19 154. jevo seth tevo nokar: Like master, like servant. 155. jeva paisa tevo nac: As you pay so the dance. The above proverbs are all in a direct scalar relationship in the sense that Theme 1 and Theme 2 are in direct relation to one another. If the master is good so is the servant; if the master is bad, the servant is likewise and so on. (cp. 154) However they exist in Gujerati proverbs in an inverse scalar relationship, although they are much more rare. 156. jevi karni tevi bharni: As you do, so you pay. Here it may be argued that if your deeds are good you pay less and if they are bad you pay more. If the argumentative scale of deeds is from bad to good and that of payment from less to more, then the scales are in inverse relation to one another insofar as the argument is concerned.
Good + More + + shows Positive - shows Negative Bad - Less - 1 DEEDS PAYMENT
This can be compared with the Scalar diagram for Proverb 154 given below: good + t good + t bad - bad - master servant Here both are in a direct relationship to one another. 5 Hyponymic or Enumerative proverbs. In an Enumerative proverb there is an enumeration in the sense that a series of Themes and Rhemes are linked up in support of a vaster Theme of which each Theme-Rheme set is a Rheme. This is why such proverbs can be termed Hyponymic since the major Theme is the Hyponym of the minor Theme-Rheme sets which constitute the Hyponyms. 15 7. garath te gathe, vidhya te pathe; stri te pathe, dan te bathe (He is happy whose) Wealth is his own, knowledge is his own; wife is his own (beside him) charity is done by his own hand. 15 7 is a good example of a Hyponymic proverb as the following analysis shows:
20 MAJOR THEME I Happiness
RHEME 1 RHEME 2 RHEME 3 RHEME 4 ~ ~ ~ ~ Theme Rheme Theme Rheme Theme Rheme Theme Rheme
Money Own Knowledge Own Wife Own Charity Own hand
Thus there exists a kind of hierarchical layering in the proverb, from where it derives its name: Enumerative or Hyponymic. Proverb 14 is of the same type, with cleverness as the major Theme and every succeeding example of cleverness as Theme-Rheme sets. Generally Multipartite proverbs are of this kind, since their very structure implies a series of subsumptions, which facilitate retention. Conjunctional proverbs. Simple, Scalar or Hyponymic have the same common element: a set of Themes and Rhemes which complement one another and permit the hearer to deduce a generalisation based upon the semantic analogy of the different Theme-Rheme sets. (b) Oppositional proverbs. In an oppositional proverb two or more Themes and their respective Rhemes stand in a relation of opposition to each other. 6 This opposition is of an intrinsic nature: (shown by vs) good vs bad asleep vs awake alive vs dead and has nothing to do with an opposition introduced by a grammatical operator such as but or although; the nature of semantic oppositions being entirely different from logical opposition. The latter can oppose two terms which are not necessarily opposites in a semantic sense: e.g. He is well-dressed but stupid. The opposition between well-dressed and stupid is built entirely around the logical operator but gives these two terms an oppositional value within the reference frame of the sentence. Proverb 149 is a typical oppositional proverb. The two Themes and the two Rhemes constitute a square: Theme Rheme 1. asleep (ugh to) (bolakno) talkative vs vs 2. awake (jagto) (cup) silent
21 Paradigmatically seen, each pair of Theme-Rheme stands in opposition to the other. It is this opposition that ensures the inner tension of the proverb and its cohesion. Oppositional proverbs are of three main types: Polar Proverbs: here two Themes are in opposition to one another within the frame of reference of the proverb and so are the two Rhemes: 150. muo sojo jivto kharab: Good alive, bad when dead. is a typical polar proverb. The Themes and Rhemes constitute an oppositional square: Theme Rheme 1. Alive Good vs vs 2 . Dead Bad Unipolar proverbs: here the opposition is signalled by just one element, either the Theme or the Rheme pairs, as a result of which the other pair also becomes Oppositional. 151. ghanu bolnar, thodu karnar: Much talk and little work. In 151 there exists a semantic opposition between the two Rhemes: Much and Little, the two Themes by themselves not being in semantic opposition: talk not being the opposite of work. However the presence of one polar opposition creates a frame of reference within which the other set also becomes oppositional and hence an artificial square is created:
Theme Rheme 1. Talk Much vs vs 2. Work Little Chiasmatic Oppositional proverbs. The Themes and the Rhemes are in opposition to one another as in the polar proverbs, but in addition Theme 1 becomes the Rheme of Theme 2 and viceversa. The result is a square in which all terms are in opposition: 152. moghii sastu ne sastu moghii: Dear is cheap and cheap is dear.
Theme Rheme 1. dear vs cheap vs vs 2. cheap dear Such proverbs are not frequent since such perfect oppositional lexemes are rare. 7
22 1.3 .2 The logical Level. At the lexematic level the proverb comprises a Theme and a Rheme or a set of Themes and Rhemes in a specific semantic relationship. Simultaneously there exists, explicitly or implicitly, between the Theme and the Rheme, or a set of Themes and Rhemes, a certain logical relation which gives the proverb its specific shape. At the surface or syntactic level, these logical functions are represented by operators which are mainly conjunctions or adjectives specifying the proprium of the Themes and the Rhemes. Thus:
153. mo~a jhar ne mo~a patra: big trees and big leaves. i.e. Coming events cast their shadows before them. The proverb has a Theme: trees and a Rheme: leaves. They are linked together in a logical relationship by the conjunction and, as well as by the common adjective big which relates trees to leaves. logical functions are of four main kinds: 1. Assertions in which a relation of complementarity is established between the terms. As a result the proverb becomes an affirmation or more exactly an assertion of the relations between the Theme and the Rheme or between Theme-Rheme sets. Depending upon the nature of the operators and the logical relationship implied, Assertion is of two main types: (a) Equational: here an equation is established between two terms, which can be represented as: p is q where p and q represent the two terms. Thus in a proverb such as paisa mara parmeshawar: Money is God. an equation is established between Money and God: Money = God, hence the representation "p is q". A similar relationship would exist in the proverb: satya parmeshwar che: Truth is God. (b) Relational: here two terms or the propria of two terms stand in a relation of conjunction to one another. Proverb 153 is of this type. There exists a conjunction (represented by the operator: and) between trees and leaves, or more specifically between the common property of these two terms: bigness. The proverb may be formally represented as under: p(x).q(x) where p, q are terms. x is the proprium. ( ) shows to which term the proprium 1s attached . . denotes conjunction.
23 2. Negation is of two kinds: (a) Adjectival. Here the negation qualifies the Theme or the Rheme as a proprium indicating absence and has the same status as other adjectives such as good or bad. This negation will be symbolised as (-)since it affects only a Theme or a Rheme and not the whole proposition: 154. nahi mama karta kanamama sara: A one-eyed uncle is better than no uncle. i.e. something is better than nothing. Here the no of no uncle has an adjectival value since it qualifies uncle alone and can be represented as (- ). (b) Propositional. In this case it is the relation within a proposition that is negated. In other words a negative relation is established between two sets of Theme Rheme or between a Theme and its Rheme. Negation of this type is at the same level as an assertion or an opposition. Propositional negation is of two main subtypes: Explicit: in an explicit negation, the negation is present at the surface structure of the proverb. It can be symbolised as p (is) not q 155. bhagwan andhlo nathi: God is not blind. p is not q 156. satya cupu na ra:he: Truth never stays hidden. p not q Implicit: in an implicit negation, the negation is derived from the rhetorical structure of the proverb. The proverb poses a rhetorical question, the answer to which is automatically negative, since an affirmative answer would be incompatible with the natural order of things and would lead to an absurd conclusion. 15 7. caud jane tene carvalo shu sikhve? What can he who knows little teach he who knows fourteen sciences ? (a lot)? The answer to the question is evidently negative. Often one finds in the same proverb variants where both the Implicit and Explicit Negations are present: Thus: 158. gay vastuno shok shu karvo? Why cry over a lost thing? 158. gay vastuno shok na karvo? One must not cry over a lost thing.
3. Oppositions. Logical opposition has to be distinguished from Semiotic Opposition in which the terms themselves are in a relation of opposition to each other. In Logical Oppositions two terms which are generally two Themes are in a relation of opposition to each other through the use of a conjunction: pan (but). Semiotic Opposition often does not have recourse to a conjunction and if it does so, then the conjunction utilised
24 is normally ne (and) employed in the sense of "but". Evidently Logical Opposition underlies all cases of Semiotic Opposition.
Opposition is of two kinds: (a ) Simple Opposition in which an opposition between two Themes and their Rhemes is introduced through the use of the conjunction but. Generally the second set of Theme-Rheme is a negative one. 159. jat janay pan man nahi janay: One can know caste but not the mind. Here an opposition is established between the two sets of Theme-Rheme and can be represented formally as under:
T 1 R 1 T2 R 2 caste known mind not known p .q but r.not q (b) Comparative Opposition. Comparatives are complicated cases of Opposition since they involve an opposition between two Themes and a Rheme that is common to both and stands in an equational relationship to each of the two Themes. The following proverb will illustrate the issue: 160. darad karta ilaj bhari: The cure is more tedious (difficult) than the malady. In this proverb two Themes are compared: cure and illness. Both have a common Rheme: "tedious", which in the case of the Theme "cure" is qualified by the term more. Between the two sets there exists an opposition. Thus The illness is tedious. (But) The cure is more tedious. p is q, r is more q, the two sets being in a relation of Opposition. Similarly proverb 154 is a case of Comparative Opposition. 4. Causal: often there exists a causal relationship between two Themes or between a Theme and a Rheme of a proverb. Basically all such proverbs have the form: If p then q, i.e. the satisfaction of a condition p brings about q. Such proverbs could therefore also be termed Conditional. Causal proverbs are of four subtypes: (a) Assertion in the first Theme-Rheme set; Negation in the second. 161. je hale tene jar na male: He who moves secures no wealth. (b) Negation in the first set, Assertion in the second: 162. je na khay galyu tenu jivtar balyu: He who cannot take abuse, his life is a misery. (c) Negation in both sets: 163. je na kare kam, tene na male dhan: He who works not, eats not. (d) Assertion in the two sets:
25 164. je khame te Jane: He who suffers knows (the pain). The Logical and Semiotic criteria taken together thus permit us to understand and better define the proverbs of Gujerati, which may be taken as certain lexemes entering into a specific logical relation with one another. When a proverb is used, the hearer guides himself by these two criteria to understand the exact implication of the proverb.
The Argumentative Level8 Hitherto the proverb has been studied successively at its Prosodic, Thematic and Semiological levels. However there is more to a proverb than just its structure. In fact it is in its context of use that one understands a proverb best. Unfortunately paremiologists with a few exceptions such as Taylor or Dundes have not insisted much on the pragmatics of the proverb but have preferred to analyse its structure and content. From a pragmatic viewpoint a proverb involves several factors, some of which it shares with other elements of discourse and some which are particular to it. A proverb involves basically two participants: its user or the Enunciator E and the Receiver or the Allocutor A, for whom it is destined. A proverb is not produced in vitro. It is not an initiating element of discourse such as "Hallo!" or "How do you do?" A proverb is basically an argument AR introduced by the speaker E to persuade the receiver A or to refute an argument advanced by A. The proverb seen thus is an argument or a counter-argument. In this sense it may be said to possess a certain illocutionary force, since behind the speech act there are two clear intentions: to convince or to refute. This illocutionary force of the proverb varies from culture to culture. In certain African cultures, it is an "argument clincher", permitting the one who cites the most apt proverb to win the argument. In Gujerati, the proverbs do not possess this strong illocutionary force. Their force is moderate and they serve to strengthen an argument. What has been stated above could be equally valid for any element of discourse that has a certain illocutionary value. In what way is a proverb special? The answer becomes evident if we compare a proverb such as 152 Dear is cheap and cheap is dear with a sentence such as: It is quite expensive. But it will last long. Firstly a proverb is "reported speech" ( discours rapporte). The user E has not formulated the argument; he has, so to speak, borrowed the argument from a common pool of knowledge and advanced it, not as his own, but as approved of by society in general. In other words a proverb is an argumentum ad verecundiam: an appeal to truth. E advances an argument AR already advanced by an infinite number of Es (E - n) before him in order to strengthen what he has to say. Secondly, and as a corollary of the first, a proverb, once conceived of as an argument with a strong illocutionary force, is nothing but an extremely generalised statement
26 or a tapas in an Aristotelian sense. This tapas establishes certain logical relations between various domains of experience and gives them the value of universal truths to which an appeal can be made. Thus 152 could be translated in terms of logical and semantic concepts as under: When one pays more, ·the product is solid. When the product is solid, it lasts longer. When the product lasts longer, one does not need to buy it again for a long time. When one does not buy a product for a long time, one saves money. When one saves money, the product proves cheaper. Hence when one pays more, it is cheaper.
A similar series of arguments could be advanced to prove that a cheaper product . . 1s more expens1ve. The collocation of these logical arguments furnishes proverb 152. A proverb is thus a universal truth built up of logical categories interacting with semanuc concepts. There remains the problem of application of the proverb. A proverb has a referential value since it refers to, or rather applies to, an "external situation". The Enunciator E confronts a particular situationS in which a particular event has occurred. e.g. The Allocutor A refers to an object he bought recently and which lasted for a short time, whereas an identical object which he had bought much earlier is still functional. The Enunciator of the proverb reduces the above discourse to two logical categories: New object Not durable Old object - Durable. and concludes with a generalisation: Junnu te sunnu : Old is gold. He thus passes from a particular event to a general situation in which he successively sums up two arguments: 1. New objects are not durable. 2. Old objects are more durable. This referential function of the proverb is of two main kinds in Gujerati: 1. Denotative: in a denotative proverb, the proverb is a pure generalisation, a statement with a general argumentative value in which the lexemes refer to reality itself. Thus in a proverb such as: 156. satya cupu na rahe: Truth cannot be hidden; or 164. je khame te jane: He who suffers knows (the pain). the lexemes refer to reality directly. All that the proverb does is to raise the argument to a general level. 2 . Connotative: in a connotative proverb, the nature of reference is quite different. The lexical elements do not refer to reality directly but indirectly through metaphors
27 or metonymies. There is thus a double movement: from the image to the general theme and then to the situation. Metaphor General Particular
Metonymy ------t•• Theme ------~Situation This is seen in a proverb of the type: Junnu te sunnu: Old is gold. Gold does not refer to the reality directly. It has a connotative value and one of the Semes of Gold, namely "durability" and "quality" is applied. The proverb thus translated yields the sense: Old is durable; which is purely denotative and can be applied to a particular . . s1tuauon. It is this "translation" carried out through connotative associations which is a problem in paremiology. Connotative associations depend on the cultural ethos of the people and can be understood by the native speakers of that language alone. Thus an expression such as 16 5. khaskhasno toplo avyo: A heap of poppy-seed arrived. can be easily understood by Gujerati speakers who associate poppy-seed with fertility and hence with children. Connotativity must therefore range from the quasi-universal to a particular that could be accessible to speakers of the language alone.
3. Conclusion This paper has a double aim in mind: firstly to introduce the folksayings of Gujerati and show how from the point of view of their content, Gujerati proverbs reflect the society and the ethos which gave rise to them. Secondly to apply to folklore research new concepts and new methods evolved in lingistic analysis, especially the application of symbolic logic, linguistic philosophy and semantics and thus show how new approaches can throw new light on paremiology.
Notes
1. The term argumentative will be taken in its pragmatic sense as the application of the proverb to an external situation, cp. Ducrot 1980. 2. In an experiment conducted by the author in India, it was noticed that a distortion of either word order or lexical content of a given proverb resulted in the refusal of the proverb by the informant. At best, educated informants tended to regard such distonions, especially lexical ones, as parodies. 3. The division of the proverb into bipartite, tripartite, multipartite units is based strictly on formal criteria and not on formal and semantic ones as in the case of Milner (70). 4. This attitude is often attributed to the heavy impact of the Muslims and their culture on Gujerat. However I have reason to believe that women are looked down upon also because of dowry considerations which turn them into burdens on the family; all the
28 more so, since traditionally orthodox families do not allow their women to work. ( cp. proverbs 69, 70). 5. Permyakov (1979) does not consider this subclass to be true proverbs. However I propose to term them so since they fit into my general definition of a proverb. 6. This theory is based on Ducrot (1980) and his theory of Argumentative Scales according to which the sense of an argument is understood in terms of argumentative scales. 7. Generally only two Themes can stand in opposition to each other or to two Rhemes. A triadic opposition is difficult to come by, since oppositions are basically polar and dual 1n nature. 8. Section 2 is entirely inspired by Ducrot's theories which are based partly on Searle and Austin's linguistic philosophy of speech acts. The word tapas was first used by Ducrot to define an argumentative universal whereby Enunciator and Allocutor formulate and understand arguments. This section is an attempt to apply new pragmatic research to paremiology.
A note on the pronunciation of the Gujerati notations The International Phonetic Alphabet has not been used in this article for typographical reasons, and has been replaced by a transliteration. Apart from the sounds given below, the other sounds correspond to the English sound-system and need no explanation: 1. It/ and /d/ are apico-dental plosives. /n/ an apico-dental nasal.
2. A diacritic mark below I~/, I 41, I f). I and IV indicates that they are retroflex sounds. 3. lei represents a voiceless palatal plosive. I j I is a voiced palatal plosive. 4. The combination of consonant followed by /h/ implies that the consonant in question is aspirated. 5. The tilde I - I over a vowel indicates that the vowel is nasalised. 6. /a/ is the mid neutral vowel represented in I.P.A. as I a /. 7. lyl represents the semi-consonant in English: yes. The transliteration used here is basically a broad transcription. University of Poona
29 MAP OF INDIA SHOWING THE MAIN CENTRES OF COLLECTION OF DATA
30 The Folktale Structure in Amos Tutuola's The Palm-Wine Drinkard
O.A. Asagba Yoruba society, like most human societies, abounds in folklore materials. Wande Abimbola's book Sixteen Great Poems ofIfo presents a total of sixteen long poems from the Ifa literary corpus which is by far the most important of the numerous genres of Yoruba oral literature. 1 The Yoruba oral literature has influenced Yoruba authors writing both in the indigenous and the English language. One of the foremost writers influenced by this genre is D 0 Fagunwa whose works are in the indigenous language. Other writers include Amos Tutuola, Ola Rotimi and Wole Soyinka. Soyinka works within the mythological repertoire of the Yoruba culture. His novels- The Interpreters and Season ofAnomy - as well as his plays, are strongly influenced by his knowledge of the Yoruba mythical gods, history and legends. His critical book Myth, Literature and the African World and especially the essay "The Fourth Stage" 2 is an in-depth presentation of the Yoruba mystery gods - Ogun, Sango and Obatala. The influence of the traditional literature in the works of Nigerian writers especially from the 1940s was an attempt at syncretising the traditional cultural values and modern values resulting from colonialisation. This syncretic process can be seen not only in literary works but also in the theatre. Joel Yinka Adedeji in an article The Literature of the Yoruba Opera writes: '"Cultural nationalism', the protest movement of a small group of young educated Nigerians of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Lagos, created the necessary atmosphere for the emergence of the Yoruba Operatic Theatre. The musical and choral aspects of the European concerts, cantatas, and operettas to which its producers were accustomed, became the main influence in it." 3 The writers of this period reveal the influence of both the traditional and colonial culture but the basic inspiration was the indigenous folkloric materials. Bode Sowande in his unpublished thesis writes: "The literature of modern Nigeria from the 1940s reflects the syncretic process which developed as a result of the creative integration of literary styles from two distinct cultures ... For the pioneer writers of this period, there was the immediate challenge of presenting an art with an indigenous character, while using a medium hitherto foreign to their culture." 4 Fagunwa's pioneering involvement with Yoruba literature had a profound influence on later writers like Amos Tutuola. In his study The Novels of D.O.Fagunwa (1974), Ayo Bamgbose writes that: "The tradition of expanding Yoruba folk-tale into an extended study which Fagunwa pioneered has had a profound influence in the development of the novel
31 in Yoruba. Until recently, almost all Yoruba novels followed Fagunwa's pattern of the story of the wandering hero (generally a hunter) and his experiences in a forest or some other locale peopled by supernatural beings." 5 In an assessment of Tutuola's novels vis-a-vis Yoruba oral literature and other indigenous writers like D 0 Fagunwa the question of plagiarism, as some critics have observed, does not arise; while it is correct that Fagunwa has influenced Tutuola, the fact that Fagunwa is working within the oral tradition which belongs to the Yoruba community points to a common source.6 Obiechina writes in his article Amos Tutuola and the Oral Tradition: "In the oral tradition, within which the quality of a story depends not only on verbal manipulation but also on dramatic devices such as gestures, facial expressions and voice modulation, textual comparison is not only unprofitable but impossible. Each text can be regarded as original because it bears a distinctive stylistic stamp". 7 Tutuola's novels, The Palm-Wine Drinkard, My Lifo in the Bush of Ghosts (1954), Simbi and the Satyr ofthe jungle (195 5 ), The Brave African Huntress (1958), Feather Woman ofthe Jungle (1962) and A;ayi and His Inherited Poverty amply demonstrate his working within the Yoruba cultural milieu; they reveal a strong influence of the traditional folktale structure. Alan Dundes in his essay What is Folklore? offers a definition of folklore based on the word "folk" rather than "lore": ''The term 'folk' can refer to any group ofpeople whatsoever who share at least one common factor. It does not matter what the linking factor is - it could be a common occupation, language, or religion - but what is important is that a group formed for whatever reason will have some traditions which it calls its own''. 8 Dundes includes, amongst other forms, myths, legends and folktales as components of folklore; for a working definition let us regard folktales as a corpus of stories or tales belonging to a group of people which lay claim to some traditions which the group calls its own; these stories are usually set in an unreal world demanding a willing suspension of disbelief. A study of Amos Tutuola's novels reveals many folklore materials and motifs; however these have been worked and interwoven into literary works of art and in each case belong to an original creator - Tu tuola. A study of one of his novels, The Palm-Wine Drinkard, reveals a folktale structure and content. The pertinent question is how has Tutuola handled these folklore materials? Bernth Lindfors provides a model study of Tutuola's working involvement with folklore. 9 Lindfors' three methods are: biographical, internal and corroborative; Richard Dorson added a fourth, namely literary evidence, which is discussed later in this article. A careful analysis using these working guides shows Tutuola to be an expert in his knowledge and use of folklore materials.
32 ------·--·
On the biographical side, Tutuola has stated that he grew up in his village listening to and telling folk-stories and that he heard the plot of his first book from an old man on a Yoruba palm plantation- sitting by the bank of a big river under the shade of palm trees drinking bamboo tumblers of wine. ''When he believed that I could enjoy what he wanted to tell me, then he told me the story of the Palm-Wine Drinkard." 9 On the internal side, Lindfors points out characteristics of oral narrative art in Tutuola's fiction, and persuasively argues that the novels represent a sequence of individual folktales - marked by beginning and ending formulas - rather than any consecutive plot. On the corroborative side, Lindfors calls attention to variant tale texts in Yoruba and other West African folktale collections that closely match the ones used by Tutuola. He also cites well known folk motifs employed by Tutuola - "the quarrel between heaven and earth, the carrying of a sacrifice to heaven, the tiny creature that makes newly-cleared fields sprout weeds, the enfant terrible, the magical transformations.'' 10 The Palm-Wine Drinkard deals with the grotesque search of an infatuated and unpromising palm-wine "drinkard", for his palm-wine tapster, who fell off a palm tree and died in the course of his duty. After a series of distressful adventures, he succeeds in tracing his tapster to the spirit world. Unfortunately he fails to bring him back but instead receives a magic egg with which he is enabled to produce anything he desires by merely requesting it from the egg. After further adventures the "drinkard" returns home and settles a dispute between the God of Heaven and the Earth Goddess thereby putting an end to the famine which the God of Heaven inflicted on earth to spite the Earth Goddess. From the above plot, the adventure of the palm-wine "drinkard" can be classified as that of a simple quest - a well worn motif in the genre of the folktale or what Northrop Frye calls the "naive quest romance". 11 Kofi Awoonor in The Breast of the Earth says of the novel: ''The stories follow the pattern of the folk story in which the animal or man hero or heroine departs in order to acquire knowledge, wealth, food and the wherewithal for survival in an uncertain world. The features of the quest are the trials, labors, revelations which the hero experiences on his journey.'' 12 The late D 0 Fagunwa is adept in such simple quest folk stories. The pattern of departure, initiation and return abounds in the adventures of his heroes in a world of fantasy, as for example in Igbo Olodumare 13 in which Akara-Ogun narrates the exploits of his late father Olowo Aiye in the "Forest of the Almighty". After a series of harrowing adventures in the forest Olowo Aiye returns with his spirit wife Ajediran. However, despite the similarity in source materials between Fagunwa and Tutuola their main difference lies in the fact that Tutuola's stories of adventures like The Palm Wine Drinkard are a number of folktales linked with a deliberate extension of the
33 nature of the quest throu gh more than one story. V. Propp in Morphology of the Folktale says of the folktale structure: "One must also keep in mind that just as elements are assimilated within a tale, whole genres are also assimilated and intermingled. Highly complicated conglomerates are then sometimes formed, into which the components of our scheme enter as episodes.'' 14 The episodic nature of The Palm-Wine Drinkard has no doubt created artistic problems for an unprofessional author like Tutuola writing for the first time. Lindfors is probably right in his observation that: "The Palm-Wine Drinkard's neat cyclical super-structure rests on a very loosely coordinated inner structure. The hero is involved in one adventure after another, bu t these adventures are not well integrated ... To search for an orderly system or a well developed artistic pattern in the chain of disjointed episodes in The Palm Wine Drinkard is to search for symmetry in chaos, for deli berate design in chance." 15 Lindfors' observation in this connection must be viewed with caution; that the novel is "loosely coordinated" does not mean that The Palm-Wine Dn.nkard lacks coherence. Obviously we can see Tutuola achieving coherence through episodic linkage. The first part of the novel deals with the departure scenes and they run to about twenty one episodes, many of which may be traced to various folktales in Yoruba tradition and several of the motifs have similarities with those in Thompson's Motif Index of Folk Literature. At the opening of the novel, the "drinkard" is seen as a lazy and unpromising character, whose obsession for palm-wine is ridiculous; his consumption capacity runs to about one hundred and fifty kegs by midday. However, as soon as he sets out into the forest inhabited by ghosts, devils and spirits the true character of the palm-wine drinkard begins to unfold. In a peculiar narrative technique common to Tutuola's novels, the "drinkard", by taking along with him ample "juju", assumes the power of part spirit and part man. Hence in his first encounter he tells us: "After the seventh month that I had left my home town, I reached a town and went to an old man, this old man was not a real man, he was a god and he was eating with his wife when I reached there. When I entered the house I saluted both of them, they answered me well, although nobody should enter his house like that as he was a god, but I myselfwas a god andjuju man." (emphasis mine, p .lO). As "Father of gods who could do everything in this world", the old man who is partly god gives the 'drinkard' various tasks in order to show him the way to 'Deads Town'. The old man refused to keep his promise when the riddle of the blacksmith's tool was unfolded to him. Instead, a more tedious task of fetching "death" himself is
34 l ------
assigned to the drinkard. In this early part of the adventure, the trickster traits of the palm-wine drinkard are revealed: (a) The hero is sent to the blacksmith to bring the right article that the old man has instructed the blacksmith to make for him. By a magical feat the "drinkard" turns into a very big bird, flies back to the roof of the old man's house. By a contest of wits he knows the answer - a bell. (b) By another contest of wits and the efficacy of his spell he knows the right path to Death's road and eventually forces Death into a net. As Awoonor rightly said in The Breast of the Earth, the story here is a variant of the popular African story of how death came into the world. The significant stress here is on the contest between man and death, a contest which man won, thus achieving total mastery over death and yet paradoxically bringing into the human world the destructive power of death. But as the "drinkard" brought death into the world, the price of physical decay must be paid by the human family: "So since that day I had brought death out from his house, he has no permanent place to dwell or stay, and we are hearing his name about in the world." 16 To ensure continuity of the "drinkard's" adventure, he must meet with difficult and rather impossible tasks and his ability to cope with these encounters pushes him a stage nearer to his task. Propp writes of folktale patterns: "The usual tale presents, for example, a misfortune at first and then the receipt of a helper who liquidates it. An inverted sequence gives the receipt of a helper at first and then the misfortune which is liquidated by him (elements DEF before A). Another example: misfortune is usually given first, followed by the exit from home (ABC )". 12 The Palm-Wine Drinkard combines several of Propp's patterns, first the hero confronts a misfortune - the death of his palm-wine tapster; he goes into the forest to search for him. He meets problems and helpers who liquidate them. But before he achieves his goal, he must undertake a difficult quest. Each episode in the novel presents various stages of his quest. Lindfors says of the folktale structure: "The plot of this adventure (Death) resembles that found in many folktales: A hero must perform impossible tasks in order to gain important information. Each successive task is more difficult to perform. When the hero succeeds in performing the most difficult task, usually a task in which he must risk his life, the task-setter, amazed and terrified, flees and never bothers the hero again. In such tales the function of the impossible tasks is to provide opportunities for an extraordinary hero to display his extraordinary abilities." 18 Earlier on, I suggested that most of the episodes in the palm-wine drinkard's adventure are separate motifs found in folktales in Tutuola's Yoruba culture. I shall now attempt to show Tutuola's episodic linkage of the "curious creature's" scene. After his encounter
35 with "Death" and the disappointment of the old man who deserted his homestead, without any help, the "drinkard" continues his search. Through his journey, he meets another old man who is ready to help him, so long as he retrieves his daughter from the "curious creature". As "father of gods who could do anything", partly through wit and magic, he traces the domain of the "skulls" and after an encounter he wins the hand of the daughter of the old man. There are at least four versions of the Yoruba texts of the story of the "complete gentleman", 19 but Tutuola has integrated this motif into the novel; he succeeds through vivid description and elaboration of his motif in incorporating the whole quest of the palm-wine drinkard. Another way in which Tutuola has employed this motif is what Awoonor calls the recuperation points of the story: "The purpose of the task, of course was not to win a bride. But it enables the hero to go through a short period of rest or recuperation, an idyllic interlude, to face the journey ahead. These pauses seem to be designed to stress new climacterics in the story as it leads to the greater purpose of the search for the tapster.'' 20 On the descriptive side, a tendency towards exaggeration is discernible which borders on comedy: "He was a beautiful 'complete' gentleman, he dressed with the finest and most costly clothes, all the parts of his body were completed; he was a tall man but stout. If he had been an article or animal for sale, he would be sold at least for £2000 (two thousand pounds)''. 2 1 The narrator goes on to say: ''After I looked at him for so many hours, then I ran to a corner of the market and I cried for a few minutes because I thought within myself why was I not created with beauty as the gentleman, but when I remembered that he was only a skull, then I thanked God, that he had created me without beauty." 22 The episode of the half-bodied child is then interwoven into the quest of the "drinkard". The product, an abnormal child who is destined to create chaos and turbulence for the couple, provides an effective link for the whole narrative. The "half bodied" child is parallel to the Tom Thumb of European folklore; 23 the same figure is known in Yoruba as "Mogbon Juba" or child-wiser-than-his-father. 24 Tutuola's artistic success in The Palm-Wine Drinkard is achieved through his elaborations and variation of the tales through episodic linkage, and the result is a form of coherence of the "drinkard's" quest. To ensure the continuation of the story, after the scene of the "curious creature", Tutuola introduces a modern commercialism, and through the acquired funds the 'drinkard' continues his journey to the "Faithful-Mother in the white tree":
36 ------
"She used the cause as a 'ferry' to carry passengers across the river, the fare for adults was 3d (three pence) and half fare for children ... and when we checked the money that my wife had collected for the day it was £7 5s 6d." The stories of the "disobedient child" and the "Red Town" have different variations in folklore25 and are intended to serve as moral instructions and a way of explaining the cultural beliefs of the people. As a stranger the "drinkard" must assume the role of a "carrier" in order to cleanse the sins of the "Red Town". This is an integral cultural belief which Soyinka treats in The Strong Breed. 26 As Eman is a willing "carrier" so also is the hero of The Palm-Wine Drinkard; they differ in that, while Eman is an hesitant "carrier", the "drinkard", well armed with juju, conquers the monster, and through this redemptive process, paves his way for the last journey to ''Deads Town''. In the "Deads Town", the hero is initiated into the true meaning of life; he learns that he cannot go away with his tapster because it is not possible for the living and the dead to co-exist; the gift of a "magical egg" is enough consolation. However, the story does not end here like most traditional folktales. Awoonor tells us that the story of the boon won, through humility, obedience and preparedness to undergo suffering is a commonplace one in West Africa. 27 In The Palm-Wine Drinkard, the "magical egg" becomes clinical and redemptive; the drinkard feeds his famine-ridden community and subsequently settles the quarrel between the Earth goddess and Heaven. The clinical and redemptive qualities of the ultimate boon are pregnant with moral values. As Awooner says, Tutuola is concerned here to portray the overwhelming destructiveness of human greed when the "drinkard" uses the "magic egg" to punish his greedy and exuberant people. 28 Apart from the coherence of the novel, which it achieves despite its episodic nature, the language of The Palm-Wine Drinkard is simple; a basic rhythm runs through the work despite its grammatical flaws in English. 29 The simplicity and flow of vivid descriptions and images convey the picture of a typical traditional narrator despite its first person narrative techniques: "I was a palm-wine drinkard since I was a boy of ten years of age. I had no other work more than to drink palm-wine in my life. In those days we did not know other money except COWRIES, so that everything was very cheap, and my father was the richest man in our town ... so my father gave me a palm-wine tree farm which was nine miles square and it contained 560,000 palm-trees, and this palm wine tapster was tapping one hundred and fifty kegs of palm-wine every morning, but before 2 o'clock p.m., I would have drunk all of it." 30 Mabel Jolaoso, a Yoruba reviewer of Tutuola's books, notes that the loose structure of his sentences, his roundabout expressions and his vivid similes, which are essentially
37 African, remind one very forcibly of the rambling old grandmother "telling her tale of spirits in the ghostly light of the moon." 31 A. Afolayan, another Yoruba critic, in his essay, Language and Sources ofAmos Tutuola32 asserts that Tutuola translated Yoruba idioms and everyday usage in his works. Jolaoso and Afolayan are in a better position to speak on Yoruba idiom and everyday usage in Tutuola's works because of their cultural affinity. Tutuola's indebtedness to Yoruba folklore does not stop with The Palm-Wine Drinkard; his experimentation with Yoruba mythology is discernible in his later novels. In Ajayi And His Inherited Poverty33 , the hero and two other colleagues - comrades in 34 poverty - journey to the town of Ogun, the god of iron in Yoruba mythology . In 35 Feather Woman of the jungle , the hero and six of his friends pay a visit to Ife. They are taken to see the footmarks of. .. the first whitemen who travelled from Heaven to the world. 34 In this later novel Tutuola is drawing upon the Yoruba creation myth which says that the divinities used to come down to the world before and after the solid ground was created. The myth establishes that there was free passage between heaven and after the solid ground was created. 36 Thus, Tutuola's novels have their roots in Yoruba folklore and mythology. The structure and content of The Palm-Wine Drinkard presents folk narratives linked together through episodes which in essence are loose in structure. One would therefore agree with Obiechina when he writes that: "Tutuola makes use of the quest type folk-tale because subsisting as it does on the marvellous and the sentimental and having a great deal of room for episodic development, it is the kind which allows his creative imagination the fullest play. One of the ways he exploits its possibilities is to build not only his protagonists but also his antagonists on a gigantic scale and imbue them with immense supernatural power (much in the same way that Milton builds up his Satan in Paradise Lost), to give a heroic quality to the ensuing struggle." 37
Notes and References
1. Abimbola, Wande, Sixteen Great Poems of Ifii, Unesco, 1972, p .3 . 2. Soyinka, Wale, Myth, Literature and the Afncan World, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp.140-160. 3. Adedeji, 'YinkaJoel, "The Literature of the Yoruba Opera", (1 97 3) Spectrum (Monograph series), Vol. 3, Atlanta, Georgia. 4. Bonde, Sowande, Contemporary Dramatic Literature in Nigena: A Study of Drama A s an Agent of Cultural Awareness, Ph.D. Thesis, Sheffield University, 1977, p.5. 5. Cited in Sowande, op. cit. p.6. 6. See Lindfors, Bernth, "Oral Tradition And the Individual Literary Talent", in his Folklore in Nigenan Literature, Africana Publishing Company, 1973, pp.23-27.
38 7. Obeichina, Emmanuel, "Amos Tutuola and the Oral Tradition", in Lindfors, Bernth, ( ed. ), Cn.tical Perspectives on Amos Tutuola, Heinemann Educational Books, 1980, p.85. 8. Dundes, Alan, What is Folklore?, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ., 1965, p.2. 9. Ibid 6, pp.51-59. 10. Ibid p.55. 11. Culled from Awoonor, Kofi, The Breast of the Earth, Anchor Press, 1975, p .227. 12. Ibid p .227. 13 . Fagunwa, D .O., Igbo Olodumare, Edinburgh, Nelson, 1947. 14. Propp, V., Morphology ofthe Folktale, Austin and London, University ofTexas Press, 1971, p.100. 15 . Ibid p.55. 16. Tutuola, Amos, The Palm-Wine Dn.nkard, Faber and Faber, 1977, p.6. 17. Ibid p.107. 18. Ibid p.57. 19. Ibid p.232. 20. Ibid p .229. 21. Ibid p.18. 22 . Ibid p .25. 23. Moore, Gerald, "Amos Tutuola", in Beier, Ulli, (ed.) Introduction to Afn.can Literature, Longman, 1964, p .180. 24. Ibid. p.180. 25. Ibid pp.232-235. 26. Soyinka, Wole, The Strong Breed, in Collected Plays, Vol. I, Oxford University Press, 1974. 27. Ibid p .237. 28. Ibid p.238. 29. See discussions on critical responses to Tutuola's The Palm-Wine Dn.nkard, in Lindfors, Bernth, (ed.), Cn"tical Perspectives on Amos Tutuola, Heinemann, 1980. 30. Ibid p.7. 31. Ibid p.98. 32. Afolayan, A ., "Language and Sources of Amos Tutuola" in Heywood, Christopher, (ed.) Perspectives on Afncan Literature, Heinemann, 1977, pp.33-48. 33. Tutuola, Amos, Aj(zyi and His Inhen"ted Poverty Faber, 1967. 34. Ibid pp.140-141. 35. Tutuola, Amos, The Feather Woman of the jungle, Faber and Faber, 1962, p .104. 36. Idowu, E.G., Olodumare, God in Yoruba Belief, Longmans, 1966, p .14.
University of Leeds.
39 Solihull: A Note on a Placename Pronunciation
C S Upton
I am a native of the West Midland town of Solihull. I spent my first nineteen years in the town, leaving in 1965 but retaining my connection with it through my family. When I pronounce the town's name in isolative position I say /soQ}~' hlll/ and as the first element of two-word compounds I pronounce it I 'soalih All, as do my family and local friends and acquaintances. Prior to 1965 I was unaware of alternative pronunciations. There were doubtless alternatives (a correspondent has testified to hearing one on a cinema newsreel in 1948), but I was not conscious of them. However, I have since come increasingly to notice the alternatives I • solth~/ and /sol~' hl\l/. Subjective speculation and casual enquiry suggested that.. my /6 ~ pronunciations were the more genuine local forms, and that those with first-syll~ble /o/ were more recent forms adopted especially by outsiders, perhaps influenced by the media and based on a spelling pronunciation. 1 In order to begin testing the truth of this hypothesis, and to discover if the issue was of any local interest, a short article was published in the town's weekly newspaper, the Solihu/1 News, on 6 March 1982. Mention was made only of "o as in go" versus "o as in hot". Care was taken to avoid any suggestion as to what a "proper" or "authentic" pronunciation might be. Readers were invited to write giving their views, and were asked to provide details of age and of family connections with the town. Thirty two letters were received in response to the article, thirty one of them strictly to the point. Of these, twenty seven, all from people with strong local connections and with ages ranging from twenty to eighty three, attested to an /od pronunciation for themselves, and in some cases for other members of their family. The remaining four correspondents, of whom one was from Birmingham and the others from farther afield, used an /-o/ pronunciation. The letters received contain many interesting observations, of which a recurrent one is the irritation felt by many local people when I -of is used in broadcasting. Several correspondents regard the form which they do not use as affected. The issue clearly excited some local interest, and a questionnaire for use in a street survey was accordingly drawn up. This questionnaire was designed to elicit informants' pronunciations of Solihu/1 in isolative position, together with data on their age, sex, place of birth, length of residence in the town, and birthplaces of father, mother, and of spouse should they be married. These questions were deemed to be sufficient to provide reasonable biographical information without the risk of irritating informants approached in the street. The questionnaire was employed on one day in April 1982, fifty men and fifty women being approached at random in the centre of Solihull with an initial question in the form "Could you tell me how you pronounce the
40 name of this town?" Response to this approach was most gratifying, fewer than ten people refusing to participate in the survey and many respondents evincing great . . . Interest In It. The numbers of informants using the various pronunciations of Solihu/1 were as follows:
A B c D
lsopl t,' hAl/ I' sooh.htJ/ I ' s vl.}l AI I
58 15 15 12
Table 1: total informants giving each pronunciation
Pronunciation A was therefore shown to be considerably more popular than other forms. When the number of informants giving this pronunciation is added to that of informants giving pronunciation B, the /oo/ forms receive the support of seventy three percent of informants. Forms with stressed final syllable, A and C, are also seen to be favoured by seventy three percent of informants. Pronunciation D is the least popular, in spite of the early subjective assessment that this was a form often used by speakers on radio and television, and by others not familiar with the town. Informants were classified into three locality zones according to their places of birth. Those born within the boundaries of the borough of Solihull were classed in zone 1. Those born outside the borough but within twenty miles of the town centre (i.e. in a wide area of the West Midlands including Birmingham, Lichfield, Tamworth, Nuneaton, Coventry, Warwick, Stratford-upon-Avon, Droitwich, Kidderminster, Dudley, and Wolverhampton) were classed in zone 2. Zone 3 contained all informants born more than twenty miles from the town. Responses by zone were as follows:
Zone A( 0/o of total) B( 0/o of total) C( 0/o of total) D( 0/o of total)
1 76.92 7.69 7.69 7.69
2 66.66 13.72 13.72 5.88
3 38.88 19.44 19.44 22.22
Table 2: percentage of informants giving each pronunciation, by zone
41 It is clear that although A is preferred in all zones, preference for it diminishes with the move from zone 1 to zone 3. There is some similarity between the figures obtained for zones 1 and 2, where /oQ/ (AB) and final-syllable stress (AC) are strongly favoured. These figures however vary markedly from the figures for zone 3, where little preference is shown for /oQ/ and final-syllable stress pronunciations. Also, among zone 3 informants pronunciation D, with stressed /o/ in the first syllable, is the second most popular choice, albeit by a narrow margin. It can be argued that knowledge of an informant's birthplace conveys only the most general idea of his connection with a locality. Since details of parentage and marriage partner were obtained for all informants, however, it is possible to calculate a figure, a "localism factor" (LF), for each, indicating more accurately his connection with the locality through his family. This has been done by totalling zone scores for the informant and for his parents and spouse, an average of the rest being added in lieu of a spouse zone score if the informant is unmarried. Thus an informant born in zone 1, with parents born in zone 2 and a spouse from zone 3, has an LF of 1 + 2 + 2 + 3 = 8. An unmarried informant born in zone 3 to zone 3 parents has an LF of 3 + 3 + 3 + (average )3 = 12. The higher the LF the less contact with the locality an informant may be judged to have. Total LFs, averaged over the number of informants giving the various pronunciations, are:
A B c D
8.84 9.93 9.86 11.00
Table 3: average LFs of informants giving each pronunciation
As in Table 2, these data show a distinction between a preference for A on the part of informants with a strong local connection and a somewhat greater preference for D on the part of those with less strong local links. B and C, which are shown in Table 2 to be equally favoured by informants from all three zones, are again shown to have almost equal popularity, only .07 separating them on LF rating. Computation of the average time spent living in the locality by informants giving the various pronunciations shows that A and B are favoured by informants with the longest average residence (20. 72 and 23 years respectively). C was given by informants averaging 17.66 years residence, while D was used by informants with comparatively little residence qualification (10.41 years).
42 Analysis by sex of informant shows the following: Sex Total A B c D Women 50 32 8 5 5 Men 50 26 7 10 7 Table 4: numbers of men and women giving each pronunciation
Female informants had an average LF of 9.40, and male informants an LF of 9.44. The average time spent living in zone 1 by female informants was approximately nineteen years, and by male informants approximately twenty years. So, in spite of apparently negligible differences in the local connections of the men and women providing' data for the survey, female informants showed a markedly greater preference for /ofill/ (AB) pronunciation (four out of five) than did male informants (two out of three). Support for first and third syllable stress (AC-BD) is seen to be roughly equal for each sex. The age of informants seems to have had no bearing on choice of pronunciation. Just as the age of correspondents favouring the JoDI pronunciation ranged widely in the initial phase of the investigation, so all the pronunciations gathered in the street survey were attested by young and old alike. Grouped in age bands (1 =teenagers, 8 =octogenarians), the figures obtained were as follows:
Age band A( 0/o) B( 0/o) C( 0/o) D( 0/o) 1 80 0 20 0 2 64 9 9 18 3 62 0 15 23 4 14 43 29 14 5 45 18 18 18 6 69 19 12 0 7 64 77 14 14 8 50 50 0 0
Table 5: percentage of informants giving each p_ronunciation, by age
Band 8 informants showed the greatest preference for loa/ pronunciations (100°/o ), and band 4 informants the least (57 °/o ). However, these bands were made up of two and seven informants respectively and cannot reliably be regarded as providing data representative of these age groups. The small number of informants falling into each band means that no reliable conclusions can be drawn from an analysis of the age/pronunciation figures. Perhaps the only telling point to be made is that no band shows a preference for the /-o/ (CD) pronunciations.
43 What conclusions can be drawn from the findings of this short survey? Clearly, the intuition which precipitated the enquiry, that I so4l1...~h~l/ is the preferred local pronunciation of Solihu/1, is substantiated (Table 1), and this pronunciation is seen to be the dominant one even among speakers from outside the locality (Table 2). That there is a markedly weaker tendency for people born at some distance from Solihull to use pronunciation A is clearly demonstrated, zone 3 informants being only half as likely to say /soQl...,' h N./ as are zone 1 informants (Table 2). The obvious correlation between pronunciation and locality is maintained when informants' connection with the town is further calculated through a computed LF (Table 3 ). When use of B, C, and D is considered however, available evidence suggests that neither first-syllable vowel quality nor the position of stress is of the greater significance. Support for AB, the lot:~! pronunciations, is almost precisely matched under the various analyses by support for AC, the final-syllable stress pronunciations. Pronunciation D stands out as having little local credibility and relatively slight overall support: this is hardly surprising, since it combines what may be seen as the less popular elements of first-syllable stress and first-syllable /o/ in one pronunciation. An interesting statistic is that obtained from the analysis of the sex of informants giving the different pronunciations. In spite of an almost identical LF and the fact that male informants have on average a slightly longer residence in the town than their female counterparts, it is the women who most favour. A and the lot:JI pronunciations generally. Explanation of this is not difficult to find if it is accepted that A is the most acceptable local form. It has long been held by many linguists that women are more sensitive to "correct" or "normal" pronunciations than are men, and the intuition of early field researchers on this matter has been upheld by more recent investigations by sociolinguists. 2 We can say, then, that there was in 1982 one particularly popular pronunciation of Solihu/1, namely /so Dl1.o' h 1\11. This is the pronunciation most likely to be favoured by people found in the town centre on a Friday in April, regardless of their origin, local connection, age, or sex. It is likely to be favoured more by people with close local affiliations than by people with little or no connection with the town, and by women rather than by men. There is also some evidence to suggest that it is the pronunciation which was normally in use in the district at least as far back as the late nineteenth century. Nevertheless, this pronunciation can in no way be considered as the sole acceptable one, alternatives receiving support from informants with strong local connections and from others who are as likely to influence the future pronunciation of the name as A speakers are. Having pointed to today's situation, we should need to conduct another survey some years hence in order to reveal any trend which may be taking place.
44 Notes
1. Forster records only the /sool t.' h,.l/ pronunciation, citing as his sources Chisholm, Lloyd James, Broadcast English II, 2nd edn., 1936, and Miller. The BBC originally published its recommendation of this pronunciation in the first edition of Broadcast English II in 1930, and has recommended it consistently since. The advice of the BBC Pronunciation Unit is not always followed by employees of the Corporation. 2. See, for example, the preponderance of male informants on the Survey of English Dialects (Orton p.15 ), and Petyt's report of the findings ofLabov (p.144), Heath (p.158), and Trudgill (p.160).
References
Chisholm, G .G ., A Pronouncing Dictionary of Geographical Names, London, 1912 . Forster, Klaus, A Pronouncing Dictionary of English Place Names including standard local and archaic variants, London, 1981. Lloyd James, A., Broadcast English II: Recommendations to Announcers Regarding the Pronunciation of Some English Place Names, London, 1930. Miller, G.M., ed., BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names, London, 1971. Orton, Harold, Survey of English Dialects (A): Introduction, Leeds, 1962. Petyt, K .M. , The Study of Dialect: An introduction to dialectology, London, 1980.
45 Further thoughts on the Labovian Interview
G raham Shorrocks In a recent article in Lore and Language, Ken Reah presented an interesting reassessment of the Labovian interview. 1 I would agree that such a reassessment has not been overtaken by events, 2 in that the claims made on behalf of Labov's methods by British dialectologists who have employed them have been quite uncompromising. Indeed, those followers of Labov who have used his techniques of random sampling, and of the correlation of linguistic variables with variations in social parameters, have seen fit to indulge in swingeing critiques of just about every approach to dialectology other than their own. 3 I should therefore like to take a look here at some of the claims made by sociolinguists, and to suggest that the fundamental justification for their method - namely the fact that they are able to describe all of the varieties of speech in a locality - is in fact false. 4
5 The work of American sociolinguists - pre-eminently that of William Labov - has been applied in English dialectology by Trudgill, amongst others. Given that most, if not all, localities are socially and linguistically heterogeneous, sociolinguists feel that it behoves the dialectologist to describe and explain this variation, especially in the case of the large urban populations. Brook writes: "Linguistic variations in towns depend on occupations or social class rather than on place of birth, and the study of town dialects is likely to develop side by side with the study of class dialect." 6 The notion of explanation of linguistic phenomena by virtue of their reflecting social phenomena is to be found in an article by J T Wright: "The dialectologist's task in relation to towns is to show how social complexities are reflected in the linguistic behaviour of their inhabitants." 7 The approach generally adopted is that of correlating linguistic variables in informants' speech with social variables in informants' socioeconomic profiles. Modern statistical techniques are employed in sampling (i.e. choice of informants), and in subsequently effecting the correlations between sociological parameters and linguistic variables. In view of certain rather strong claims which are put forward for this correlational approach, it will be necessary to sketch briefly the benefits of such an approach, and then to advance something of a case against it, or rather, primarily, to indicate that it has decided limitations, and that it is necessary to see it in a wider perspective. Indeed, since decided claims are made for the relative superiority of this approach, a dialectologist must do one of three things: he might refute it, or, as is more appropriate, show it to be simply one approach amongst others, with its own particular advantages and disadvantages; otherwise he would be obliged to adopt it. Trudgill's approach establishes acceptable correlations between linguistic variation and variations in the parameters of social class, age and sex. A major claim, as previously suggested, is that we are thereby enabled to give a description of
46 ~------· ----
communities which are heterogeneous in both social and linguistic composition, and that this is particularly the case in urban areas: "It is also true to say that urban dialectology is by no means necessarily sociological. Many linguists have attempted to describe the speech forms of urban areas without recourse to any of the methodology of sociology. The inadequacies of the work of these linguists, both linguistic and sociological, stem from the fact that they have, generally speaking, chosen to ignore the fact that most if not all speech communities are more or less socially and linguistically heterogeneous. This heterogeneity is, moreover, much more marked in urban areas than it is in other linguistic communities. For this reason the inadequacies of non-sociological urban dialectology are all the more serious.'' 8 It follows from these observations that Trudgill may further claim to be describing the ways in which the majority of our population speaks: "Sociological urban dialectology can also have the function - particularly in Britain, where little attention has so far been paid to this kind of work - of providing a description of the linguistic characteristics of the vast majority of the country's population. It would seem that the considerable amount of rural dialectological work that has been carried out in Britain has left the linguist singularly ignorant about the way in which most of the people in Britain speak. 9 By taking social variation to be more significant than geographical variation in the description of urban dialects, 10 the sociolinguist is obliged to pay considerable attention to the selection of his informants. He uses the random sample (or quasi random sample) technique, for which statistical validity or representativeness is claimed in contrast to more traditional techniques: "Informants selected solely because they are available and willing to be interviewed are simply a part of the population of the city, not a representative sample, and no valid statements concerning the language of the city as a whole can be based on evidence obtained from informants selected in this way... " 11
Similarly: "The methods of traditional dialectology may be adequate for the description of caste dialects (although even this is doubtful) since any individual, however selected, stands a fair chance of being not too different from the caste group as a whole. But it is not possible to select any single speaker and to generalise from him to the rest of the speakers in his social-class group. This was an important point demonstrated by Labov. The speech of a single speaker (his idiolect) may differ considerably from those [sic] of others like him. Moreover it may be internally very inconsistent." 12 On the basis of the representativeness of the informant sample in sociological studies, claims of accuracy and total linguistic representativeness are made. It is not felt that
47 ------
the interview situation defeats these claims in any way. For instance, Trudgill asserts when writing about Labov's work: "Since informants were a representative sample, the linguistic description could therefore be an accurate description of all the varieties of English spoken in this area. Labov also developed techniques, later refined, for eliciting normal speech from people in spite of the presence of the tape-recorder. (This was an important development which we shall discuss further. .. )" 13 One possibility may be raised by way of an extension of the correlational approach. Pahlsson has indicated 14 that whilst a population may be stratified three dimensionally, i.e. spatially, temporally, and socially, and linguistic variation may be related to that stratification so that a linguistic item can be seen to mark a temporal, spatial, or social fact, correlations of linguistic data with a single non-linguistic parameter would be somewhat unreal abstractions. He marks out one direction for future progress when he writes that "the calibration of the three dimensions" is "what really counts." 15 Finally, Trudgill has asserted that, although collections of data and descriptions of dialect can be viable, studies which make a contribution to linguistic theory, such as his own, are superior. 16 It is now necessary to examine these claims critically. The one listed here last is of the greatest generality. The claim that non-sociological descriptions do not make a contribution to theory constitutes a misappropriation of the term theory. For instance, a more traditionally oriented analysis is perfectly capable of making a contribution to phonetic, phonemic, dialectological, linguistic or whatever theory. Has the study of traditional vernacular no contribution to make to the theory of historical linguistics? Does a synchronic analysis of a dialect at the grammatical level, which shows that variation amongst English dialects at the morphological and syntactic levels has very probably been underestimated, not make at least a small contribution to dialectological and linguistic theory? 17 Is the dialectologist's purpose of no account? 18 Is the concept of the phoneme not one of the most significant advances in linguistic theory this century? Is structuralism, which in practice has provided useful working descriptions of many languages and dialects, somehow non-theoretical? Any number of such questions might be posed, and - unless Trudgill understands theory to mean sociology of language - may be summarised by asking the question: how can a contribution to one subsection of linguistic theory be rated as superior to contributions to other aspects of linguistic theory? Furthermore, if Trudgill means to imply that more traditional studies are somehow not theoretical at all, 19 then he is on epistemologically untenable ground: even "collections of data" do not arrange themselves, nor their discussion. Admittedly, some works are more theoretical than others, and certain more theoretical studies may be judged to have greater explanatory power. However, apart from the fact that there can be reasons in linguistics for not
48 ~------~----
wishing to tie data too closely to theories which are not yet sufficiently developed, 20 when studies are written from widely differing theoretical perspectives, and to quite different ends, comparisons become meaningless. The link, then, between purpose and theory simply cannot be overlooked in this manner. The claim to be able to describe the speech of the majority or all of a population may be viewed in a number of ways. Firstly, given that there are indeed various groupings in society, it is nonetheless quite valid to wish to describe the speech of a single group in greater detail, especially if that happens to be for particular purposes, such as historical ones. Williams has also made the point that choice of linguistic approach cannot be divorced from the dialectologist's purpose. After discussing the work of Labov and others, he writes: "This close tie to the everyday world of speakers serves to emphasize the highly specific type of description given in sociolinguistic study as compared with the more idealised description provided by traditional linguistic investigation. Whereas the specific or realistic description may be useful in characterising the detailed behaviour of certain speakers in certain situations, it lacks the economy and generality to large groups of speakers that the idealised description provides. In the broadest view, one type of description is really no "better" than the other. Our uses of one or the other depend on our goals.'' 21 Mcintosh has suggested that there are in fact pressing reasons for wishing to produce descriptions of traditional vernacular. He notes that in any community it is usually possible to discern an "old-fashioned" type of speech which has been less affected by outside influences of a recent nature, and further to discern "resistant types", i.e. people who have lived all their lives in the same locality. 22 He adds: "But we should also note that people modify their speech habits much less in their maturer years than earlier, and that profound influences have been at work on the dialects since 1914. Those who grew up before the first World War have generally proved less receptive to such influences than their children or grandchildren have.'' 23 The conclusion which Mcintosh draws from such observations is that: " The speech-habits of those resistant types who are already elderly will before long cease to be available for study, and it therefore seems proper, in the first instance, that we should give them our main attention in all areas investigated.'' 24 Also, in respect of describing the speech of the majority together with the emphasis on social and linguistic heterogeneity, a synchronic study may be assumed to have a much wider validity and representativeness when it deals with a relatively homogeneous population. 25 A linguistic precedent for this point of view in urban dialectology is Viereck's study of Gateshead; 26 Viereck has since drawn attention again to the sociological appropriateness of his work, given the structure of the
49 population of the community concerned. 27 A study which includes the general directions of modification to the dialect speech consequently has even wider applicability. 28 Furthermore, a study which investigates the similarities in the speech of a community is describing that which enables communication to take place. 29 I would suggest, then, that Trudgill does not place the concept theory against a sufficiently wide linguistic background, and fails to see it in terms of the frame of reference, which includes the linguist's purpose. Trudgill further claims that the representativeness of the informant sample ensures both an accurate account and one which covers all the varieties of English spoken in an area. With regard to the sampling itself, and ignoring the question of the truly large samples required to ensure statistical validity, it is not clear to me that a sample can be representative of those speakers who refuse to be interviewed. More importantly still, however, it must surely be admitted that a random sample of a large number of people simply does not fulfil the same purpose as a "traditional" sample. In industrial Lancashire, informants are often ashamed of their dialect, and dialect is used as the medium of communication with family and friends. 30 Similar restrictions on the use of traditional vernacular have been noted elsewhere. For instance, Gumperz wntes: "For a much larger number of individuals the standard continues to function as a second or third speech style, used only in certain social situations, e.g. on formal occasions, with individuals of different social background, in the office, in school, on the college campus, etc. But the number of situations which call for the use of the standard is growing, and sub-regional dialect forms are being more and more confined to the family circle." 31 It is consequently not to be expected that residual dialect speech will be consistently produced, if produced at all, for the investigator who is interviewing say fifty informants in "a little over three weeks". 32 To elicit traditional vernacular under anything approaching natural conditions, the fieldworker must have got to know his informants well, and I am not able to accept that this is the case with large random samples. It follows from this, that the claim to describe all the speech varieties in a community is untenable. The most residual speech will not be recorded after any consistent . fashion, if at all, in many cases. A related problem is that of the interview techniques employed. Sociolinguists have developed techniques which are supposed to overcome the formality of the interview situation, at those times when they wish to elicit casual speech: the informant has been requested to narrate incidents when he was near to death, 33 or to relate humorous stories, 34 so that involvement in the story will distract the informant's attention away from the interview situation itself. Whilst I would not wish to deny that such devices sometimes work, 35 or work up to a point, I would doubt the advisability of relying on them too widely. More protracted contact with individual
50 ------
informants leads me to question their effectiveness. I recall an interview with an informant in the early stages of my Farnworth fieldwork. The informant was something of a raconteur, and had once told me humorous stories about a holiday which he had had in the past. When I asked him about the holiday on tape, he recounted the same stories, but the result was a quite different level of language. Even though this would still have sounded like broad Lancashire speech to a relative stranger, it happened not to be the same level of speech which that informant customarily uses. To know that, one must know the informant. From the point of view of eliciting traditional vernacular, the recording session to which I have just alluded was somewhat premature; from the point of view of anyone wishing to describe modified speech too, however, the session was useful; at any event, the session was instructive on the subject of relating humorous anecdotes. I would therefore express doubts about the adequacy of such devices as general means of eliciting casual speech, and reiterate that there is a variety of English in areas such as Farnworth and district which is not fully brought out- if brought out at all, in many cases - by sociolinguistic techniques. The claim to describe all the varieties of speech used in a community is invalid. The linguistic variables in the Labov-Trudgill approach are selected by recourse to previous work - again confirming that the much despised descriptive, synchronic work is a good basis for work adopting other approaches36 - or the linguist's intuition: "Measuring language is more difficult. The solution developed by Labov and since used by others is to take linguistic features which are known, either from previous study or intuitively by the linguist as a native speaker, to vary within the community being studied, and which are also easily countable in some way." 37 The mere handful of variables employed in such sociolinguistic studies to date might also cause one to question the claim to be giving full descriptions, especially in terms of linguistic levels of description. Indeed, the cynic might suggest that traditional vernacular will have died out or at least changed appreciably, before full descriptions are achieved by using such methods. In addition to the fact that so very much else is simply ignored in such studies, detailed phonetic transcription shows that there are certainly more phonetic variants in a dialect than those considered by sociolinguists. 38 The treatment of preselected linguistic variables purely as reflections of certain preselected social categories has obvious gross limitations. Some linguists feel that a more promising approach is to cluster speakers in the light of similarities in their speech, and then to discover what parameters these clusters might reflect in the informants' socioeconomic profiles: in this way, neither the linguistic variables nor the social groupings are given a priori, and new variables may be discovered. This approach should be worth the effort of measuring linguistic variables, 39 and is used in the Urban (Tyneside) Linguistic Survey. 40
51 Eventually, more subtle models will probably be developed which will account more satisfactorily for the complexity of social groups and the information field within which an individual operates, i.e. interactional models. Gumperz has indicated the need to discover "norms governing the quality of social relations - norms which constrain friendship formation patterns and control the content of interpersonal communication."41 He further observes: ''We must conclude that the traditional practice of simply correlating the linguists' findings with independently collected social information is unsatisfactory for the study of ongoing social communication practices. What is needed is a model for sociolinguistic description which provides for ways of gathering linguistic and social information in terms of a single theoretical framework. Fieldwork in Norway was concerned with this problem .. . The Norwegian community stands at the opposite end of the social spectrum from the Indian village. Local residents think of themselves as a community of equals, where differences in social rank are at a minimum and income differentials of little importance. Yet even in this apparently uniform group there were clearly detectable dialect differences and as in the Indian situation the norms governing interpersonal relations were again the determining factor. There are grounds, therefore, for postulating a new level of sociolinguistic analysis - the level of social communication. Ethnographic investigation of communication networks and communicative norms at this level is needed before we can specify in more detail how language usage relates to the macro-sociological categories of caste, class, role, and the like." 4 2 The achievement of the Labov-Trudgill approach may be stated quite briefly and definitely: it has quantified certain relationships, which were already "known" to exist. Thus, it has confirmed the relationships inherent in traditional dialect research between the use of traditional vernacular and the class, residence, sex and age of the informants. Hiihnert-Hofmann, for instance, has observed that dialectology has always used sociological methods (simple, empirical, sociological methods) from the very outset. 43 More specifically, Strang notes that there is ''... a high degree of correlation between working-class status and the use of a localised variety of English - much higher than the degree of correlation between non-working-class status and the use of a non-localised variety of English." 44 It is important to establish this point for the validation of many studies. 4 5 The correlation between regional dialect and sociolect may not be valid everywhere, 46 but in many areas it is. One factor involved is no doubt the low mobility of working-class speakers in the past. 47 To summarise, the Labov-Trudgill sociolinguistic approach to dialectology is a valid means of quantifying relationships between language and certain social variables. It might be suggested that the relationships thus quantified to date are trivial, but that would be to underrate the achievement. Linguistics will never become a science
52 without a measure of mathematical exactness. I have also indicated directions of development which look promising for the future. In particular, however, the view has been expressed here that some of the claims made by Trudgill for the Labovian approach are overenthusiastic to the point of being untenable. Most importantly, it has been indicated that the Labovian approach does not serve the same purpose as others. Whilst a range of styles will no doubt successfully be elicited, this is simply not the way to elicit the most traditional vernacular, nor to describe, say, syntax. No wonder that sociolinguists think that traditional vernacular is dying out so rapidly! Because the Labovian approach does not serve the same purposes as other approaches, aspersions cast upon the latter are out of place. At this stage in the history of the discipline, a measure of theoretical and methodological tolerance would not come amiss. There is room for a variety of approaches to dialectology.
Notes
1. See Reah (1982: 1-13 ). 2. Cp. Reah (1982: 1). 3. I have suggested elsewhere that this excessive commitment to one school of thought results in a lack of historical perspective with regard to the history of the discipline - see Shorrocks (1983: 32-4 ). 4. This examination of sociolinguistic methodology is based upon work in Shorrocks (1981), see especially pp. 40-54. 5. The main reference is Labov (1966). 6. Brook (1968:17). 7. Wright (1966: 235). Cp. further Trudgill (1974a: 2, 4, 20ff; and Trudgill (1974b: 38ff) "Was it, in other words, legitimate or worthwhile to apply the methods of traditional rural dialectology to large urban areas? The answer was eventually seen to be 'No'." 8. Trudgill (1974a: 2). We are reminded, however, that heterogeneity is not restricted to urban populations: "Rural dialectologists, too, can be accused of having neglected the heterogeneity that is present even in rural speech communities." (ibid, 4). 9. Ibid, 4. 10. Ibid, 20. 11. Ibid, 20ff. 12 . Trudgill (1974b: 39). 13. Ibid, 39. 14. P~hlsson (1971: 2 57 -71). 15. Ibid, 271. 16. Cp. Trudgill (1974a: 4). 17 . See Shorrocks (1981: 488-679, 688-90). See also Shorrocks (1982a, 1982b ). 18. The notions purpose and theory are not altogether separable. Whilst the theory of a subject undoubtedly determines the research undertaken, both by indicating problem areas and by suggesting appropriate procedures for collecting and analysing data, there are choices
53 to be made that probably owe more to the researcher's interests and purpose(s) than anything else; theory may indicate a variety of problems and permit a variety of approaches (Shorrocks (1981: para. 1.1.1)); alternatively, the researcher may be working on problems outside the scope of current theory, especially in a science which is not yet highly developed, such as linguistics. In both cases, the researcher's interests and purposes may be of paramount importance. More obviously, it is possible for a researcher to wish to produce, say, a historical study for specific historical purposes, or a comparative study for use in education, or a detailed synchronic study for use in speech therapy, and so on. In short, the linguist's purpose is part of his frame of reference. A frame of reference precedes any study. See further Shorrocks (1981: 28-33 ). 19. He seems to do this when he writes that purely descriptive studies increase the body of data available to linguists, but do not have any bearing on theoretical problems. Cp. Tiudgill (197 4a: 3f). 20. What George Lakoff has said about exotic languages and formal descriptions is not irrelevant to dialectology. He observed that "theorising is more glamorous these days than doing careful descriptive work. I think that is unfortunate. Linguistic description is still an art, and is not likely to become a science for a long time to come. Unfortunately it is an art that has begun to die just at the time when it should be flourishing most." The reason why we should not wish to tie data too closely to formal theories is that "no linguistic theory is anywhere near adequate to deal with most facts. What is wrong with formal descriptions is that they only allow for those facts that happen to be able to be dealt with by the given formalism." Consequently "at this time in history, any description of a language that adheres strictly to some formal theory will not describe most of what is in the language." As such theories become outmoded, descriptions based on them become "increasingly less useful". It would therefore be desirable to return "to the tradition of informal descriptions of exotic languages, written whenever possible in clear prose rather than in formal rules, so that such descriptions will still be useful and informative when present theories are long forgotten." See Lakoff (197 3: 3ff). 21. Williams (1972: 111). 22. Mcintosh (1961: 85 ). 23. Ibid., 86. 24. Ibid, 86. 25. Cp. Shorrocks (1981: para. 0.4). 26. Viereck (1966). 27. Viereck (1968: 563, especially footnote 64). 28. Cp. Shorrocks (1981: para. 1.1.1.8 and the ensuing phonology and grammar). 29. It is true that linguistic differences have communicative import, but this fact does not nullify the basic argument just advanced: those differences can only be meaningful within a framework of agreed conventions. 30. When attitudes to dialect are negative, or when people have been persecuted on account of the way in which they speak, it is precisely the speaker of a low-prestige variety who may well refuse an interview to a stranger. Cp. further Shorrocks (1981: para. 2.2.3 ). 31. Gumperz (1971: 54). 32. Trudgill (1974a: 26). 33. Cp. Houck (1967: 13 ).
54 34. Cp. Trudgill (1974a: 51ff); Houck (1967: 14). 3 5. Even then it is questionable whether humorous anecdotes and suchlike, which may well be partially set in form, are really the type of sp eech that one should be eliciting. Cp. Shorrocks (1981: para. 1.2.1.3). 36. Mcintosh (1961: 104ff) writes that " ... no evidence is more directly important than that assembled in a set of adequate dialect descriptions." 37. Trudgill (1974b: 43). 38. Cp. Lakoffs comments about theories failing to account for appreciable ponions of linguistic data, cited in footnote 20, above. 39. Cp. Trudgill (1974b: 43, 45 ). 40. For a preliminary report, see Pellowe, Nixon, Strang and McNeany (1972). 41. Gumperz (1971: 342). 42. Ibid. 342ff. 43. Cp. Hiihnert-Hofmann (1968: 3 ). 44. Strang (1968: 791). 45. E.g. Shorrocks (1981: 53). 46. Cp. Platt and Platt (1975: 51). 47. Cp. Shorrocks (1981: para. 0.4).
References Brook, G L (1968): "The Future of English Dialect Studies", Leeds Studies in English, N .S. ii, 15-22. Gumperz, J J (1971): Language in Social Groups. Essays by john]. Gumperz. Selected and Introduced by Anwar S Dil, Stanford. Houck, C L (1967): " Methodology of an Urban Speech Survey." Typescript, Institute of Dialect and Folk Life Studies, School of English, University of Leeds. Hiihnert-Hofmann, E (1968): "Soziologie und Mundartforschung", in: W Mitzka (ed.) Wortgeographie und Gesellschaft ( = Festgabe furL E Schmitt), Berlin, pp.3-9. Labov, W (1966): The Social Stratification of English in New York City, Washington. Lakoff, G (1973): Interview with Herman Parrett. Reproduced by Linguistic Agency University of Trier, D-55, Trier. Mcintosh, A (1961): An Introduction to a Survey of Scottish Dialects, Edinburgh. Pahlsson, C (1971): "A Sociolinguistic Questionnaire for English Dialectology", Zeitschrift fur Dialektologie und Linguistik, 38, 257-71. Pellow, J, G Nixon, B Strang and V McNeany (1972): "A Dynamic Modelling of Linguistic Variation: The Urban (Tyneside) Linguistic Survey", Lingua, 30, 1-30. Platt, ] T and H K Platt (1975 ): The Social Significance of Speech. An Introduction to and Workbook in Sociolinguistics. Series: North Holland Linguistics, Amsterdam and Oxford. Reah, K (1982): "The Labovian Interview: A Reappraisal", Lore and Language, vol. 3, no. 7, 1-13.
55 Shorrocks, G (1981): A Grammar ofthe Dialect ofFarnworth and District (Greater Manchester County, Formerly Lancashire), Ph.D. thesis, University of Sheffield, 1980. Published in microform and xerographic form by University Microfilms International, 1981, ref. no. 81-70,023. Shorrocks, G (1982a): "Affirmative and Negative Panicles in the Dialect of Farnworth and District", Quinquereme - new studies in modern languages, vol. 5, no. 2, 221-25 . Shorrocks, G (1982b): "Relative Pronouns and Relative Clauses in the Dialect of Farnworth and District (Greater Manchester County, Formerly Lancashire)", Zeitschrift fur Dialektologie und Linguistik IL. Jahrgang, Heft 3, 334-43. Shorrocks, G (1983 ): Review of K M Petyt, The Study of Dialect: An Introduction to Dialectology, London, journal of the Lancashire Dialect Society, no. 32, 32-4. Strang, B M H (1968): "The Tyneside Linguistic Survey", in L E Schmitt (ed.), Verhandlungen des Zweiten Internationalen Dialektologenkongresses, II, 788-94 = Zeitschnft fur Mundartforschung, Beihefte, Neue Folge 4, Wiesbaden. Trudgill, P (1974a): The Social Differentiation of English in Norwich, Cambridge. Trudgill, P (1974b ): Sociolinguistics: An Introduction, Harmondswonh. Viereck, W (1966): Phonematische Analyse des Dialekts von Gateshead-upon-Tjne!Co. Durham, Hamburg. Viereck, W (1968): 'Englische Dialektologie", in: L E. Schmitt (ed.), Germanische Dialektologie, II, 542-64 = Festschnft fur Walther Mitzka zum 80. Geburtstag = Zeitschnft fur Mundartforschung, Beihefte, Neue Folge 6, Wiesbaden. Williams, F (1972): Language and Speech, Englewood Cliffs (NJ.). Wright, J T (1966): "Urban Dialects: A Consideration of Method", Zeitschnft fur Mundartforschung, 33, 232-47.
56 The Lost Slinfold Bell: Some Functions of a Local Legend
Jacqueline Simpson
British folklorists have, until recently, been notoriously more keen to collect material than to consider its structure, context and function, though often only too willing to speculate about origins. Among many neglected areas, one which currently intrigues me is the function(s) of local legends, particularly those which include a strong supernatural or fantastic element which nevertheless is not a matter for serious belief - such motifs as the rock-hurling Devil, the mountain-shaping giant, dragon-slaying and so on. One function is indeed obvious and frequently remarked upon, namely the aetiological (either in the topographical or in the onomastic sense); there are also motifs which are clearly didactic, e.g. in tales about dancers turned to stone. Yet these are only partial answers. Moral lessons are not always present at the level of overt meaning, though sometimes they can be uncovered at a deeper level by processes of symbolical and structural decoding. 1 As for the aetiological impulse, it explains why there is a story attached to the locality, but not why the story embodies this or that particular motif, let alone why certain motifs are so popular that storytellers transmit them from one site to another through many generations. And what of stories which do not explain any natural feature or man-made object, nor even a placename, yet recur in many places? There must be some factor accounting for their appeal, since a widespread recurrent item of folklore is unlikely to be a mere nonsense, a mere arbitrary flight of fancy. In this article, I will explore a Sussex legend of the category ML 7070 "Legends about Church Bells", containing as its main motifs V 115.1 "church bell sunk in river or sea" and V 115.1.3 "church bell cannot be raised because silence is broken". The first matter to be considered is the versions of the tale that have appeared in print, all of which are close to their oral sources and mercifully free from literary ' 'improvements''. The site is a field, formerly very boggy, by a bridge called Alfoldene or Alfold Dean which crosses the Arun north of Slinfold (TQ 13 ). The story was first printed in the memoirs of the Horsham folksinger Henry Burstow (born 1826), written in his old age; he mentions it in the course of a chapter on bellringing, which was one of his greatest Interests: I sometimes on these journeys walked Nowhurst way for a change, a fact that recalls to my mind an old legend of the district. It is said that in the time of the Roman occupation of Britain a huge bell, cast in Rome and intended for York Minster, was being carried from Chichester up Stane Street - the old Roman road that passes along west of Slinfold - when
57 it fell into a bog, from which the people were unable to rescue it, and it sank. It remained buried for centuries, its fate traditionally surviving down to mediaeval times when witches prospered. One of them, it is said, told the people how to get the bell up again. They were to yoke a certain number of pure white heifers together, and these, by means of a long chain fixed to the bell (I don't know how the chain was to be fixed to the sunken bell; perhaps the old witch undertook to do that), would pull it up alright provided no-one spoke during the operation. The old witch's instructions were being carried out, the heifers pulled well, and had almost got the bell to a place of safety, when one man, who thought the job complete, sang out, "We now have got the Nowhurst Bell, in spite of all the devils in hell." Immediately the chain broke, the bell sank back into the bog, and there it remains to this day. 2
The next printed reference comes in a letter in a local journal in 1943, based on statements from two old men who had died in the early 1930s:
I have often been told the story of Rudgwick Church bell during the twenty-five years I have been here. The following version was told me by old John Pullen, one of the bellringers at Rudgwick Church, who died in 1931. He said: "One of the bells of Rudgwick Church is buried in the marshy ground near Roman Gate on the north side of the river (Arun) and west of Stane Street. It was being taken to Rudgwick, when the cart-ride slipped and the bell rolled into the swamp. Someone said they would have to get white oxen to draw it out, and no-one must speak when it was being pulled out. This was done, but when the oxen began to pull, somebody spoke, the devils gave an extra hard tug and the ropes broke, and the bell rolled back into the marsh, and there it remaineth unto this day." Presumably the cart was proceeding along Stane Street from the south to Rowhook where the old road to Rudgwick joined it.
A man who has lived at Rudgwick all his life gave me another version, as told by a man named Edwards who died about ten years ago at the age of ninety or more. In this a witch said the bell could be got up if no-one spoke. They got a tripod rigged up and dropped chains into the hole and lifted the bell out and were sliding a plank under it, when one of the men said:
"In spite of all the devils in hell, We have got the Alfoldean great bell,''
and with that the plank broke and the bell sank back into the marsh. 3
It is interesting to notice that one of the informants cited was, like Burstow, a bellringer, and hence professionally interested in bells; it is also probably relevant to the popularity of the legend that there were bell foundries at the nearby town of Horsham from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries.
58 ------
The third printed source is a newspaper report in 1965 of an interview with a certain Stephen Peacock, then aged 78, who had heard the story from his father, who had died in 1911 at the age of 82. The elder Peacock in turn had learnt it from an old carter, Pete Greenfield, so the chain of oral transmission reaches far back into the nineteenth century. The newspaper gives plenty of detail about the precise site and about archaeological evidence for Roman and Saxon activity in the area, and then conunues: How the bell - whether a church bell or not is in doubt - got into the bog is unknown. And the folk of those days also didn't know how to get it out. Mr Peacock told our correspondent: "They went to a cunning 'ooman (a witch), and she told them that if they got twelve white oxen and went to the spot at midnight, they could rescue the bell. But no-one was to say a word, or speak. So, the story goes, one night they went with 12 white oxen when they hooked on to the bell in the bog. Then just as the oxen drew the old bell to the top of the bog, one of the men shouted out: 'We've got the Alfold Dene gurt bell, In spite of all the devils in hell.' At that moment the chain which held it broke, the bell slipped back, and they never got it after all." 4 The correspondence which arose from this news item showed that other local people knew the story too, and some of them were ready to think that there must be something in it. A Mr J.W. Clifton was so enthusiastic about it that he organised efforts in 1971 and 1972 to locate and dig up the bell. First came a dowser, inJune 1971, who claimed to perceive a large bronze bell lying on its side; however, an archaeologist using a metal detector in August obtained numerous light reactions indicating a wide scatter of metallic rubbish in the area of the filled-in swamp, and when he dug found only a lump of iron. In November 1972 members of a treasure hunting club had another go with detectors; one said there was nothing around but rubbish, but the other suspected a large metal object about eight feet down. So far no-one has been willing to dig for it, though Mr Clifton told me by letter (15.10. 75) that he still hoped to persuade someone to try. 5 This episode shows a typical present-day attitude to legends. Ignoring their fantastic elements, people concentrate on trying to find a factual historical base which can be proved, as if the tale were an ingenious clue to a detective story. Impressed by its close topographical fit, they naturally assume that it is a unique product of local tradition and are unaware of parallels elsewhere in Britain and abroad. Even if they were told of the parallels, they might well think them unimportant; after all, they "only" concern non-realistic elements (e.g. the role of the witch, the taboos), and these they regard as fanciful accretions round a core of fact - the real loss of a real bell. But to folklorists the search for a factual basis looks hopeless; we know all too
59 well how quickly and thoroughly migratory tales take on a set of local references which act as authenticating devices and/or expressions of local pride, but are no guarantee of factuality. What then are the wider functions of tales of lost bells? A few provide placename aetiologies (Bell Hole, Bell Field etc.). Donald Ward, discussing German examples, made a more generally applicable comment: "Such legends have an affinity with treasure legends because they deal with valuable lost objects, guarded in this case - as are treasures - by demonic beings .... That it sank in a lake that is virtually bottomless stresses the element of its being nearly irretrievable." 6 Viewed from this perspective, a lost bell legend would be a fantasy about hidden wealth, ending with the wry admission that fate will always stop ordinary people from having such luck. The moral (which could be parallelled in many British treasure tales) could be expressed in some such phrase as "It's there, but it's not for the likes of us." On the other hand, when Reidar Th. Christiansen classified Norwegian sunken bell legends he stressed those where the bell actively protests at being removed from a church where it belongs, breaking loose from the hands of those who are carrying it off and sinking into a lake, bog or river. 7 Here the point is a warning against sacrilegious theft, and a tribute to the miraculous powers of sacred objects. There is an excellent example of this story-pattern at Bosham Harbour in Sussex, and others elsewhere in Britain; the villains are Vikings at Bosham, but elsewhere they can be Reformation Puritans, Cromwell's men, or unspecified "robbers", for the motif can easily be adapted to fit local history and the prejudices of each narrator. 8 Often, the bell not only sinks itself but sinks a boat and drowns its captors: the moral lesson is clear. Often, though not invariably, the legend has a second part, dealing with the failure of a later attempt to retrieve the bell, and this too is an exemplum, directed against swearing - the rope breaks when the devil is mentioned, sometimes in the same couplet as at Slinfold. The man who swears is sometimes crushed by the bell as it rolls back into the depths;9 even in the milder instances where it only sinks out of reach, the event symbolises the punishment of blasphemy. The Slinfold narrators seem more conscious of the taboo on speaking than of the particular sinfulness of swearing, so it is fairer to say that the present-day moral of the legend here is a warning against rash optimism and boasting ("Don't count your chickens ... " is the implication). However, in earlier and stricter generations it could well have been an exemplum against swearing. Such a function would fit well into the bellringing context to which two of the versions belong; there was a rule, often enforced by fines, forbidding ringers to swear at their work. Moral considerations can explain why the Slinfold legend ends with the definitive loss of the bell, but not why it was lost in the first instance. Christiansen's explanation does not apply here, for no-one was stealing or forcibly removing it; it was simply being transported by well-intentioned men towards the church where it ought to
60 hang. It seems to offend against natural justice that a bell should, in these circumstances, fall into a swamp. Is the incident a meaningless, arbitrary piece of bad luck? Or have the storytellers spoilt the tale by forgetting the right opening for it? No, for there are enough parallels to show that this opening was an acceptable one, even if not as common as the "stolen bell" motif. Thus, there is the story of the Kentsham Bell, lost overboard when being unloaded at the end of a Channel crossing on its way to an English church; 10 a closely similar tale about the bells of Forraby (Cornwall); 11 one from Whitnash (Warwickshire), taken down for re-casting and then lost down a well during the reconsecration ceremony. 12 Nor should one forget Iris Murdoch's powerful literary handling of the motif; her bell, it will be recalled, crashes dramatically off a causeway into a lake while it is being taken in procession to the Abbey where it is to be installed. 13 "Bell lost in transit" does not carry such a clear moral lesson as "stolen bell protests against its removal", yet its recurrence proves that it must convey some sort of symbolic logic, some inner harmony, which tellers and hearers find satisfactory, even if it cannot be expressed on the level of rationality or didactic ethics. The key, I suggest, lies in the concept of rites of passage, and the associated concept of liminality. A bell on its way to consecration is like a person on the way to baptism, ordination or initiation; it is about to undergo a ritual elevation of status involving a transition from the profane sphere to the sacred sphere. But a candidate ripe for status elevation is no longer safe in the profane world, to which he no longer rightfully belongs; until he has been ritually sealed into his new status and reintegrated with this world, he is spiritually vulnerable to attacks from the hostile aspects of the Otherworld. The unbaptized baby, the unchurched mother, the unburied corpse are all spiritually and magically at risk, according to folk beliefs in Christian countries; there is no need here to refer to examples from other cultures, for the principle is well known. 14 A bell is particularly prone to spiritual danger since its eventual role, if all goes well, is not to be reintegrated into the mundane world (as is, say, a bride or an initiate at puberty), but to remain permanently in the sacred sphere as a "mediating bridge" (like a priest). What Edmund Leach says of buildings applies equally to the bells inside them: Religious practice .... is concerned with establishing a mediating bridge between 'this world' and 'the other' through which the omnipotent power of deity may be channelled to bring aid to impotent men.... The mediating bridge is represented, in a material sense, by 'holy places' which are both in this world and not in this world - e.g. churches which are said to be 'the House of God.' 15 The Anglican hymn quoted in Iris Murcoch's novel puts the point well: Lift it gently to the steeple, Let our bell be set on high,
61 There fulfill its daily mission Midway 'twixt the earth and sky. But though the bell's destined home is "on high", it also has links with "lowness", symbolising the dangerous, demonic aspects of the Otherworld. It was underground, in a bell-founder's pit, that the undifferentiated mass of metal taken from the "profane" world was melted down and cast into the form appropriate to its sacred role. Until this sacredness has been confirmed by the dedication rite which consecrates the bell to God's service, and until it has been safely hung in its steeple, there is a risk that it might "go the other way"; it is in a marginal state, an unstable condition which puts it in danger itself and makes it a potential danger to others. In German traditional tales and beliefs this is quite consciously and explicitly expressed; the consecration of the bell is called its baptism, and, in the words of the Handworterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens, "The unconsecrated bell is subject to the power of the Devil." 16 British legends, however, only convey their meaning through images - waggons overturning, boats sinking, bells rolling downhill into water. These symbols are found not only when the bells are lost during their rite of passage but also in the stories about those forcibly brought down from their steeples and carried away. Here, men who think they can drag the sacred down to their own level and use it for their own ends learn too late that this is not possible for long - if it is not "on high" it will go "below", to the malevolent chthonic sphere. This message is conveyed through a code that depends on spatial contrasts; it could be diagrammatically shown thus: Normal GROUND LEVEL HORIZONTAL Secular /\
Abnormal Z\ I UP .,..~t------1._~ DOWN NOT GROUND Sacred (taboo) LEVEL Holy Demoniacal
Material topography readily supplies symbols through which metaphysical concepts can be expressed. One common model of metaphysical relations is thus defined by Leach: "This World and the Other World are conceived of as separate topographical spaces separated by a liminal zone which partakes of the qualities of both." 17 This zone is an ambiguous boundary, associated with timelessness, abnormality, reversals and confusions of categories; it is a home for non-humans and for the dead; it is the site of ritual activities, and the behaviour of those entering or approaching it is controlled by taboos, breach of which can bring disaster. In terms of British lore, one thinks of crossroads, churchyards, "bottomless" pools, mounds, patches of no man's-land, gates and stiles, rivers, fairy rings, parish boundaries, etc.; any of these
62 can function, in the context of a legend, custom or magical ritual, as a potnt of intersection between this world and the other. 18
The site of the Slinfold story is rich in liminal symbolism. The road from the south, the A29, crosses the Arun by Alfoldene Bridge and then forms aT-junction (a trivium) with the A281 Horsham-to-Guildford road; in earlier centuries this would have been a proper crossroads, for the old course of Stane Street (which the present A29 follows as far as the junction) continued in a straight line northeastwards. The area just south of Alfoldene Bridge has long been regarded as the end of one stage in the journey between London and the sea; there was a staging-post here in Roman times (hence the name Roman Gate), and in more recent centuries a tollgate, and a tollhouse which was only demolished in the 1930s. The A29 itself is an unnaturally straight road, thanks to its Roman origins; such roads were felt to be rather eerie, as can be seen from the nickname Devzl's Road given to a different stretch of Stane Street further north. A parish boundary follows the river to within a hundred yards of the bridge. The swampy area which formerly existed near the bridge supplies the downward direction appropriate to a symbolic entrance to the hostile Otherworld. Chance finds of Roman pottery and similar relics serve as a link with the remote past. In short, if a numinous object is to vanish into the Otherworld, this is an ideal spot for it to do so.
The second part of the Slinfold story, describing the abortive attempt to rescue the bell, is also much illuminated by use of the concept of liminality. First, as to the person who fills the role of ritual expert, this is not, as one might naively expect, a representative of Christian spiritual power, such as a saint, priest or exorcist; it is a spiritually and socially ambiguous female figure. Burstow calls her an old witch, Edwards a witch; Peacock uses the politer term "cunning woman", but he or the journalist adds "witch" in parenthesis; Pullen merely says that "someone" told the villagers what to do. Instead of a dualistic confrontation between representatives of the Heavenly and the chthonic realms, the story more subtly presents a mediator who is herself a marginal figure - marginal in virtue of her femininity, her old age, her presumable low socioeconomic status (conventionally associated with the term "witch"), and her skill in the suspect arts of magic, which could either help or harm the community. Although she is working on behalf of the community, she is not fully a member of it; she belongs to the ambiguous liminal zone and has many links with the darker side of the Otherworld. 19
Although the witch herself is thus a mediator whose characteristics are drawn chiefly from the "lower" sphere, the rules she lays down for recovering the bell are chiefly associated, by their symbolism, with the "high" sphere. The dominant one is the whiteness of the heifers or oxen mentioned by three out of the four informants; this of course stands for purity, as Burstow explicitly says, and it is no doubt also significant that heifers are young unmated cows, and oxen are castrated beasts. Temporary or
63 permanent abstention from sexuality is regularly associated with holy power and holy acts in Christian tradition (and elsewhere too, of course). Peacock's version stipulates twelve oxen, and twelve is a Christian holy number; on the other hand, he also specifies the liminal hour of midnight, which points the other way, since this is the typical time for unwelcome manifestations of the supernatural. Silence, mentioned by all informants, is in itself an ambiguous element, since it can be a feature of both good and evil rituals; 20 in the present case, however, it should be put on the "high" side of the equation, if only because the words which so disastrously break the silence are unmistakably to be classified as "low" by their mention of devils. These words, uttered while the bell is still in a precarious transitional stage at the very boundary between the lower world and the "normal" "secular" sphere of level ground, enable the "low" Otherworld to reclaim its prey. In the graphic concrete imagery of Pullen's version, "the devils gave an extra hard tug and the ropes broke." The attempt to construct a rite de passage in reverse has failed. Various parallel bell legends elsewhere may use slightly varying imagery, but the message is the same. At Bosham, for instance, the attempt to recover the stolen bell from the harbour is usually said to fail because of a single black hair on the tail of one of the pure white horses or white oxen required. One recent storyteller, however, employs the silence taboo, interestingly combined with a sexist taboo: "The parson has decreed that no woman's voice must be heard, but just as it broke surface came a woman's joyful screech, 'Oop she comes!' -and down she went, and down she stayed." 2 1 Bosham is very much a seafaring village, and sailors' superstitious dread of women is well known. On the other hand, the mention of the parson suggests a Christian interpretation. Until very recently, tradition in the more conservative branches of the Church regarded any active participation of women in ritual as polluting, and devised rules to make their presence in church as unobtrusive as possible: they must keep their heads covered, must not sing in choirs, or serve as acolytes, or preach, or enter the sanctuary area beyond the altar rails. Here, then, we have a version where the struggle to save the bell is a straightforward confrontation between the representative of holiness, the parson, and the chthonic powers; the woman's disastrous intervention tips the balance. It is a clearer story than the Slinfold one, but not so rich. Another interesting variant was recorded by Mrs Leather from Marden in Herefordshire. 22 There, the bell must be drawn up from a river by white freemartins, which are not (as Mrs Leather apparently thought) ordinary heifers, but sterile and partly hermaphroditic freak female cattle, born as twins to bull-calves. In this case, the element of ritual sexlessness is particularly clear, and so too is the connection between abnormality and magical power. In the end, for whatever reason of ritual failure, the lost bells remain lost. But not wholly so. It is the essence of a bell that its voice serves as a "mediating bridge", and this remains its function even after it has reversed its position from the "high" Otherworld to the "low" one. The vast majority of bell legends end with some variant
64 ------
of the notion that at certain times the bell can still be heard ringing in the depths. At Slinfold, however, th is feature is usually lackin g, possibly because the swamp has b een filled in. Eventually, to m y pleasure, one oral informant supplied it to m e (unprompted), albeit in a rationalistic form: " The bell used to be heard, they say, but it was only gas bubbles exploding underground." 23 If my analysis is accepted, it follows that the legends of lost bells owe their inner coherence, and hence their aesthetic appeal, to a coded message about the relationship of the secular and the sacred. They are structured round a set of metaphoric equivalences in which "level ground" is equated with "normal" and "secular", while "high" and "low" are both equated with "sacred", this latter concept being divided into a benevolent/Heavenly and a malevolent/demonic layer. The action is a tug-of war in the liminal zone, and the final message (which is the same in both "bell in transit" and "stolen bell" types) is that secular society has no power to retain or control sacred objects. This meaning is not consciously perceived by tellers or hearers, for whom the moral of the story (if any) would consist in the open, reasonable, surface messages: boasting is foolish, swearing is wrong, sacrilegious theft is wrong, treasures are inaccessible. These surface messages are quite compatible with the coded message; indeed, they are to some extent partial repetitions of it in more accessible terms. But it is the coded message which governs the apparently childish and fantastic motifs, so that they make sense at a subliminal level. Since they do thus make sense, they persist with remarkable toughness through many generations, spreading from place to place and acquiring in each place the appropriate historical and topographical trimmings to fit their new setting. Does the old message still reach the modern mind? I deliberately refrained from rereading Iris Murdoch's The Bell while working out this interpretation, for fear of being influenced -- I cannot of course know whether memories of past readings and of the television adaptation helped to shape my thoughts. When I eventually looked at her novel again, I found that she had "read" whatever legend she used as her starting point in much the same way as I have proposed, though naturally there are many additional factors involved, particularly on the level of Freudian and Jungian symbolism. In her book, two bells are concerned, one mediaeval and one modern. The first has long been lost, and is the subject of a legend that it "flew like a bird out of the tower and fell into the lake" when an unchaste nun refused to confess her sin (ch.3). I know of no parallel to this motif; it may be Murdoch's own invention, since confessing is a major theme in her plot. This bell is found, and raised from the lake at night at the suggestion of Dora, who sees herself as "playing the witch" ( ch.15) -- a clear allusion to the role of a witch in many bell legends, including the Slinfold one. The second bell, the modern replica of the lost old one, is destined for the Abbey; its consecration is called a baptism, and it is explicitly compared on several occasions to a postulant approaching the Abbey gates. Its fall into the lake coincides with the hysterical collapse of the neurotic postulant Catherine, and is due
65 ------
to malicious sabotage by her twin brother Nick (ch.25). Nick's name, with its diabolical associations, is no coincidence; the adjectives "demonic" and "devilish" are discreetly but significantly applied to him. He kills himself, leaving a trail of emotional havoc behind him; his action has, among other things, dragged his would-be "Heavenly" sister (who is repeatedly symbolically associated with the bell) to his own dark level. Finally, Murdoch's response to the basic message of bell legends comes out clearly in a passage in ch.22, where Dora guiltily contemplates the bell she has rescued: When she thought how she had drawn it out of the lake and lifted it back into its own airy element she was amazed and felt suddenly unworthy. How could the great bell have suffered her to drag it here so unceremoniously and make it begin its new life in a outhouse? She should not have tampered with it. She ought by rights to be afraid of it. She was afraid of it. ... She had thought to be its master and make it her plaything, but now it was mastering her and would have its will. Murdoch's finale is ironic. The numinous medieval bell ends up in the prosaic care of the British Museum; its modern replica is unceremoniously hauled out of the lake and hustled into the Abbey; only its unhappy human surrogate, Catherine, remains in the depths of her madness, summoning Michael to her aid. This powerful novel proves beyond doubt that the legend of a sunken bell still communicates its hidden meanings to a modern mind.
Notes
1. See my "Beyond Etiology: Intepreting Local Legends", forthcoming in Fabula, for analysis of a hill-formation legend-pattern found at the Devil's Dyke (Sussex) and the Wrekin (Shropshire). 2. Henry Burstow, Reminiscences ofHorsham (Horsham, 1911), pp.100-l. Various names are given to the bell; Burstow calls it "Nowhurst", and Pullen "Rudgwick", from villages nearby; but other informants "Alfoldean", from the bridge. The commonest name nowadays is "Slinfold Bell" (see the newspaper items cited in n . 5 ), so I have adopted this. 3. Letter from Spencer D. Secretan, Sussex County Magazine 17 (194 3 ), 29-30. 4. West Sussex Gazette, July 15, 1965. See also correspondence, August 26, 1965, and December 17 , 1970. 5. West Sussex Gazette, July 1, 1971; August 19, 1971; November 9, 1972. Evening Argus, November 8, 1972. 6. Donald Ward, ed. and trans. , The German Legends of the Brothers Grimm (Los Angeles and London, 1981), I, pp.376, annotating legend no. 203. 7. R.Th. Christiansen, The Migratory Legends, FFC 175 (Helsinki, 1958). The ascribed number is ML 7070. 8. For the Bosham story, see J . Simpson, The Folklore of Sussex (London, 197 3 ), pp.20-21, and refs. given there. Other instances of this taletype are given in Katharine M . Briggs, A Dictionary ofBn"tish Folk-Tales in the English Language, Pan B, Vol. 2, pp.158-9, 389-90. Also). Simpson, The Folklore of the Welsh Border (London, 1976), pp.24- 5.
66 9. At Rostherne in Cheshire, for instance; see Egenon Leigh, Ballads and Legends of Cheshire (1866), pp. 233-5, 278-9. Also Briggs, op. cit., Part B, Vol. 2, p.132. 10. E.S. Hartland, English Folk and Fairy Tales (London, 1890), pp.204-5. 11. Raben Hunt, Popular Romances of the West of England (London, 1865 ), p.438. 12 . Roy Palmer, The Folklore of "Warwickshire (London, 1976), p.39, summarising F.W. Hackwood, Olden Warwickshire: Its History, Lore and Legends (Birmingham, 1921), p.16. 13. Iris Murdoch, The Bell (London, 1958). 14 . A . Van Gennep, Les Rites de Passage (Paris, 1909; trans., London, 1960). There is a useful schematic presentation in Edmund Leach, Culture and Communication (Cambridge, 1976), pp.33-6, 77-9. 15 . Leach, op. cit., p. 71. 16. III 869, s.v. Glacken. 17. Leach, op. cit. , p .82. See also M. Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane (New York, 1959). 18. The most recent discussion is Wayland D. Hand, "Boundaries and Portals" (Katharine M. Briggs Lecture no. 2, published by the Folklore Society, 1983 ). See also A . Rees and B. Rees, Celtic Heritage (paperback reprint, London 1978), pp.94, 203, 342-51. Some local examples are collected in Thea Brown, "The Triple Gateway", Folklore 77 (1966), 123-31, and in B.C. Spooner, "The Haunted Stile", Folklore 79 (1968), 135-9. The types of site regarded in this way are much the same in most European countries; see the excellent analysis of Romanian examples in Gail Kligman, Calus: Symbolic Transformation in Romanian Ritual (Chicago and London, 1981), pp.l14-16. 19. The mediating figure is similarly inferior and marginal in the legends I discuss in the article mentioned in n.1 above. But this is cenainly not always the case; in legends about ghost-laying, for instance, spiritual power is exened by the male authority-figure, the parson. 20. Gail Kligman (op. cit. , 118) sees ritual silence as essentially a mark of deference and caution, expressing the inferiority of humans in the presence of otherworldly powers. 21. Allen Chandler, Chichester Harbour (n.d ., about 1980), pp.39-40; his informant was a retired harbourmaster from nearby ltchenor. 22 . E.M. Leather, The Folk-Lore of Herefordshire (London, 1912), pp.168-9. 23. Oral informant to]. Simpson, 1977.
67 A Selection of Proverbial Material from ''Tail Corn''
J.B. Smith I am indebted to the Editors of The Countryman for their permission to publish a selection of proverbial material from "Tail Corn", a column which appeared over a number of decades, but has recently almost petered out, apparently for lack of suitable contributions. The offerings printed in "Tail Corn" were essentially short, pithy rural sayings as overheard by subscribers to The Countryman with an ear for the well-formed, vigorous phrase and colourful image. What many contributors did not realise, however, was that a good number of the sayings were far from original: as often as not they have a remarkably long pedigree, which I have where possible attempted to trace or comment on in the notes which follow the selection. Continuity does not necessarily mean invariability, of course, or a lack of creativity. There are many signs of the successful adaptation that the Opies have referred to in The Lore and Language ofSchoolchtldren as "wear and repair during transmission" and of metamorphosis, as when story survives as proverb, or proverb turns into put off. In spite of the vagueness about informants and localities, there are also tantalising glimpses of regional variation. And finally, the emergence of imagery based on relatively recent technology, as in my first example below, suggests that the stock of proverbial expressions is still being renewed, as well as repaired. The number of sayings printed in "Tail Corn" over the years must have run into thousands. In an attempt to demonstrate the range of proverbial material included and at the same time to keep this selection within reasonable bounds, I have arranged the items loosely according to theme, and have restricted myself to the period from 1968 to 1980. Mr Crispin Gill edited The Countryman, and "Tail Corn", during those years, and to him I am particularly grateful for the information and advice he gave me.
A. Proverbial Sayings 1. SOMERSET veteran watching teenager in very brief skirt: 'The Lard do try I something terrible these days. Whenever I sees one o' these 'ere mini-skirts, my 'eart do go like a drasher'. 71,1* 2. AGED retainer on Yorkshire farm, to farmer's 'little lass' in her new spring bonnet of flowers: 'Tha looks like an ullet [owlet] peepin' out of a louphole'. 71,1 3. NORFOLK man, of backward daughter: 'Poor mawther, she ain't got much above the ears. Even 'er mending do look as if she done it with 'ot needle and burnt thread'. 73,2
68 4 . NORFOLK farmer, watching lad's attempts to turn handle of old fashioned turnip-cutting machine: 'That be too hard for him - like tryin' to hold wind in a mitten'. 74,1 5. COTSWOLD waller, on receiving load of unsuitable stone: 'They be as big as bullocks' 'eads and as 'ard as Pharoah's 'eart'. 76,1 6. OLD CARTER, seeing rooks soaring on upward air currents, remarked, 'Look at they old rooks busy making willow baskets'. 79,2 7. LANCASHIRE MOTHER, to her son curled up with a book, 'Tha sits croodled up like a thrutched ullet'. (A young owl with its neck wrung.) 79,3 8. COMMENT on a Northumbrian labourer who received bad news in bed. 'He fell back aal of a heap, 'is eyes starin' and 'e's fingers ditherin' like a twitchy bell's nippers (earwig's forceps)'. 80,4 9. OCTOGENARIAN clockmaker, of unreliable timepiece: 'That one runs on cartwheels and haybands'. 75,1 10. YORKSHIREMAN, contemptuously surveying the loose weave of a cloth, 'You could riddle bulldogs through it!' 79,2 11. DORSET wife to convalescent husband who wants to know when he can get back to work in the garden: 'When the sun shines on both sides of the hedge'. 72,2 12. DERBYSHIRE FARMER, on hearing that a friend had been left a substantial legacy: 'By Guy, mester, that's better than a bob in t'eye wi' a thack-peg, any road round'. 82,3 13. CORNISH woman replying to a story whose veracity she doubted: 'Oh yes, and can 'ee see cabbidge a growin' on me faice?' 77,2 14. YORKSHIRE woman describing boy's appearance: 'His hair's calf- licked on both sides'. 7 7, 3 15. WELSHMAN, listening to an interview in Welsh on early morning radio: 'Duw, that Caernarfonshire accent is so strong, you could split slates on it'. 83,1 16. ESSEX SAYING: 'She's that downtrodden, she's loike a toad under a harrer'. 83,3 17. SUFFOLK GARAGE-OWNER whose wife had just dropped a spanner: 'She's as clumsy as a cow with a cup and saucer'. 84,2 18. YORKSHIRE dalesman to acquaintance quick to take offence: 'Nay, mister, thoo's shot afoor thoo's pulled t'trigger'. 75,1 19. WORCESTERSHIRE WOMAN about someone arriving in a hurry: 'Here he comes with his breath in his hand!' 82,2
69 20. OLD CHESHIRE COUNTRYWOMAN, coming up the garden path: 'Ay, I'm coming, slow and steady, like a donkey's gallop'. 85,3 21. SURREY woman commenting on over-dressed person: 'She looks as grand as a carrot half-scraped'. 77,1 22. NEW YORK expression for a bustling woman, 'She's the whole team and the dog under the wagon'. 79,3 23. CORNISH COMMENT on a woman who had a host of goods on hire-purchase: "Er goes to sea with a big sail and a rotten mast'. 81 ,3 24. YORKSHIRE woman, of early struggles to make ends meet: 'I had to be so careful, I'd skin a louse for its fat and liver'. 7 3,2 25. NORTH YORKSHIRE man speaking of miserly neighbours: 'They platt (plait) sawdust'. 84,3 26. YORKSHIRE woman commenting on the scanty dress of her grand-daughter: 'She leeaks that cauld in it you could grate a lemon anywhere on her, for gooseflesh'. 77,2 27. NOTTINGHAMSHIRE woman to child enthusiastically eating large stick of rock: 'Tha' ll be all bartled up an' as fat as a mowdywarp [mole] '. 76,4 28. GLOUCESTERSHIRE woman, of emaciated neighbour: 'Never was much to 'im, no more'n a rasher o' wind an' a fried snowball'. 76,2 29. CROFTER describing new minister who is painfully thin: 'Mon, I've seen more fat on a tinker's bicycle'. 71,1 30. HEARD IN ESSEX: 'Oad bones are snappin' an' crackin' loik sticks, an' I can't lift moi fut over a wheat straw'. 81,2 31. ESSEX WOMAN: 'Oi were that queer Oi han't got the strength to step over a wheat straw'. 8 3,1 32. ELDERLY HEREFORDSHIRE LADY, asked if her sister, who looked thin and ill, ate well: 'Ah! 'er eats well but 'er doesna praise her pastures!'. 85,1 33. LOWLAND Scots comment on village gossip: 'She spends a' her day gatherin' news, flittin' frae wan boose tae anither like a paper pawkie [bag] blawin' in the wind'. 71 ,2 34. HAMPSHIRE village gossip: 'She buzzes round the village like a dumble dore in a poppy head'. (A dumble dore is a bumble bee.) 79,2 35. SCOTTISH woman describing local gossip, 'She'd talk a gramophone to scrap iron, that one'. 78,2 36. SOMERSET woman, of talkative neighbour: 'She's all jaw, like a sheep's head'. 76,2
70 3 7. SHROPSHIRE man, of his friend's nagging wife: 'Poor owd Bill, he went all over th'orchard an' finished up wi' a crab'. 77,1 38. HENPECKED ULSTER HUSBAND, telling a friend what his wife had given him for tea the previous evening: 'Hot tongue and cold shoulder'. 85,3 39. LABOURER speaking of over-zealous wife: "Er be like Farmer Tregize's geese - always wanting to be where 'er baint'. 77,4 40. WELSH SUPERVISOR, of a voluntary helper: 'She's a good worker, don't get me wrong, but she's not quite twelve inches to the foot'. 84,2 41. HAMPSHIRE FARMWORKER describing a fellow: 'He's that dim- witted he don't know hay from a bull's foot'. 84,2 42. CORNISH WOMAN, describing some people who were a bit slow on the uptake: 'That vacant they be, they was put in wi' the bread and taken out wi' the cake'. 81,1 43. YORKSHIRE woman on her neighbours: 'She's as daft as Kittle- Harry, and he's as queer as Dick's hat-band'. 71,2 44. COTSWOLD villager replying to suggestion that she was aware of some village scandal: 'And there I was, as ignorant as a pig in pattens'. 77,3 45. WEEKENDER from London, seeing a Brown Leghorn hen, to his Suffolk gardener: 'I've never seen a pheasant like that before'. Gardener's reply: 'No and you never will, yew know no more than a crow do about Sunday'. 82,2 46. AN OLD LANCASHIRE man of his rather backward son: 'Ee's 'ad meyt put in 'is mouth, an' 'e were too lazy to chew it'. 76,2 47. YORKSHIRE woman commenting on dubious man: 'I'm not one that goes by appearances, but when I sees shells I can guess eggs'. 77,2 48. SHROPSHIRE villager of an untrustworthy neighbour: "Im? 'E couldn't go straight, not if you was to stuff 'im up a gaa-as pipe'. 76,4 49. DORSET FARM-WORKER of a fickle woman: "Er got more faces than a draper got 'ats'. 81,4 50. SCOTSWOMAN on a bitter day: 'There'll be a sharp frost this night; there's duck's feet on the puddles already'. 83,2 51. COUNTY DURHAM MAN, of cold day: 'It's ca'ad eneaf fer twea pair o' shoe laces'. 7 7,1 52. DEVON hall porter describing a heavy shower: 'The rain came down like broom 'andles'. 71,2
71 53 . NORFOLK coastal farmer viewing rough water of the Wash: 'Wind's turned north - the sea's showing its teeth'. 71,1 54. SCOTTISH fisherman on the weather: 'This month's always the same every year - you always get six weeks east wind every March'. 77,3 55. OLD FARMER, discussing bad winters of the past in the pub, 'Ah, six wiks of frost and snow we 'ad - and all in March'. 79,2
B. Proverbs 56. WEARDALE FARMER'S advice to daughter about to reject a proposal of marriage from a wealthy tradesman: 'Never cock your snoop at money, my lass, 'cos it's money that makes the mare to go'. 83,1 57 . ELDERLY SOMERSET MAN to another complaining of age coming along: 'Wull, thee cassen have two vorenoons in one day!' 82,2 58. NORTH SOMERSET SHEPHERD, leaning on a gate: 'Stop thee bleating 'ut, every time thee'se bleats thee'se miss a mouthvul'. 81,2 59. ELDERLY YORKSHIRE woman denouncing an old man for boasting: 'The owder a chap gets, the faster he could run as a lad!' 80,1 60. SCOTTISH proverb: 'There's aye some watter whaur the stirkie drooned'. (There is always some water where the young bullock drowned - i.e. no smoke without fire.) 79,4 61. POSTMAN, when asked why he had changed his political allegiance: 'Ye maun bend tae the buss that bields ye best'. (You must bend to the bush that shelters you best.) 79,4 62. NORTHUMBRIAN WOMAN, speaking of local benefactor who manoeuvred to get a contract for his own business, 'Selfs first dog in the hunt'. 85,3 63. OVERHEARD at Banbury market: 'It be better to have a shilling than be owed a pound'. 85,2 64. NORTHAMPTONSHIRE FARMER, as a salesman over-enthused about a second-hand farm vehicle: 'Every egg a bird'. 83,3 65. YORKSHIRE FARM WORKER'S way of saying 'Like father, like son': 'Crows don't breed pigeons'. 83,2 66. SOMERSET farmer irritated by too cheerful wife, 'Many a bird that sings before seven cat du 'av 'im by eleven'. 79,1
72 67. SCOTTISH woman talking to another about men: 'Afore yer married he'll lift ye ower a puddle but after he'll no look roond to see if you've fallen in the burn'. 78,3 68. OVERHEARD on a Buckinghamshire railway station, a man explaining why he was still working when his three children were all now at work: 'Well, yer don't see the chick scratch for the 'en, do yer?' 78,2 69. OLD SOMERSET glover acknowledging kindness of neighbours: "Ere, if 'ee do a bit o' kindness 'twill come back well buttered'. 77,2 70. WELSH butcher to customer complaining of bony meat: 'Well, missus, you buy land, you buy stones; buy meat you buy bones'. 75,1 71. NORTHAMPTONSHIRE farmer listening to forecast of snow: 'There's many a black cow white in May'. 76,2 72. NORTH YORKSHIRE man pointing to the rain and mud: 'Wind in t'south, muck up ti t' mouth'. 77,2
*References are to volume and number of The Countryman.
Notes Item number 2. That this is a traditional phrase is demonstrated by a line in Carr's Dialect of Craven, in the west Riding ... (1828): "Gloarin' wi' her een like any hullet in a loup hole." EDD 3, 261. A loup-hole is a north-country word for a slit in the wall of a barn, but also for a hole in a wall for sheep to go through, as in the Yorkshire phrase a mouth like a Low country loop-hole, meaning "a wide mouth". EDD 3, 658. 3. The saying has a venerable ancestry. In Ray's A Collection of English Proverbs (1678) we find You put it together with a hot needle and burnt thread. ODEP, p.656 cites no other instances, but EDD 6, 105 demonstrates that to run up or sew with a hot needle and burning thread must have been quite widely distributed until fairly recently. Cp. to put in a stitch for a friend (w. Cor.), "to sew hurriedly and badly". EDD 5, 770. 4. To catch the wind in a net (rather than a mitten), signifying "to attempt the difficult or impossible", was a phrase much used by sixteenth-century authors in panicular. ODEP, p.lll. Similar expressions are legion. Thus to cut smoke with a leather hatchet (Nhp.), to eat stir-pudding with an awl (Shr.), to sup sowens (oatmeal and water) with an elshin (awl) (Ayr.), to gape against a red-hot oven (Nrf.), to get blood from a turnip (N.I), to stop an oven with butter (Chs.), RSF, p.166, and to go whistling ;igs to a mzfestone (Ir), RSF, p.l71. Of similar import is to whistle the lavrocksfrom out ofthe lift (w. Yks.). EDD 6, 470. 5. Cp. the role of alliteration in as big as a barn side, as big as a bushel, as big as bull beef, EDD 1, 261, and in as hard as a whore's heart, recorded by R.P. inN. Shields, 1973. As hardened as Pharaoh occurs in RSF, p.159, but not in EDD. Cp. also hard as a beggar boy's heart, referred to by A. H. in 1980 as an expression used by her mother, a Londoner born and bred.
73 6. Less evocative is Th' craws plaays football, used to describe the circling of large numbers of rooks in the air, allegedly a sign of rain. RSF, p .315. 7. Croodled up suggests a hunched or cowering attitude. EDD 1, 805. Thrutched suggests "huddled up" rather than the meaning given. EDD 6, 126. 8. twitch-bell etc. is a nonhero term. See SED IV.8.11. Likewise the more drastic, now apparently obsolete twitch-ballock. EDD 6, 289. 9. Cp. It runs on gingerbread wheels, frequently said of unreliable timepieces by E.S., born Buxton, Der., 1901. Gingerbread meaning "fragile" etc. was widely used. EDD 2, 618. 10. Cp. the expression, also used of loosely woven cloth, as cowarse as an ass nddle (w. Yks.), EDD 5, 99, in which ass of course signifies "ash". Could our example have arisen through misinterpretation of the word ass? 11. This is obviously a variation on the proverb The sun does not shine on both sides of the hedge at once, of which only one instance is cited in ODEP, p. 786. Besides at the Greek Calends or at latter Lammas the dialects provide a host of humorous expressions for 'never', such as o' St. Pawsle's (n. Yks.), on Whistlecock Monday (Nhb.), at Midsummer-come never (w. Yks.), etc. See RSF pp.174 f. and EDD. 12. Cp. northern and Midlands better than a thump on the back with a stone. EDD 6, 128, and better than a smack in the eye, still common in nw. Der. 13. Perhaps the implication is that cabbage is green. Cp. Do you see any green in my eye? ODEP, p.33 7. Similar expressions of incredulity are You could tell that up in Devonshire (Co.), Give a cat a canary (Shr.), and You fry your feet (e. Suf.). RSF, p.181. 14. Calf-licked is northern for "having hair on the forehead which will not lie flat" according to EDD 1, 490. In my experience, however, calf-lick refers to an irregular growth of hair anywhere on the scalp (Der. ). 16. This well-attested simile derives from the proverb The toad said to the harrow, "Cursed be so many lords", which can be traced back to the twelfth century (ODEP, p.826) and has also presumably given rise to the metaphor to be under the harrow (EAP, H.86). 17. Cp. like a cow handling a musket (nw. Dev.), EDD 1, 755 and as nimble as a cow in a cage, RSF, p.159. 18. A variant of to cry/complain before one is hurt, ODEP, p.158, EAP, C274. 19. Cp. "She [ ... ] ran to the window with her breath in her hand." (Shr.) EDD 1, 392. 20. RSF, p .161, gives short and sweet like a donkey's gallop, but without provenance. Cp. also the widespread snazf's-gallop and snazf's-trot, EDD 5, 567. Also ODEP, p.747 and EAP, S266. 21. Cp. as fine as a carrot new scraped (Cbs. etc.), ODEP, p.258 and smart as a carrot half scraped (Suf.), EDD 1, 525. Of similar import is to be set out like lamb and sal/it (n. Yks.), "to be gaily dressed", EDD 3, 511. 23. Surprisingly, this is neither newly coined nor restricted to Cornwall. As early as 1565 we find the proverb Penfous it is, to carry too high a sazf upon a rotten mast. ODEP, p.692. Cp. to carry a tight swagger on a rotten mast (n. Yks.), 'to make a great show on insufficient means', EDD 5, 861. A swagger is a ship's flag, and tight is 'neat, trim'. Cp. also There's great sazfs on rotten masts, PSF, pp.55 and 64.
74 24. A widespread saying, with numerous variants. It is no doubt related to the story, of which the Grimms published one version in their Household Tales, in which a princess fattened a louse until it was the size of a calf, slew it and had a dress made of its skin. That man was to be her husband who could guess the provenance of the garment. LSR 2, 580. 2 5. According to an ancient tradition, those who in this life were guilty of certain vices, including avarice and rapacity, were condemned in the next world to such fruitless tasks as plaiting sawdust, weaving ropes of sand, or emptying a lake with a sieve or shell. Thus in parts of Switzerland a miser is still referred to as a "sawdust plaiter" (Sagmelchnupfer). LSR 3, 786. At the same time there is the implication that a miser would be ingenious enough to make ropes from sawdust, just as he might perform such improbable feats as straightening nails, or peeling an orange in his pocket. See J.B. Smith, "Of Skinflints and Pinchfanhings", Folklore, Vol. 95, no ii (1984), 177-181. 27. Fat as a mowdywarp is well attested for Notts. EDD 4, 178. To barkle means 'to dirty, besmear or encrust with filth'! 28. A rasher ofwind and a fn.ed snowball is one of those devious replies, called put-offs, used to fob off importunate questions, in this case about the menu for the next meal. 30. & 31. Cp. hardly able to stnde over a straw (n. Yks.), EDD 5, 808. See also EAP, S487. 32. Of a very thin person it is said that he shames his pasture. RSF, p.170. Conversely, a stout healthy-looking person is said not to shame his meat or keep (Gall., n. and e. Yks.) EDD 5, 352. I 3 3. Pawkie is a diminutive form of poke, "bag". Of a gossiping woman it is also said She's in and out offolkses housen lzke a fiddler's elbow (s. Chs.), RSF, p.161 and EDD 2, 348, or that she spins street yarn (Shr.) or street-webs (Nhp.), EDD 5, 664 f. 34. Dumbledore is restricted to the southern and south Midland counties,/and not surprisingly it features in many similes, such as a-buz'n away lzke a dumbley dory in a snoxun (foxglove) (Glo.), EDD 5, 597. 36. Recorded for west Somerset as early as 1888. EDD 3, 353. 37. In Thorncombe, W. Dorset, of a girl who rejected many boyfriends, only to settle down with an unsuitable mate, it was said that she "searched the orchard through and through, until she found the crab". See A. Roy Vickery, "West Dorset Folklore Notes", Folklore, 1978, ii, pp.154-159. 38. Cp. tongue-pie (Cor.), a dish of tongue (northern), EDD 6, 186 f. 39. Cp. like jan Tresize's geese, never happy unless they be where they bain't, recorded for Cornwall in 1880. EDD 1, 198. 40. Cp. ninepence to the shzlling (Glos., Lines.), ODEP, p.567. 41. He knows not B from a bull's foot can be traced back to the beginning of the fifteenth century. ODEP, p.43 7. 42. The expression is widespread. See EDD 5, 608 and 1, 488. A simpleton is a cake or cakey. 43. Kittle is "unstable, capricious", EDD 3, 631, but Kittle-Harry appears to be without antecedents. On the other hand Dick's hatband, that went nine times round and would not meet, is the nub of many similes. See ODEP, p.185 and EDD 2, 65 ff. 44. A cat in pattens is a frequent mode of comparison. EDD 1, 53 7. In Filey, for instance, lzke a cat in pattens means "very agitated". PSF, p.66.
75 4 5. Cows, also, are ignorant: to know no more than a cow does to churn buttermilk or than a cow does of Greek. EAP, C328. 46. Cp. to lie in bed till meat foils in one's mouth, of which ODEP p.460, has one example, dated c.1549. Here we doubtless have relics of Schlaraffenland. SeeJ.B. Smith, " Cockaigne and Lubberland", Quinquereme, 5, 2 Ouly 1982), 226-240. 47. When I see shells I guess eggs is glossed 'There's no smoke without fire', RSF, p .173. No provenance gtven. 49. Perhaps suggested by a prototype such as to wear two faces under one hat (Der.), "to practise deceit". EDD 2, 27 3. The no doubt related to bear two foces!heads in one hood can be traced back as far as the fifteenth century. ODEP, p.850. 52. Cp. to rain pitchforks with the tines downward (n. Lin.). EDD 5, 16. 54. & 55 . Cp. EAP, W100: Six weeks' sledding in March . 56. ODEP, P.539; EAP, M214. 57. A dialectal version of You cannot have two forenoons in the same day. ODEP, p. 850. Only one instance cited. 58. Clearly based on the proverb A bleating sheep loses her bit, ODEP, p.66. Cp. The ass that brays most eats least, ODEP, p.22. 60. ODEP, p.871; EDD 5, 769. 61. Every man bows to the bush he gets bield ofis glossed by Kelly (1721): "Every Man pays court to him that he gains by." ODEP, p.79. Cp. Ramsay (1737): A wee bush is better than nae bield, and Better a wee buss than nae bield (Cum.). EDD 1, 260. 66. Possibly modelled on Rain before seven: fine before eleven. ODEP p .662. 68. Likewise in my own family (nw. Der.). Farther north, in Thornton near Bradford, It isn't often t' kitten takes a mouse to t' owd cat has been recorded. LL.1, 2 Oan., 1970), p .5. 69. Cp. Kindness begets kindness. EAP, K16. 70. A fuller version is: He that buys land buys many stones; he that buys flesh buys many bones; he that buys eggs buys many shells; but he that buys good ale buys nothing else. ODEP, p.96.
Abbreviations and Bibliography
EAP Whiting, Bartlett Jere. Early American Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1977. EDD Wright, Joseph. The English Dialect Dictionary. 6 vols., 1898-1905; rept. edn., london: Oxford University Press, 1970. LL Lore and Language. Opie, I. and P. Opie, The Lore and Language ofSchoolchildren, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959, pp.7-10. LSR Rohrich, Lutz. Lexz.kon der sprichwortlichen Redensarten. 4 vols., Freiburg: Herder, 1977. ODEP Smith, William George. The Oxford Dictionary ofEnglish Proverbs. 3rd edn., rev. by F.P. Wilson. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970.
76 PSF Widdowson, John D., "Proverbs and Sayings from Filey." Patterns in the Folk Speech of the British Isles, ed. Martyn F. Wakelin. London: Athlone Press, 1972, pp.50-72. RSF Wright, E.M. Rustic Speech and Folk-Lore. London: O xford University Press, 1913. SED Orton, Harold, et al. Survey of English Dialects. Leeds: Arnold, 1962-71.
,I.H Wall» EX ~e> -r.RS JIERJHS CCI.L'ECTJOH OF
B~O~»S1~S 'A~~~~$ 1.n the
'University of SheCfie"la "Libra\')' :~1c3 ~E~~~~~~l~~Zl2! editea iy Pa~er Carnel~ CECTAL Publica.tio~ t,S5
A descriptive catalogue with indexes
77 The Lady o n the Mountain : A Century of Play Rhyme Tradition
N igel G .N . Kelsey "On yonder hill there stands a lady. Who she is I do not know. All she wants is gold and silver. All she wants is a nice young man." Thus begins a sequence of rhymes in innumerable playgrounds etc., in many English speaking countries, usually accompanying skipping. Almost all versions are very similar, varying in two or three words. As the tradition is not passed on by adults from printed sources, there must be other reasons for the continuation of this fragment of poetry, when so much other play verse has changed to meet the requirements of today's children or has become extinct. I will trace the development of this rhyme and its partners since the 1880s. In his book The Idiom of the People 1 James Reeves gives the texts of two related folksongs, from the manuscripts of the great folksong collector, Cecil Sharp. One begins: On yonder hill there stands a creature Who she is I do not know I'll go and court her for her beauty She must answer Yes or No 0 No John, No John, No John, No. The other begins: Yonder sits a spanish lady Who she is I do not know I'll go and court her for her beauty Whether she answers Yes or No. Verses three and four of this version give the following exchange: Madam I have rings and jewels Madam I have houses and lands Madam I have the world of treasure And all shall be at your command.
What cares I for rings and jewels What cares I for houses and lands What cares I for the world of treasure So as I have a handsome man.
78 The lady in the first song says, "No", until her adulterous lover offers sexual familiarity in verse six, and they go to bed together in verse seven. The lady in the second song rejects wealth. She wants a handsome man but after being reminded that beauty soon fades, like a ripe apple becoming a rotten one, she also finishes up in bed with her lover, (verse seven). Incidentally the Spanish lady of this song may have started the tradition of the Spanish lady who appears in other playground rhymes. A bowdlerised version of the first song has, of course, been sung in hundreds of schools since it was first published in 1908. 2 The two songs have a common basis, no doubt, and have the lines, "Who she is I do not know I I'll go and court her for her beauty," in common, as well as the theme of winning over a lady with words. The rhythmic structure is also the same. It is the second version, however, which began the tradition as a singing game. In Newell's American version from the 1880s3 "I'll go and court her" has become, "I have caught her", and "a handsome man" has changed to "a nice young man". She has wanted "a nice young man", ever since: There she stands, a lovely creature, Who she is I do not know. I have caught her for her beauty, Let her answer yes or no.
"Madam, I have gold and silver, Lady, I have houses and lands; Lady, I have ships on the ocean, All I have is at thy command.''
''What care I for your gold and silver, What care I for your houses and lands, What care I for your ships on the ocean, All I want is a nice young man.'' Turner4 quotes from The Bulletin of Sydney (12.3.98). Here the second verse is in the third person: Here stands a lovely creature Who she is I do not know. Will she answer for her Beauty, Will she answer Yes or No.
No, she won't have gold and silver No, she won't have house or land
79 No, she won't have ships on the ocean. All she wants is a nice young man. In all the versions given by Alice Gomme5 in 1894, the lady wants the gold and silver from the start, as well as "the nice young man". The element of choosing love rather than wealth has gone, apparently for good, though a Cardiff correspondent 6 sent me a version c1926 : "She is decked in gold and silver", so apparently did not requue any more. The rejection of wealth for love, and love alone, seems to be a rather adult attitude, and therefore it is not surprising that children took a more practical approach, and usually their lady chose both. A typical version of Gomme7 went: There stands a lady on a mountain, Who she is I do not know. All she wants is gold and silver All she wants is a nice young man. Apart from the first line this has remained constant for a hundred years. This and other similar versions accompanied a ring game in which a child was in the centre. This one chose someone from the ring and they kissed at a certain point in the song. The first child rejoined the ring and the game continued. The second, third and fourth lines remained the same, but there are variations in the opening lines: There stands a lady on the mountain ...
Here stands a lady on the mountain ...
Stands a lady on the mountain. Gomme gives two versions of another tradition, accompanyi.ng a very different game, and which had a very different accompanying verse. They began: Yonder stands a lovely lady. ..
There stands a lady on yonder hill. .. They seem to represent a tradition stemming from the original song as they go on: "Whom she be I do not know (Who she is I cannot tell) I I'll go court her for my beauty (I'll go and court her for her beauty) I Whether she say me yea or nay (Whether she answers me yes or no).' ' This is a purer version. Gomme distinguished them by calling the first game: " Lady on the Mountain" and the second one: "Lady on Yonder Hill''. I can trace no descendants of that tradition so I confine myself to the lady who wants "gold and silver" and "a nice young man". In this tradition the opening quatrain
80 was followed by verses taken from other singing games dealing with courtship, all of which are extensively covered in Gomme's great book. One found in versions of ''Three Dukes'' was (typically): Choose one, choose two, choose the fairest one of the two,
The fairest one that I can see Is pretty (girl's name) walk with me. Another, with the idea of turning, or choosing, first east and then west, is found in the games entitled "King William", "Sally Water", "Here Stands a Young Man", and ''Tug of War''. Choose you east and choose you west, Choose you the one as you love best. This combination is also found in Gillington's "Old Hampshire Singing Games". 8 Another Gillington game includes the lines: Take her by the lily-white hand; Lead her across the water; Give her kisses one, two, three, For she is her mother's daughter. Similar lines occur in Gomme's "Rosy Apple, Lemon and Pear". 9 In a more modern collection from Edinburgh 10 they are: "Give her a kiss, one, two, three." Gomme11 quotes from Lady C. Gurdon's version in Suffolk County Folklore (no date given): Now you're married you must be good; Make your husband chop the wood; Chop it fine and bring it in; Give three kisses in the ring.
12 Two lines of this verse are found in "Oats and Beans and Barley Grow". Gillington , 13 14 Douglas , and Daiken , include verses which appear to be derived from "The Keys of Heaven". Thus Douglas: Madam will you walk it? Madam will you talk it? Madam will you marry me? No. Not if I buy you a silver spoon To feed your baby every afternoon ... This variant goes on interestingly with: Go to church love, Go to church love,
81 Farewell. What's for supper love? What's for supper love? Farewell ... These lines belong to yet another singing game known as "Isabella". Almost all versions of "Lady on the Mountain" published since World War Two, and in all those I have come across, the rhyme begins: "On a Mountain Stands a Lady", as Botkin (U.S.A. 1944), 15 Ritchie (Edinburgh 1965), 16 Turner (Australia, 1972, with recorded versions of 195 7, 1963 and 1967), 17 Stepney (1964), 18 Marylebone (1967), 19 Shaw (Liverpool 1970)/° Fowke (Canada, 1969, with a 1954 version), 21 Rutherford (Durham 1971), 22 Walworth (197423 and 1979). 24 I have been told however of a version in 1974 commencing: "There's a Lady on the Mountain", which had admixtures of "Babylon" and "Isabella". Two printed versions vary also: Evans (San Francisco, 1954Y5 with "On the hillside stands a lady", and Abrahams (U.S.A ., 1969)26 with " On the mountain top stands a lady". I have been informed by Iona Opie, 27 that of fifty five versions collected over twenty five years, only three diverged from the standard opening. They were: "There's a lady on a mountain" (Wereham, Norfolk 1975 ); "On the hill there stands a lady" (Brightlingsea, Essex 1960); and "High on the mountain stands a lady" (Forfar 1952). These variants, as all the versions I have come across in London, are now used for skipping, but I have been informed that the singing game flourished in the early '60s in several parts of the British Isles, including Wales and the Channel Isles. 28 Many of the more recent variants include verses that belong to the mechanics of skipping, and the link with courtship verses has been lost: So call in my (girl's name) dear, .... dear, ....dear, So call in my .... dear .... dear.
31 32 33 34 (Ritchie, 29 Turner, 3° Fowke, Shaw, Marylebone, Reading ) or: Come in .... dear .... dear .. .. dear (Romford )35 or: 36 Jump in the pretty little girl (Evans) • Another skipping rhyme is often added, but is quite likely to stand on its own: Drip, drop, dripping (dropping) in the sea, Please turn the rope for me. Come, come, come to the fair. No, no, the fair's not there.
82 Along (up) came a Chinaman (mermaid) and said to me: "Do you know your ABC?" ABCDEFG ..... (Sharon's) out, You're out. (Stepney, 37 Walworth)38 The courtship theme returns in a divinatory form in contemporary London examples, as in this extended form (Walworth). 39 It is more often come across in a shortened form however: All right (Sharon) I'll tell your mother, Kissing (Boy's first and second names) round the corner. How many kisses did you give him? 5, 10, 15, 20 .... Do you love him? Yes, no, yes, no .... Are you going to marry him? Yes, no, yes, no .... What are you getting married in? Silk, satin, cotton, rags, silk ..... What are you going to live in? House, palace, dustbin, pigsty, house (House, flat, bungalow, bin, house ...... ) How many babies will you have? One, two, three, four .... What is their colour? Black, white, half caste, black, white ..... At the answer points, the turning becomes faster. The skipper, however, continues, even if she misses, until all the questions have been answered. This form of divination, of course, goes right back to the eighteenth century and probably even earlier. 40 Nowadays these questions and answers are also attached to other beginnings such as: "Mrs Brown (Old Mother Brown, Mississippi) lives by the seashore", or: "Raspberry, gooseberry, apple, jam tart (Blackberry, strawberry, raspberry tart)." The skipping rhymes added to "On a mountain stands a lady" also include "Lady, lady, touch the ground" and "All the boys in our town". I am sure there are many more. Botkin4 1 has a rhyme prefacing "On a mountain": Happy Hooligan number nine, Hung his breeches on the line. When the line began to swing
83 Happy Hooligan began to swing. On a mountain This is a version of: What's the time? Half past nine. Hang your knickers on the line. When a copper comes along Hurry up and put them on. (Stepney,42 and many more) It is hard to think that the lady on the mountain even survives this kind of company, but she does apparently. Why have these four lines from the old folksong continued, with only minor variations, for a hundred years, adapting to so many attachments: elegant, nonsensical, divinatory, poetic, mundane and plain vulgar? The courtship theme was there in the beginning and keeps reappearing, even for a skipping routine. That it is not always there, seems to show that the courtship theme is not its sole attraction. It would not have survived into the jet age without its compelling rhythmic basis, ideal for skipping. I question what Turner43 writes however: "In so far as Lady Gomme's old dramatic games with their 'survivals' from still earlier times, live on at all it is as kindergarten games or at children's parties where the play is organised by adults along kindergarten I1nes. .. .. '' This is almost true, but not quite, otherwise why should this folksong fragment, with no apparent adult boosting have survived. Could it be that the poetic image of a shadowy lady, remote on high, with the desire to be courted and won, makes the same kind of appeal to the eleven year old as the old singing games of courtship etc., appealed to her ancestors? Urbanisation, the mass media and the trivialisation of sex have not destroyed this piece of romantic imagery. The old singing games are passed on to infants, from the printed page, by teachers, with words "frozen" from the last century. A few survive outside the classroom, adapted to the creative process, just as the adapted nursery rhymes co-exist in the playground with the definitive versions in the reprints of the Mother Goose collection. The lady on the mountain seems to have remained rather aloof, in the popular tradition, in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States, without any adult intervention, for over a hundred years. Long may she be chanted about and skipped and danced to.
Notes
1. James Reeves, The Idiom of the People, London, 1958, pp.162-4 . 2. Cecil Sharp, " 0 No John", copyright 1908, Novello and Co., London. 3. William Wells Newell, Games and Songs of American Chtfdren, New York, 1883.
84 4. Ian Turner, Cinderella Dressed in Yella, New York, 1972. 5. Alice Bertha Gomme, The Traditional Ga1nes of England, Scotland and Ireland, Vol. I, New York, 1894. 6. Mrs Collinge, Cardiff (from memory) circa 1925. 7. Alice Bertha Gomme, Vol. I, op. cit., Vol. II, New York, 1898. 8. Alice E. Gillington, Old Hampshire Singing Games, London, 1909. 9. op.cit. 10. James T.R. Ritchie, Golden City, Edinburgh, 1965. 11. op.cit. 12. op.cit. 13. Norman Douglas, London Street Games, London, 1916. 14. Leslie Daiken, Chtldren 's Games Throughout the Year, London, 1954. 15. B.A. Botkin, A Treasury of American Folklore, New York, 1944. 16. op.cit. 17. op.cit. 18. Ben Jonson Primary School, E.1, 1964, transcribed from tape. 19. Christchurch C. of E. School G.M. and 1.), N.W.1, 1967, transcribed from tape. 20. Frank Shaw, You Know Me Aunt Nelly, London, 1970. 21. Edith Fowke, Sally Go Round the Sun, Toronto, 1969. 22. Frank Rutherford, All the way to Pennywell, University of Durham, 1971. 23. Michael Faraday Junior School, S.E.17, 1974, transcribed from tape. 24. Michael Faraday Junior School, S.E.17, 1979, transcribed from tape. 25. Patricia Evans, jump Rope Rhymes, San Francisco, 1954. 26. Roger D. Abrahams, Jump Rope Rhymes: A Dictionary, Austin, Texas, 1969. 27. Iona Opie, correspondence, October 1981. 28. ibid 29. op.cit. 30. op.cit. 31. op.cit. 32. op.cit. 33. op.cit. 34. Mrs Duff, Reading, 1980. 35. Mrs Hibble, Romford, circa 1945 (from memory). 36. op.cit. 37. op.cit. 38. op.cit (1979). 39. ibid 40. Iona and Peter Opie, The Lore and Language of Schoolchtldren, London, 1959. 41. op.cit. 42. Ben Jonson Primary School, E.l., 1968, transcribed from tape. 43. op.cit.
85 Letters to the Editor
Department of Geography University of Birmingham
20 April 1983
Dear Sir, Abbots' Bromley Antlers: a reply
As someone with only a marginal interest in that branch of social geography called "folklife", I find Cawte's letter on the Abbots' Bromley Antlers (vol. 3, no. 7, 87) a poor reflection on the state of the discipline. Not only does it add nothing to the discussion of this important group of artifacts but also ventures into areas in which the author clearly lacks competence. The pages of Lore and Language are not the place for a discussion of the problems of radiocarbon dating and the details of the technique can be found, for example, in the paper by Burleigh (1974). Suffice to say that, like all samples processed at Birmingham, a full and careful pretreatment was carried out before the two independent assays. The faction dated was the collagen content of the bone, which many years of experience has shown to provide the more reliable results. Pretreatment removes all other organic compounds. In any case, the paints applied to the Antlers would have employed organic solvents of contemporary rather than fossil origin, which would have made the dates younger and so we should perhaps regard 1065 ± 80 A.D., with a 66°/o probability of the true date lying between the limits, or 1065 ± 160 A .D., with a 99°/o probability, as a minimum age range! Whichever probability is preferred, the implied age of the antlers now has something of a scientific basis rather than some strange hare-brained connection with pagan rituals (cf. Whitlock, 1979, 170). I also carefully examined all the antlers before the sample was removed from the broken set and, where visible, it is evident that the antlers remain attached to the pedicle, from whence it would have been shed annually. As Buckland's paper states, it is not possible to ascertain how much of the cranium remains but the skeumorphic form of some of the heads might imply at least the former existence of skulls. This could be examined by X-ray, as the paper proposes. The suggestion that the antlers, perhaps more correctly heads, come from castrated, therefore domestic, reindeer is based upon the marked asymmetry of each set, something which is more marked in domesticated animals, but further discussion suggests that this point should not be overstressed as such features occasionally appear in heads of both male and female reindeer. Cawte's accusation that the base of the antlers has not been examined is
86 presumably based upon his failure to read the whole paper and his accusation of plagiary in the same paragraph is little short of scandalous, if not actionable. His concluding paragraph does not merit comment. What is required for the Abbots' Bromley Antlers is careful scientific study and publication along with conservation by trained conservators. The antlers are perhaps some of the oldest artifacts with a tradition of display, if not use, in an English village and, as such, they merit most careful attention. Perhaps Mr Cawte might wish to redirect his venom in that direction. Yours faithfully,
PC Buckland
Burleigh, R (1974) "Radiocarbon dating: some practical considerations for the archaeologist", journal of Archaeological Science, 1, 69-88. Whitlock, R. (1979) In Search ofLost Gods, a guide to British Folklore, Phaidon Press.
Glebe House, North Cowton, Northallerton, North Yorkshire. DL7 OHF.
24 October 1982
Dear Editor, Treacle Mines
When visiting the Institute of Agricultural History at Reading last week I chanced to see your issue ofJanuary last, Vol. 3, No. 6, Part A, which had an item by Jacqueline Simpson on the Treacle Mines of Sussex and Surrey. I was born within a few miles ofPatcham and brought up at Poynings but must confess that I do not remember any mention of the existence of treacle mines in the locality when I was a youth over fifty years ago. That is not to deny their existence, however, and I am writing to ask you to inform the author that her cursory study failed to do justice to an important industry that as far as I know was associated with the south east of England and not confined to Surrey or Sussex. A former colleague of mine in ICI, one Kevin Fitzgerald who was also a novelist and raconteur from Co. Tipperary, often mentioned the treacle mines but only in reference to Kent, Surrey and Sussex.
87 My wife recalls that her brothers spoke about the Challock treacle mines when they were children at Wye in the late 1920s. And I heard mention of them when I was a student at Wye College (University of London) where I graduated in 1939. My younger son, who is now teaching at Basingstoke, Hampshire, arrived here yesterday and, when I mentioned the subject to him, he said it was topical. Only this last week the treacle mines at Bordon, Hampshire, were mentioned in the Basingstoke Advertiser. My son had found that of interest because as a boy he had attended the Lightwater County Primary School in Surrey and was therefore acquainted with the story of the Chobham treacle mines. In connection with the Chobham treacle mines, as one who lived seventeen years in that vicinity, the reference to bogs seems apposite because in the area between Chobham Common and Chobham Ridges there are, or certainly were until recently, several very boggy areas of wet and marshy, ill-drained land. In my mind I have always thought that the story may have originated as a reference to former flint mines because niany of the places mentioned are located near or overlying flint bearing strata. The old Saxon church at Sompting is a notable flint edifice. Yours sincerely,
E R Dinnis
51 Station Road, Ibstock, Leicester LE6 lJL
25 March 1984
Dear Sir, I feel some further information is required on Morris Dancing in the Eighteenth Century (Lore and Language, 3, 8, 1983, 31-8). I can find no dance called "My Lord of Sherborne's Jig", but certainly the author's reference (fn. 7) is not a reference to that title, but to a dance from Sherborne called "The Sherborne Jig". In footnote 10 the author gives a convincing line of reasoning to show that the Sherborne pipe and taborer ''Jim the Laddie" was James Simpson who was buried on Friday 6 June 1856 after dying at Bourton Hunt Feast. The argument would have seemed less convincing if the author had continued his quotation to show that according to Sharp's informant the true name of ''Jim the Laddie" was J. Hopkins.
88 (The same is repeated in MS Folk Dances, vol. 1, 69.) This informant was George Simpson, a Sherborne dancer who had moved to Upton, near Didcot. He was born between March and July 1850 (MS Folk Tunes, vol. 2, 329-31: MS Folk Songs, vol. 12, 2449), so he was nearly forty years younger than James Simpson. I do not know the date of Bourton Hunt Feast, but Manning's information is in connection with the Whit Hunt in Wychwood Forest, and both Sherborne and Bourton are close to the forest, as defined by Manning, so the feast is likely to have been near Whitsun. Easter was very early in 1856, and Whit Sunday was on 12 May, so James Simpson was buried nearly four weeks after Whitsunday, which is rather late for a death in Whitsun week. I suggest that J. Hopkins must be explained away before James Simpson can be accepted as ''] im the Laddie' '.
Yours faithfully,
E C Cawte
. Notes and Queries
1. Local Shibboleths In various localities, it is often said than one can tell whether or not a person comes from that locality by his ability or inability to pronounce a particular word or phrase. I should be grateful for any local shibboleths which readers can send in, as these are an aspect of local speech which as yet remains substantially uninvestigated.
2. I should like to hear from anyone interested in assisting with a survey of Lancashire textile terminology - in the first instance weaving terminology. Assistance is sought at all levels: informants, fieldworkers, and methodology. G Shorrocks 28 Linden Avenue Thornton-Cleveleys, Blackpool FY5 2EY.
89 Reviews
ALEXANDER, Marc, Haunted Houses You May Visit, London, Sphere, 1982, 184pp., £1.50. Yes, here it is folks! A glove-compartment gazetteer of haunted habitats you can actually visit (sometimes by appointment only). Anyone who knows something of ghostlore is aware that most accounts of hauntings are all too familiar in that they borrow so freely from each other that one has a sense of deja vu on almost every page. But not here - or at least not to the same extent. Marc Alexander's style is engaging, brisk and direct. He avoids the seduction of overplaying his ghostly hand, and also the easy laugh at the expense of some of the more bizarre accounts. Of course, like others who essay similar tasks, he has to face the problem of which accounts to choose from a number of competing versions, and here he wisely plays safe. I enjoyed this little book. If it were in the glove-compartment of my car I would certainly feel tempted to stray off my chosen route to visit one of these stately homes and its ghostly inmates. If I chose to do so, the brief but clear directions on finding the sites would be a great help. J D A Widdowson
ALLEN, R E: see HANKS
BALDWIN, Robert and Ruth PARIS, illus. David AUSTIN, The Book of Similes, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1982, x, 149pp., £4.50. This lighthearted and arbitrary selection of similes contains expressions of comparison to suit various occasions. It does not profess to be scholarly or systematic but is to my mind rather superficial and aimed at the "down-market" audience. That sophisticated reader who likes the sensational rather than the sensual, the fakelore rather than the folklore and the smutty simile rather than the sincere smile will enjoy this book. The illustrations are in keeping with the general style. There are many blank pages and much wasted space; perhaps the text could have been contained in around half of the numbered pages. The two illustrated examples on the jacket set the tone of the volume: "You're as pretty as a lily on a dung pile" and "You have all the allure of a bus driver's sock". W Bennett
BAUMAN, Richard, Let Your Words Be Few: Symbolism of Speaking and Silence among Seventeenth-Century Quakers, Cambridge Studies in Oral and Literate Culture 8, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1983, 168pp., £19.50 hardcover, £6.50 paper. This is a very welcome new imprint of Bauman's monograph on the language of the early Quakers. He considers in detail such matters as the Quaker symbolism of speaking and silence, their "plain language", the role and rhetoric of preachers and the Quaker meeting, within a historical framework which traces the movement's development from charisma to institutionalisation. Drawing equally from the fields of history, the sociology of religion, and (principally) the
90 ethnography of speaking, the book is a case study in the role and meaning of speech for a given identifiable social and religious group. G Bennett
BERGER, Charles Rand James] BRADAC, Language and Social Knowledge, London, Edward Arnold, 1982, 151pp., .£6 .50. " Language allows persons to ask questions of others and it allows the others to give information when asked." This constitutes perhaps the most basic of the six axioms of language and social knowledge on which Berger and Bradac's book is based. Together with the fourth axiom - "Uncertainty reduction is a powerful drive in the human organism" - it encapsulates the theme of the text. A great deal of research in linguistics and psychology is described, analysed and reinterpreted in light of their theory that language is one of the most basic tools we have at our disposal for reducing uncertainty in social relationships. Thus the authors explore such themes as how language functions in knowledge-acquiring strategies, in impression formation and in the development (or break-up) of intimate and social relations. "Imagine", the authors say, the world of 'Antilogos': "The inhabitants of this world gain information about others exclusively through observing their actions. Accordingly, Antilogians have developed a powerful visual technology for spying on others at work and play and many counter-devices for blinding spies. Language exists on Antilogos, but laws forbid its use in interpersonal contexts .... However, some Antilogians behave illegally when they are certain they are not being spied upon: they talk to others, soliciting and revealing information. But this talk is not believed ... . Non-verbal action alone is trusted. In fact, Antilogians assume that utterances bear no correspondence to the utterer's intention. Utterances and intentions are either (1) randomly paired or (2) exactly antithetical so that utterers mean the opposite of what they say. The uncertainty about the true state of affairs regarding intention and utterances renders talk useless." Such a world, though bizarre, is possible, but not, as the authors' comprehensive text persuades, humanly possible. G Bennett
BEYLSMIT, J ], ed., with the assistance of H BORKENT and Mark JANSE, Linguistic Bibliography for the Year 1980 and supplement for previous years, The Hague/Boston/London, Martinus Nijhoff, 1983, 1, 782pp., £82.50. By any standards, the Linguistic Bibliography is outstanding in its field. Published by the Permanent International Committee of Linguists, under the auspices of the International Council of Philosophy and Humanistic Studies, and benefiting from the expertise of a distinguished team of contributors, this work commands respect and fully deserves to do so. Following an initial set of entries on general works, there are sections on general linguistics, Indo-European languages (a remarkably wide-ranging survey), Asianic and Mediterranean languages, Basque and the ancient languages of the Iberian peninsula, Hamito-Semitic languages, Caucasian languages, languages of Eurasia and Northern Asia, Dravidian languages, Burushaski, languages of South-East Asia, languages of Australasia and Oceania, languages of Negro-Africa, American languages and Creolized languages.
91 With such global references within its compass, one can hardly expect, say, the entries for English to be fully comprehensive, and comparison with the Annual Bibliography ofEnglish Language and Literature for 1980 will reveal considerable discrepancies. These discrepancies are no doubt due in part to the precise interpretation of terms of reference, and specifically to the exact delimitation of the word linguistic, which covers a multitude of sins as well as a wealth of felicities. Even so, in the international sphere it would be difficult to match the scope and depth of this remarkable publication. J D A Widdowson
BOLSTERLI, Margaret Jones, ed., Vinegar Pie and Chicken Bread, Arkansas, University of Arkansas Press, 1984, 108pp. This diary of life in America's rural south, 1890-1891, covers nine months of the best and worst moments ofNannie StillwellJackson's life spent on a small farm in south-east Arkansas. She wrote with pencils in a small ledger about the social gatherings, floods, poultry trades, dresshemmings and deaths. Through the diary and accompanying pictures and Margaret Bolsterli's introduction and notes, we are transplanted into the Desha County, Arkansas, of almost one hundred years ago. We can learn about the human spirit on the edges of civilisation and savour an experience that is both rich and awesome. W Bennett
BORNSTEIN, MarcH and William KESSEN, eds., Psychological Development from Infancy: Image to Intention, Hillsdale, NJ., Lawrence Erlbaum, 1979, xvi, 404pp., £15.20. This important collection of papers makes a bold and successful attempt to link the study of preverbal infant development with the verbal behaviour of older children and of adults. In a wide-ranging survey it carries us from early perceptual and motor system development, through cognitive development to linguistic and social development in three clearly defined sections, each concluding with a useful summarising commentary. For students of language and its social context the third section is of particular significance, notably the papers by H Rudolph Schaffer on "Acquiring the Concept of the Dialogue" and by Katherine Nelson on "The Role of Language in Infant Development". Written with clarity and conviction, this is essential reading for all with an interest in the linguistic and social development of the young child, and indeed of all speakers. J D A Widdowson
BRUN, Viggo, Sug, the Trickster who Fooled the Monk, Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies Monograph Series, No. 27, Lund/London, Studentlitteratur/Curzon Press, 1976, 19lpp., £4. The dearth of recent studies of Asian traditional narrative available in English is a matter for regret, and a detailed study of a specific tale-cycle such as this is indeed rare. A revised version of an M.A. thesis presented at the University of Copenhagen in 1972, this cycle of tales collected in the early 1970s in the village of Ban Myang Nga in Northern Thailand is reproduced from typescript at very reasonable cost, the parallel texts on facing pages allowing ready access to the original. As is inevitable in such collections, minor problems of translation (such as the
92 ------· ----
juxtaposition of formal and highly colloquial expressions) may give the reader pause for thought, but in general the translations are kept as simple as possible and faithfully reflect the oral delivery. As in many trickster tales, scatalogical motifs are rife and are an essential part of the humour of discomfiture. Incidentally, the cycle also exists in manuscript and printed versions, and the variants collected from oral tradition offer interesting possibilities for comparison. J D A Widdowson
COBBETT, William, A Grammar of the English Language, with an Introduction by Robert BURCHFIELD, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1984, xiii, 179pp., £3.50. This is a reprint of the 1823 edition of Cobbett's grammar, which contained an additional six lessons "intended to prevent Statesmen from using false grammar". The text is presented as a series of letters to Cobbett's son James. Although there is the occasional trenchant comment, the text as a whole is a fairly traditional account of grammar with an exposition of the mistakes to be met with even in the best authors. It is a useful book to have readily available, for it gives a good impression of the way language was taught at the time. The final six lessons make entertaining reading and comment as much upon stylistic improprieties as upon grammatical errors. The method allows Cobbett plenty of scope to attack his enemies. N F Blake
DALGISH, Gerard M, A Dictionary of Africanisms: Contributions of Sub-Saharan Afn·ca to the English Language, Westport/London, Greenwood Press, 1982, 203pp., £30.95. This compact dictionary sets out to provide a record of terms from the four major language families of sub-Saharan Mrica: Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan, Mro-Asiatic and Khoisan, which, according to the author, have become, or are becoming, part of the English language. It contains three thousand lexical items selected from various printed texts, embracing such fields as history, sociology, ethnology, and linguistics, as well as journals, magazines and other media products concerning Africa and African affairs. The dictionary efficiently meets the problem of the variant spellings likely to be encountered in giving orthographic representation to words of languages whose written forms are of comparatively recent history and uncertain distribution, and provides a pronunciation guide in the form of broad phonetic transcriptions, using the IPA symbols. Definitions are simple, clear and non-technical, with separate glosses for discrete meanings attached to the same item. The reader's understanding is enhanced by the use of carefully chosen quotations which exemplify contexts of use, and helpful etymologies are provided. The author seems to claim that these are words contributed to English by African languages, though it is possible for a native British English speaker to open the dictionary at random and find hardly a word he recognises: for example, pp.58-9 contain seventeen items, only two of which - Ghana and giraffe -were familiar to me. Nonetheless, the other fifteen are of considerable fascination to anyone interested in words - and this must undoubtedly be said of the book as a whole. Bearing in mind particularly the increasing impact of African affairs on the world at large, a dictionary of terms one is increasingly likely to come across must be a necessity in any good
93 reference collection. The present hardback volume is extremely well-produced, easy to use and a pleasure to handle. K Reah
DAY, John F, Bloody Ground, with a Foreword by Thomas D CLARK and an Afterword by Harry M CAUDILL, Lexington, University Press of Kentucky, 1981, xiv, 328pp., illus., $19.50. The reprinting of John F Day's classic and controversial account of life in the coalfields of Eastern Kentucky during and following the Depression years some four decades ago reminds us all too forcibly of those dark days. Frank, honest and utterly convincing, this blow by blow description cuts to the very heart of the communities and their people. Fast-moving and vivid, with a true ear for local speech, this book still makes absolutely compelling reading. For the social historian, folklorist and dialectologist it is an inexhaustible source of detailed information, but although this region has fared somewhat better on the whole since 1941, this book is essentially a story of survival against desperate odds. It is still hard to believe it is taken "from the life" of only forty or so years ago. As Harry M Caudill notes in the conclusion: " .. .the Appalachian mineral fields struggle blindly and gropingly towards a better future ... How will a perceptive reporter describe this land and people when another forty years have slipped away?" However it may be done, it will be difficult to match the power and evocation ofJohn F Day's record of life as it was in those earlier days. J D A Widdowson
DUNNING, T P, Piers Plowman: An Interpretation ofthe .11' text, 2nd edn., Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1980, 178pp., £12.50. The first edition of this work made its appearance over forty years ago, and it now makes a welcome reappearance in a slightly revised form. Piers Plowman has a reputation for difficult language and obscure meaning, and is often relegated to the status of social and historical document. Either because of, or contributing to, this situation, there is a dearth of good, all-round, full-length critical works on the poem. T P Dunning's study was one of the first, and remains one of the best. It is particularly useful in comparing meaning and style within the poem with other contemporary works, and in guiding the reader through many of the difficult passages, by means of considerable scriptural and theological knowledge. Despite the concentration on the shorter "A" text, the book is also relevant to the "B" and " C" texts, and sheds light on some of the very complex issues embedded in the poem in all its forms. The bibliography is one of the best available for the student of the poem. J Dickenson
EDMONDSON, Willis, Spoken Discourse: a Model for Analysis, London, Longman, 1981, 217pp., £5.50. The analysis of discourse has become quite a boom subject in linguistics in recent years, and this book provides a further stage in the theoretical development of this area of study. Dr
94 Edmondson begins by reviewing the state of the art, in which he comments on the strengths and the weaknesses of previous views. He then provides a long chapter in which he sets up his own methodology which he feels will answer some of the criticisms which he levels against previous attempts at the analysis of spoken discourse. The analysis is based on a corpus of language which was recorded for the purpose, for an important feature of the analysis is to pay attention not only to the attitudes of both speaker and hearer, but also to the position of a given stretch of discourse within its wider context of language and social interaction. Various rules and procedures for analysing the discourse are proposed. It is not possible to comment on these in a brief notice, but they certainly provide a reasonable theoretical basis for further work although they will need refining and testing against further data. This should prove to be a stimulating book for those interested in discourse analysis, though the general reader will find it a little too technical for his needs. N F Blake
Elizabethan and jacobean Tragedies , introduced by Brian GIBBONS, New Mermaid Series, London, A and C Black, 1984, 734pp., £5.95. Another "New Mermaid Anthology" which presents fully annotated, modern spelling texts of six dramas (The Spanish Tragedy; Doctor Faustus; Sejanus His Fall; Women Beware Women; The White Devzl; and 'Tis Pity She's A Whore), in a single volume. As the selected plays are some of the best and most representative of the period, the print small but legible and the notes quite adequate, the anthology is remarkably good value for money. Each play is also available individually. G Bennett
EWART, Neil, Everyday Phrases: Their Origins and Meanings, Poole, Blandford Press, 1983, 161pp., £5.95. Anyone setting out to observe the everyday language of people in informal contact soon becomes vividly aware of how many ideas are expressed, not so much by the creative juxtaposing of selected words, but rather by the employment of pre-packed phrases, groups of words that fall together with the tired familiarity born of long association. This volume brings together a collection of such phrases - all boringly familiar, many on the borderline of cliche, and the rest well over it. However, the point is not to bore us further, but rather to interest us in the origins of these idioms, used so frequently and so unthinkingly by so many speakers. Bearing this in mind, this book may be seen as an entertaining read, though knowing the origins of "maintaining a low profile", "You pays your money and you takes your choice", or "Money doesn't grow on trees" in no way mitigates the tedium of having to listen to such expressions. There are four hundred items, clearly presented and usefully indexed. I place it in the birthday present category. K Reah
95 Five Restoration Comedies, introduced by Brian GIBBONS, New Mermaid Series, London, A and C Black, 1984, 727pp., £5.95. A cheap and chunky volume, inexpensively produced, which skimps on appearance rather than value. The comedies contained in this new anthology are: Etherege's The Man ofMode; Wycherley's The Plain Dealer; Congreve's Love for Love; Vanbrugh's The Provoked Wzfe; and Farquhar's The Recruiting Officer. The spelling is updated, and the text annotated with explanatory notes. There is a general introduction by Brian Gibbons, and a list of funher reading to help the student. Altogether very good value indeed at this price. Each play is also available individually. G Bennett
FLEMING, Alex and Stephen HIRD, Wath-upon-Dearne As It Was, Nelson, Lanes, Hendon Publishing, 1982, 67 black and white plates illus., £2.90. These echoes and images of the people and place of Wath are excellent and attentive methods of interpreting the whole scope of history. There are many Wathonians whose family memory reaches back into the nineteenth century, and it is from that century that this photographic history stems. An understanding of life in a mining and farming community in the late 1800s and early 1900s before the First World War can be gained by drawing on these memories and photographs. Although mining became increasingly important in Wath in the seventeenth century, it did not become dominant until after 1870. Until then farming was most evident, with much thought given to the efficient cultivation of the open fields on sloping ground to the south of the village. In the eighteenth century, landowners such as the Earl Fitzwilliam had to strictly regulate mining in Wath Wood by allowing only one bell-pit to be worked at a time. When deep mining was developed after 1870, the village's population grew to 2,023 in 1871 and to 8,515 in 1901 due to a great influx of workers. Wath was not overwhelmed by the surge of industrial development in the nineteenth century, the village successfully combining the prosperity and improvements of that age with the stability and character of its ancient farming past. This photographic history ofWath, now a township, has been developed from a local history exhibition prepared by the Wath Community History Group. Although this book has been presented as a product of the people of Wath, the authors must accept some credit for a fascinating work such as this. Knowing that Alex Fleming and Stephen Hird are experts on the traditions of Wath prompts me to ask if the ancient custom of the distribution of loaves at noon of Christmas Day from the parish church roof will ever be revived. The early benefactor, Thomas Tuke, could not have envisaged that the "daily bread" of the inhabitants of Wath and its surrounding villages could be so insecure in 1985. W Bennett
FOLEY, James, Foundations of Theoretical Phonology, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1977, 151pp., £7.75. fullowing a critical survey of previous approaches to phonology, notably the theories of Chomsky and Halle, Professor fuley presents his own theory, which he claims is "perhaps the only genuine theory of phonology in existence", arguing that other available systems are inadequate and
96 unworthy of the name. He rightly believes that "The elements of a theoretical system must be defined within that system." By first propounding a set of universal phonological rules -each language incidentally having its own particular laws- and by testing these against data from a variety of languages, the author reveals hitherto unsuspected relationships between diverse linguistic phenomena and clears the way for their further investigation. J D A Widdowson
GARBATY, Thomas], Medieval English Literature, Lexington/Toronto, D. C. Heath 71984, 974pp., £27.85. In this large and weighty volume, Mr. Garbaty has attempted to give us an overview of Literature in Britain between 1100 and 1500. He has included in his anthology many well-known works (including a couple of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and part of the Marte d'Arthur), as well as other less familiar works (e.g. Mandeville's Travels, The Tournament ofTottenham, and a selection of ballads and lyrics). I imagine most readers can point to some works which they think ought to be included and are not, (Pearl, and Dunbar's work are my selection), but there is much of worth here. Mr Garbaty is a little too keen to divide medieval literature into specific genres; Chaucer's Mzller's Tale for instance is not a particularly good example of the fabliau genre, in many respects. He is also fond of making sweeping generalisations which do not stand up to detailed examination. It is not really true for instance that the native (meaning English) culture remained dormant for almost a hundred years after the Conquest, nor are his remarks on the dourness of Old English literature totally justifiable. Simplifications apart, this is a general introduction to Middle English literature. The student may well find it useful for background reading of works related to a particular text, but might well be advised not to take the introduction too seriously. J Dickenson
GELLING, Margaret, Place-Names in the Landscape, London, Dent, 1984, 326pp., 8 maps, £15. This is an important study on the subject of placenames in the landscape in which Margaret Gelling draws on her own extensive research, revealing the way in which numerous placenames are strongly rooted in the physical features of the land. The book is the first large-scale study of the type of village name which defines a settlement by reference to its topographical setting. It may help to redress an imbalance which was apparent before the 1970s which was seen as the time when a true appreciation of the early date and the importance of the names began to emerge. Place-Names in the Landscape will prove attractive not only to the academic but also to the non-specialist reader. The author welcomes any suggestions from readers who live in the places whose names are discussed so that refinement and correction, where necessary, can be introduced. The text should be the starting point for local topographers to progress into fieldwork and to conduct their own local research. Dr Gelling is to be congratulated on a study which shows the significance of the names and their elements in the context of England as a whole; the vital evidence of the geographical, historical and linguistic development is a natural progression that ensures the continuity of our heritage. W Bennett
97 GLAZER, Mark, ed., Flour From Another Sack and other proverbs, folk beliefs, tales, riddles and recipes: A collection of folklore from the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, Edinburg, Texas, Pan American University Press, 1982, 225pp. This is a large, interesting, though perhaps somewhat eclectic, collection of folklore items collected by staff and students of Pan American University. It covers topics as diverse as beliefs, foodways, folktales and verbal folklore (mainly riddles and proverbs). Items are classified according to received practice, each one is accompanied by as much biographical and contextual information as space allows, and each is given as far as possible in the original words (translations are provided for items in Spanish). The collection is useful, readable and fun: a neat little reference book for a variety of purposes. G Bennett
GOODFELLOW, Peter, Shakespeare's Birds, illus. Peter HAYMAN, London, Kestrel Books, 1983, 96pp., £8.95 . " Chanting melody on every bush" are the fifty different birds that Shakespeare mentions in his writings, and this beautifully illustrated book describes them all. Shakespeare's plays are enriched by his use of birds as images: Richard II is compared to an eagle whose "eye lightens forth controlling majesty" ; Antony is described as a doting mallard and Beatrice runs like a lapwing. Juliet's allusion to Romeo as a peregrine falcon, a bird of great price, when she pleads, "0 for a falconer's voice, to lure this tassel-gentle back again!" is perhaps the most poignant example of all. This handsome book combines fascinating bird lore and glorious pictures to recreate the distinctive world of the Elizabethans. The contents add colour and interest to the reading of Shakespeare's poems and plays. W Bennett
GOUDIE, Elizabeth, ed., David ZIMMERLY, Woman of Labrador, Toronto, Peter Martin Associates, 1975, 166pp., illus., $4.95. Elizabeth Goudie is the woman in Elliot Merrick's writings who was so close to being attacked by a mad lynx. Mrs Goudie, now in her seventies, remembers that she was pregnant at the time and the leaping animal gave her such a scare that she ... but why not read Woman of Labrador and find out for yourself. This is Mrs Goudie's book, about her life in particular, but through her story we can imagine how all the trappers' wives lived. It is unique in that not only is it the first book written about the Labrador woman, it is also the first written by a native-born Labrador woman. Happy Valley, Labrador, the present home of the author, was only a sandy plain when she was born. In 1920, she embarked on a pioneering way of life never before recorded: the life of the Labrador trapper's wife. Alone much of the year, she raised eight children, fished, hunted, made clothing and furniture and coped with cold, the wild animals, disease and death. Yet these last real Canadian pioneers were content for they had the beauty of the land and the warmth of friends and strangers alike. A truly remarkable book that comes from the soul and offers much enjoyment. W Bennett
98 GREEN, Miranda], The Gods ofRoman Britain, Aylesbury, Shire Publications, 1983, 76pp., 49 plates, .£1.95. This little book provides a sound introduction to the iconography and epigraphy of Roman Britain's religious beliefs. The book examines the presence of Eastern, Roman, local and syncretic deities in the province, and describes the main attributes and extent of worship of these gods. Although the account is brief, it is well researched, and accompanied by many photographs and drawings. It succeeds in providing an interesting and useful introduction to its subject without being too pedantic. Topics like Mithraism have to be glossed over in this type of account, but the bibliography will guide inquisitive readers in the right direction. ) Dickenson
GREGORY, Kenneth, The First Cuckoo, 2nd edn., London, Allen and Unwin, 1983, 359pp., ;£2 .95. The first edition of witty, entertaining and memorable correspondence to The Times was greeted with great enthusiasm and went on to become a best-seller. Now Kenneth Gregory has brought up to date his selection of the most witty, amusing and memorable letters to The Times since 1900. Eloquence abounds in the pages from "top people" such as Winston Churchill on corporal punishment, H G Wells on strike-breaking and Field-Marshal Montgomery on skiing. Among the letters Kenneth Gregory has chosen from the past five years are ones on toads, tea-boys, gnomes, British Rail, chamber-pots, foreigners and trade unions- from correspondents as diverse as Kenneth Clark, Professor Hayeck and Graham Green - and of course many more about the sighting of the first cuckoo in Spring. W Bennett
GUNDA, B, ed., The Fishing Culture of the World: Studies in Ethnology, Cultural Ecology and Folklore, 2 vols., Budapest, Akademiai Kiad6, 1984, 1253pp., illus., .£35.50. As with agriculture, the practice of fishing changed remarkably little over the centuries until the advent of modern technology. From the historical perspective, then, the craft of fishing and its social context remain comparatively conservative and offer useful insights into the older cultural patterns on which the modern industry is based. It is therefore all the more surprising that there are so few broadly based in-depth studies of the fishing culture internationally. This deficiency is greatly compensated for by the publication of the fifty six papers in these two handsome volumes. Far-ranging in their coverage, and representative of the work of specialists in several related disciplines, they provide an excellent overview of the subject as a whole. Most of the papers are in English, with ten in German and five in French. Of particular interest to folklorists and anthropologists are the papers by R Kreuzer on "Fish in religion and myths of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt", S R Sarkar on "Significance of fish in Bengalee Hindu folk culture", R Andersen on "Bermudian handline fishing in the sailing sloop era", A Hultkrantz on "Supernatural beings of fish and fishing in aboriginal North America", and ] J Poggie, Jr. and C Gersuny on "The instrumental functioning of kinship in a New England Yankee fishery". It is, however, invidious to single out these papers, since so many others excite attention, not least those which focus on foodways.
99 In a concise introduction, Bela Gunda sets the various contributions in their global context, and the volumes include many photographs and line drawings. This is a splendid survey of a fascinating cultural phenomenon. J D A Widdowson
HANKS, Patrick, ed., Collins Dictionary ofthe English Language, London and Glasgow, Collins, 1979, XXXV, 1690pp., £12.50. PROCTOR, Paul, ed. in chief, Longman New Universal Dictionary, Harlow, Longman, 1982, x:xvi, 1158pp., £7.95. ALLEN, R E, ed., The Oxford Pocket Dictionary, 7th edn., Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1984, 891pp., £4.95. MISH, Frederick C, ed. in chief, Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, Merriam-Webster Inc., 1983, 1563pp., £14.95. It must be generally true of dictionaries that the more entries they contain the more potentially useful are they for their purpose of reference - provided, that is, that they are reasonably up to date. But for a practical everyday dictionary comprehensiveness must be sacrificed in the interests of handiness and portability. Three of these four recent dictionaries are a convenient size for the desk; the third, The Pocket Oxford Dictionary is smaller (though if actually pocketed it would do nothing to enhance the lines of a suit); it contains 49,000 entries, compared with 162,000 in the Collins, 100,000 in the Longman and 160,000 in the Webster's. Each one has its merits. The P.O.D., for example achieves its portability by concentrating on words and phrases as such, and their idiomatic use, rather than cyclopaedic ranges of multiple meantng. The Collins has an extremely clear guide to its use, covering, for example, its treatment of Pronunciation, Inflected Forms and Parts of Speech. This is followed by an article by the late A C Gimson on pronunciation, a section on "The Development of English as a World language" contributed to by David Brasil and other experts in the field; and one by Patrick Hanks on "Meaning and Grammar". If you think it helpful to have pictures, then you may favour the Longman for it has some excellent ones; two pages are devoted to alphabet, for example, illustrating evolution and types, and another two to clear line drawings illustrating building features under architecture. The Webster's too, contains good illustrations, though on a smaller scale. The entry disc brake, for instance, has a drawing which shows how the device works; the entry hartebeeste has one which shows what the creature looks like. Although produced in the United States, the dictionary tells us the British English meaning of bonnet- "an automobile hood". It also has a good introductory section with useful grammatical and other data. The P.O. D. is rather in a class by itself on account of its smaller size (and also its more modest price). The other three would all make an excellent contribution to a desk-top reference collection. Choice must be largely a matter of individual taste. K Reah
100 ~------
HAWKINS, Eric, Awareness oflanguage: An Introduction, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1984, 233pp., £4.50. This is one of the volumes in the "Awareness of Language" series edited by the author and designed to promote discussion among teachers of Language at all levels. Part one points out the dangers of linguistic parochialism and provides a brief historical sketch of a new area of curriculum development, "Language Awareness". Part two suggests how such a course might be provided. The warning is perhaps timely in the light of the "significant fall in entries for the French (Ordinary) Syllabus A for the 1985 examination" for the J.M.B. The author maintains that the opportunities outlined in the Bullock Report have been missed and shows how the omission might be rectified, illustrating his contention by examples drawn from current practice. The University of York language degree course and the way in which it differs from the conventional course are described in some detail. The author is at pains to point out that the course is no longer considered revolutionary, which indicates the progress that has already been made in language teaching at degree level. This and similar courses point the way to a fresh approach to language teaching (including the mother tongue) in schools, although what the author is offering is by no means simply a watered-down version of university linguistics. Current work in schools and initiatives towards new examinations are discussed and a detailed scheme on how to design a course in "language awareness" is also suggested. This is a welcome addition to the "Awareness of language" series; further titles to appear will include "How do we learn languages?" and "Language varieties and change". J Percival
HEISER, Charles B ] r., Seed to Civilization: The Story of Food, 2nd edn., [Oxford], W H Freeman, 1981, xii, 254pp., 126 illustrations, £13.40 board, £6.20 paper. Already well-established as a comprehensive and fully illustrated guide to the history of food across the world, the second edition of this book takes account of the impact of the energy crisis and also includes numerous other revisions, not least in the augmented and updated references. The recent corroboration of evidence for the earliest stages of agriculture demonstrates the accuracy of the material presented here- in a notoriously difficult field of enquiry where hypotheses are difficult if not impossible to test unless and until new archaeological data emerges. A great deal of vital information is condensed into this global survey which may account for the almost gnomic nature of many of the statements made: if not self-evident, they convince by their encapsulation of the salient facts. J D A Widdowson
HELLER, Louis, Alexander Humez and Malcah Dror: The Private Lives of English Words, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984, xxx, 333pp., £12.95. It is not clear what the "private" of the title implies, for the book records the changes in meaning of some English words, and such changes are surely public rather than private. The book commences with an introduction outlining some of the processes of semantic change. It then lists about four hundred words alphabetically. An index records the semantic changes which
101 the words have undergone. There is no indication as to how the words were chosen. The entries are very brief and the words are not illustrated by quotations. Hence it may be difficult for some linguistically inexperienced readers to understand how the changes came about. It might have been better if fewer words had been treated at greater length. Nevertheless, the book is likely to encourage its readers to think about change of meaning in words and it may encourage them to go to dictionaries like The Oxford English Dictionary where they will find more information about meaning. It is unfonunate that there is no advice to the readers where they might go to for further information and examples. There is perhaps not a great deal more in this work than one might not find in a good dictionary, but for beginners it is less intimidating. N F Blake
HEWINS, Angela, ed., The Dillen, London, Elm Tree, 1981, 180pp., £7.95. The Dtllen, Memories ofa Man of Stratford-upon-Avon, is the story of a man who grew up, lived and loved in Victorian England. With very little editing, the words are his, recorded by his grandson Brian (the editor's husband) and Angela Hewins over a period of three years, 1975-77. George, whom the book is about, was a born storyteller in the old oral tradition, with a truthfulness and humour all his own. His was the world of the very poor who were dependent on casual labour, charity and their own wits. George's friends lived "from meal to meal .... from one week to the next", not in the metropolis of some bleak and dismal industrial city but in one of the most picturesque market towns in England. Being the binhplace of Shakespeare, Stratford-upon-Avon was cenainly one of the most famous towns, but in George's world (as in the world of Shakespeare) "crafty" was a word of the highest praise. Between 1878 (when George's story begins) and the 1920s, the wider world beyond Stratford began to impinge upon this closeknit community which Shakespeare would have had no difficulty in recognising. The language of the town labourers had not been penetrated by the mass media and mass education. Ghosts, witches and devils held more sway than the Christian stories, and "once upon a time" was a good starring point to a piece of oral narrative. Money, or the lack of it, is always on George's mind and nothing, except perhaps women, could offer the same sensual satisfaction as touching a gold sovereign. The power of money over the minds of the poor was paramount - it was necessary for survival. Money kept you out of the workhouse. The "dillen" had an astonishing zest for life, and George's story is a testimony to the strength of the human spirit. This book is warmly recommended to all who are interested in the lives of people set in the backgrounds of their peculiar circumstances. W Bennett
HINDE, Roben A, Ethology, [London], Fontana, 1982, 320pp., £2.95. The Fontana Masterguides series of inexpensive paperbacks represents excellent value for money in a highly competitive market. Professor Hinde's introduction to ethological approach to animal behaviour stands alongside those on Social Anthropology by Edmund Leach and Religion by Leszek Kolakowski as the initial volume in the series. Divided into four pans- Core Ethology, Ethology and the Biological Sciences, Ethology and the Human Social Sciences, and a
102 Conclusion, this book sets a high standard of explication and readability which is followed in subsequent volumes. The relationship between animal behaviour and human behaviour makes particularly compelling reading - multum in parvo, with the bonus of clear and lively wnung. J D A Widdowson
HOOLE, Ken, The Whitby, Redcar and Middlesbrough Union Railway, Nelson, Hendon Publishing, 1981, 7 3 black and white plates, ,£2 .60. The Whitby, Redcar and Middlesbrough Union Railway (WRMU) was a small company with a line only sixteen and a half miles long, promoted privately to give Whitby an outlet to the north along the coast. The Company was poorly supported and obviously the line was an early candidate for closure, especially when an alternative (and easier) route via Battersby was available. On 10 March 1958 British Railways announced that the line would be closed to passenger and goods traffic from 5 May that year. This work is a complementary volume to Robin Lidster's successful book on the Scarborough and Whitby Railway. The plates are clear and well-defined, and I found the introduction about the origins of the line very helpful. Not only for the "buffs" of railway memories, this book will be of interest to all who sometimes long to return to a more leisurely age. W Bennett
HOWARD, K and J A SHARP, The Management of a Student Research Project, Aldershot, Gower, 1983, 238pp., £12 .50 hardback, £5.95 paper. As a practical guide for all students intending to write up and present for examination the results of research projects, this book has excellent properties. It is assumed that most students who will be managing a project of this kind will be depending largely on their own resources. Students are shown how to manage the project within a set period of time and with limited facilities; the management procedures are shown in clear, analytical forms by the authors who have had considerable experience in co-ordinating the activities of students working in various fields and at various levels. The first part of the book deals with the preparation of the project and covers areas such as the selecting and justifying of a research topic, literature searching, how to plan the research project, and general theories on research and the research student. Data analysis and gathering comprise the main body of the work, both considering how the project can best be managed for maximum success. The final part of this practical volume focuses on the production of the research results - their presentation and findings. A valuable index completes this thorough guide to the management of a student research project. The expansion of tertiary education during the last twenty years has seen a significant growth in the number of courses which expect students to offer projects. Although the information in this book caters for the highest (doctoral) level of research the student working at first degree or similar level will obtain useful guidance by processes of elimination and a selective reading of the text. W Bennett
103 HUMES, Walter M and Hamish M PATERSON, eds., Scottish Culture and Scottish Education, 1800-1980, Edinburgh, John Donald, 1983, 277pp., £15. All too often, surveys of the historical development of culture and education are remiss in their uncritical acceptance of earlier accounts. This volume of essays is refreshingly different in its uncompromisingly questioning stance and its refusal to take previous views for granted. Covering almost two centuries it is ambitious in scope, and poses the vital historical question: "What are the cultural reasons for, and consequences of, appeals to a Scottish educational 'tradition'?" Arranged in broadly chronological order, the essays bring critical judgements to bear both on existing sources and on new ones, and in particular they extend the definition of "educational evidence" on which they are based by including "sources more usually classed as economic, social, political, theological, literary or scientific, in an effort to begin the important task of analysing the interrelationships of educational and other cultural practices in Scotland." All the contributors succeed in this latter aim, and the volume as a whole not only challenges many of the cherished myths about Scottish education (and therefore of education elsewhere in the British Isles) but also raises a number of important questions about the impact of education on culture. J D A Widdowson
JACKSON, Michael, Allegories ofthe Wilderness: Ethics and Ambiguity in Kuranko Narratives, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1982, xi, 324pp., £18. The steady raising of academic awareness of African oral narrative is due in no small measure to studies of this calibre. Michael Jackson brings an essentially human analytical mind to bear on 2 30 narratives he personally recorded among the Kuranko people of northern Sierra Leone in 1969-70, 1972 and 1979. It forms an admirable complement to his earlier study, The Kuranko: Dimensions of Social Reality in a West African Society (London, 1977), and is a most worthy addition to the Indiana University Press Series "African Systems of Thought". For the folklorist and anthropologist this study explores the function of oral narrative in the resolution of everyday ethical problems within the culture, and demonstrates its importance both as a coping strategy and also as "a technique for investigating problems of correct action and moral discernment." A refreshing change from those works on narrative which remain strictly within the bounds of linguistic and/or literary analysis, this compelling investigation draws on philosophy and comparative literature, as well as on folklore and anthropology, to delineate the form and function of these tales. Of particular importance is the study's solid grounding within the ethnography of speaking; Michael Jackson rightly points out that it is " imperative that we avoid any inadvertent domination of the world of preliterate sensibilities by the modes of abstract analysis developed in literate cultures." Above all, he recognises the intrinsic merit and social function of each individual storytelling event - none is without significance in the mediation of social conflicts and in the establishment and maintenance of consensus norms. This is a sensitive and convincing work which will soon become a classic in its own right. J D A Widdowson
104 JOYCE, P W, English as we Speak it in Ireland, with an introduction by Terence DOLAN, Portmarnoch, Wolfhound Press, 1979, £4.20. The paucity of available published material on spoken English in Ireland is a matter for great regret. Anyone who has attempted, for instance, to trace Irish English back to its roots from one of the many parts of the world where emigration has planted a substantial Irish population will acknowledge the frustration involved, especially if the researcher has no more than a passing acquaintance with Irish. The republication of Joyce's excellent compendium, which has long been out of print (first edition 1910, second edition 1920) will prove a great boon to scholars and amateur enthusiasts alike. What is more, the concise but highly informative introduction by Dr. Terence Dolan not only provides a full evaluation ofJoyce's contribution but also gives a detailed critical summary of other work in this field. How often I have found myself turning to my battered first edition of this book, notably in the editing of the Dictionary of Newfoundland English (University of Toronto Press, 1982) to seek guidance on a word or phrase used by the descendants of Irish immigrants in the Province, whose speech remains highly distinctive. Such was Joyce's enquiring mind and fascination for language that, more often than not, the answer to such queries is available in this extraordinarily wide-ranging study. A welcome return to print indeed - especially at this price. J D A Widdowson
KANE, George, Chaucer, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1984, 122pp., £7.95. In this brief book Professor Kane attempts to give an introduction to Chaucer and his work, though he is not afraid to introduce new opinions and ideas in it. He concentrates upon the differences between Chaucer the man and Chaucer the poet, and he rightly insists that we should pay as much attention to the former as to the latter. Nevertheless, even with his sympathetic handling the two remain somewhat distant. Kane also attempts to show how the poet developed and what his primary concerns were. Naturally, within such a restricted space, much has to be stated without full supporting evidence. Inevitably some aspects of Chaucer's work receive only cursory attention, though Kane attempts to do justice to all aspects of the poet's oeuvre. Within its limited ambitions, this is a successful book which students of literature should find illuminating and stimulating. N F Blake
KENDON, Adam, Nonverbal Communication, Interaction, and Gesture: Selections from Semiotica, The Hague, Mouton, 1981, 548pp., DM80 cloth, DM34 paper. The journal Semiotica, founded in 1969, has quickly established itself as a major international and multilingual forum for new research in the burgeoning field of semiotics and has done much to further the phenomenal progress of the discipline. Whatever one's reservations may be concerning the tendency of semioticists to act the big fish and attempt to swallow up what they deem are lesser fry in the field of cultural studies, there can be no doubt that they have made remarkable advances across the whole range of nonverbal communication, interaction and gesture. This volume, No. 41 in the Mouton Approaches to Semiotics series, brings together nineteen papers from the journal, many of them classics in their own right, and all well deserving reprinting in this form. They are preceded by a first-rate Introduction on "Current Issues in the Study of 'Nonverbal Communication" ' by Adam Kendon, which sets them in context and provides the rationale for their presentation in three parts: Theoretical and Methodological
105 ------
Issues; Organization of Behavior in Social Encounters; and Gesture. Folklorists will especially appreciate Pan Two, while linguists will respond equally enthusiastically to Pans Two and Three. I found Lorraine Kirk and Michael Burton's paper on "Physical versus Semantic Classification of Nonverbal Forms" particularly fascinating, but students of literature may find themselves equally intrigued by Fernando Poyatos' paper on "Forms and Functions of Nonverbal Communication in the Novel" in Part One. J D A Widdowson
KEY, Mary Ritchie, ed., The Relationship of Verbal and Nonverbal Communication, student edn., The Hague, Mouton, 1980, 388pp., £5.80. It is only comparatively recently that scholars from several major disciplines have turned their attention to the finer points of nonverbal communication, and each new publication marks a significant step along the road to better understanding. This important collection of papers, No. 25 in the "Contributions to the Sociology of Language" series (ed. Joshua A Fishman) succeeds in bridging the gap between verbal and nonverbal behaviour. The volume begins with a first-rate survey of "Language and Nonverbal Behavior as Organizers of Social Systems" by Mary Ritchie Key which sets the tone and the analytical standard of the contributions as a whole. Part II deals with "The Suprasegmentals of Interaction", Part III with "Organization of language and Nonverbal Behavior" - each contribution here being outstanding. Part IV investigates the "Acquisition of Communicative Behavior" and Part V reaches further afield into "Theoretical Approaches to Human Interaction". All who have an interest in interactional behaviour will find this collection to be essential reading. An extensive bibliography puts cream on the cake. J D A Widdowson
KIRKPATRICK, EM, ed., Chambers 20th Century Dictionary, Edinburgh, Chambers, 1983, xvi, 1583pp., £10.95. In the highly competitive world of dictionary making, Chambers 20th Century Dictionary has more than held its own. This completely new edition includes several thousand new entries, and the blurb is still able to boast that it "continues the tradition of having more words, phrases and meanings than any other single-volume dictionary of the English language." Unusually, it also makes a point of including a considerable number of archaic and unusual words, which are often omitted from its rivals in their haste to modernise. Hence the Chambers volume has for long been the crossword addict's boon companion and is used as the reference work in the National Scrabble Championship. The appendices too are particularly helpful and indeed encyclopaedic, including phrases and quotations from foreign languages, abbreviations and symbols, musical terms, and a selection of English personal names. This new edition has obviously found a ready market as witnessed by its reprinting within the first year of publication. J D A Widdowson
KIRWIN, W J, ed., Regional Language Studies, Newfoundland, rpt. edn: Nos. 1 to 9 (Oct 1968-Dec 1980), StJohn's, Newfoundland, Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore
106 and Language Archive, 1981, $4, excluding p. and p. Regional Language Studies, Newfoundland is that rarity among periodicals in that it was distributed free of charge to interested parties over a period of some twelve years since its inception in 1968. An informal publication designed to spread information related to linguistic research in Newfoundland and Labrador or related to the languages spoken there, it includes bibliographies, and articles and notes on such topics as pronunciation, suprasegmentals, grammar, vocabulary, technical terms and onomastics. Under the firm and sure editorship of Professor William Kirwin it has maintained high standards of scholarship, and done much to bring linguistic research concerning Newfoundland to the attention of a wider audience. Its progression is easily traced in this handy and modestly priced reprinting of the first nine issues in a single volume, to satisfy the many requests from scholars, especially those who learned of the periodical too late to secure copies of the early issues which have been out of print for some time. The reprint bears witness to the scope and vitality of linguistic studies in Newfoundland and to the vigorous programme of publication on these subjects, ranging from Judith Butler Aldus's invaluable bibliography of Anglo-Irish Dialects, through notes and bibliographies on Indian and Eskimo material to family names and a series of articles on the genesis of the Dictionary ofN ewfoundland English (Toronto, 1982) - the culmination of a quarter of a century of scholarly endeavour under the editorial direction of Professor Kirwin and his colleague Professor G M Story. The p ioneering endeavours of these scholars, and especially of their mentor, the late Professor E R Seary, continue to bear fruit as the unique linguistic heritage of Newfoundland and Labrador achieves the attention it merits in the international arena, bearing witness to the richness of hitherto unexplored material in this remarkable enclave where West Country English, Southern Irish, Scots, French, Indian and Eskimo language and culture are intermingled, and until recently comparatively untouched by the destructive forces of change. Professor Kirwin's own contribution of nine items to the series over the twelve year period is a worthy testimony to his own wide-ranging interests in local usage which happily continue unabated despite his technical "retirement". The interesting insights into and sidelights on language in Newfoundland and Labrador to be found in RLS over its low-key and untroubled life also reveal the devotion and singlemindedness of its editor. In welcoming this valuable compendium of reprints, we sincerely hope that future issues of this periodical will emulate the standards and abiding enthusiasm of its modest and self-effacing founder-editor. J D A Widdowson
KITCHEN, Fred, Brother to the Ox, Horsham, Caliban, 1981, 244pp., £9. Brother to the Ox is the autobiography of Fred Kitchen, an agricultural worker, with its writing in 1940 being the result of Fred's membership of the Worker's Educational Association. Born in 1981, Fred Kitchen moved to the West Riding as a young boy to spend a happy childhood amongst the fields and woods of rural Yorkshire. Village life is vividly recreated in the book - the Christmas parties at the " big house", the divisions between the "genteel" Anglicans and the "ranter" Methodists, and the respectability of the villagers constantly supervised by the "holy trinity", the clergyman, the landlord and the schoolmaster. The working life of the agricultural labourer is told with a freshness and sharpness that carries total conviction. The culture and skills of the labourer before modern
107
------farming are described fully, with lots of detail showing how sowing, hedging, reaping, ditching, stacking and many other jobs were done. The ploughing competitions, the fairs, the folksongs, the stories of witches and fairies and the love of animals are a bonus for the folklorist who, perhaps more than any other reader, can appreciate the hardness of agricultural life before the Second World War (for the paid labourer, at least). This book is about a man who knew grief with the death of his first wife, and returned to happiness with a second marriage and family life. Fred Kitchen was a devotee of the philosophical stoicism of Omar Khayyam, a philosophy evoked and expanded on in Brother to the Ox. A most interesting and readable book. W Bennett
KOLAKOWSKI, Leszek, Religion, [London], Fontana, 235pp., £2.50. This re-examination of the classic rationalist criticisms of religious belief maintains that such belief cannot be justified through the kind of philosophical arguments favoured by rationalists. Linguists and folklorists will be especially interested in Chapters 4 and 5 on "The Sacred and Death" and "To Speak of the Unspeakable: language and the Holy. The need for taboos". In the concluding chapter Professor Kolakowski notes that "The entire intellectual history of Christianity is a never-ending quest for a neat formula which might either assume the harmonious co-existence of the Profane with the Sacred or prevent the latter from being spoilt by the former", and adds that "those solutions which might be implemented are shaky, uncertain and provisional, like all the devices humanity invents to cope with its perennial predicaments". J D A Widdowson
KRANARAE, Cheris, Muriel SCHULZ and William M O'BARR, (eds.), Language and Power, Beverley Hills, Sage Publications, 1984 , 320pp., £25. This collection of fifteen essays attempts to distinguish the ways in which the language of power (variously defined as "high" language as opposed to " low" language - the language of the vernacular, or as the language of the ruling class, or the language of the ex-colonial power) perpetuates systems in which the deprived, those lacking in the approved linguistic skills, are kept in a position of inferiority. The inferior status of women is explained in part by the male imposed syntax and lexicology of many west European languages, against which women have to strive to achieve equality. Harsher sentences imposed on working class defendants than those imposed on middle class offenders for similar crimes are seen to arise from the reinforcement of prejudices and stereotypes held by judges as a result of the working class defend ants' poor linguistic ability. The difficulties facing monolingual (Spanish) speakers in the USA are described in an essay by Joan Rubin and the problems involved in implementing a programme to remove those difficulties are outlined. The essays are, then, wide ranging in context and approach. The most interesting for me, if perhaps the least controversial, was "The Alchemy of English; Social and Functional Power of non-native varieties", in which the linguistic legacy of post-colonial Africa, India, Puerto Rico and the Philippines is discussed, as are the problems which the adoption of a non-native "prestige" language poses in the economic, political and litarary field of activity. l ---~------1-08------~ For the non-specialist reader the book is to be recommended as a window on to some aspects of language which he or she has not yet perhaps considered. Geneva Smitherman discusses the Black English language-dialect controversy in her essay "Black language as power" and her solution to the controversy gives an indication of some of the more polemical aspects of some of the essays: "To resolve the Black English language-dialect controversy. .. . requires that we shift from what has deteriorated into a narrow paradigm of knowledge and science to an epistemology and cosmology that sees all of life and knowledge as a system interacting and moving in dialectical progression''. J Percival
KYVIG, David E and Myron A MARTY, Nearby History, Nashville, American Association for State and Local History, 300pp. Nearby History is for those who seek guidance in investigating the history of their immediate environment. It is not identified as "local" history (limited to a concept of place) or "family" history (confined to the study of relationships); the authors have chosen the term "nearby" history to encompass the entire range of research possibilities in the world close at hand. The book was written to bring together historians of all kinds. Information is given on how to find and use published, unpublished, visual and material records, photographs, documents and objects; connect individual investigations with broader historical issues. Nearby History is comprehensive, but can be used constructively through each chapter's compact individuality. Use one or use all, this is an intriguing and thought-provoking enquiry into the past. W Bennett
LA FONTAINE, Selected Fables, trans. James MICHIE, introduction by Geoffrey GRIGSON, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1982, xxix, 141pp., £1.50. This handy selection, which first appeared under the Allen Lane imprint in 1979, is now available as a Penguin Classic. Geoffrey Grigson's helpful introduction to both La Fontaine and the fables includes liberal quotations from the original French. James Michie's translations are notably fluid and accessible- a rare achievement. The selection is as representative as possible, but rightly biased towards those fables which are traditionally famous and those which are good stories in themselves. J D A Widdowson
LEACH, Edmund, Social Anthropology, [London], Fontana, 1982, 254pp., £2.50. Written with all the verve and sense of personal conviction which we have all come to expect from Professor Sir Edmund Leach, this handy and inexpensive paperback is a fascinating introduction to the subject, and especially as it is viewed from his own somewhat idiosyncratic viewpoint- happily encapsulated in Chapter 4, entitled "My kind of Anthropology." Most, if not all, readers seeking an introduction to this field will undoubtedly discover that it is their kind of anthropology too. J D A Widdowson
109 LEVINSON, David and Martin] MAIDNE, Toward Explaining Human Culture: Critical Review ofthe Findings of Worldwide Cross-Cultural Research, with an Appendix, Language Universals, by Cecil H BROWN and Stanley R WITKOWSKI, New Haven, Connecticut, HRAF Press, 1980, 412pp., $25 cloth, $15 paper. All who work in the broad field of cultural studies cherish the hope that one day it will be possible to present an overview of the subject, an encapsulated description of human culture which will stand up to critical scrutiny. This ambitious work takes a significant step along that road. The authors summarise and assess the findings of no less than 305 "holocultural" studies, i.e. studies "designed to test or develop a theory through statistical analysis of data on a sample of ten or more small-scale societies from three or more geographical regions of the world." Following an introduction to the field in which definitions are clear-cut and the scope of theoretical research briefly outlined, the work is divided into five sections comprising Cultural Evolution; Kinship; Expressive Culture; Socialization; and Social Problems, Deviance, and Social Control. Section V. on Socialization is especially penetrating, drawing together many diverse strands. A final concluding chapter summarises the significance of the material as a whole. There is a very full list of references, an appendix on methodological procedures in Holocultural research, and another - an excellent essay in itself- on linguistic universals. A great deal of information is packed into this compact volume, the statistics ably serving the text rather than .. . . . 1mpnson1ng lt. J D A Widdowson
LEVINSON, Stephen C, Pragmatics, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1983, 420pp., £25 hardback, £8.50 paper. Of the three major divisions of language study, syntactics, semantics and pragmatics, it is the last one which has been the slowest to receive full-scale scholarly treatment. But recently the flood of books on the topic has made it into one of the major areas of scholarly interest. This book in the Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics series will help to focus much of the recent discussion and should promote further research. Dr Levinson is very much in touch with what is going on in pragmatics and he has in this book provided a good survey of the major problems and the various attempts to resolve them. There are chapters on deixis, conversational implicature, presupposition, speech acts and conversational structure. Although the author writes fluently, the book will not be easy for those unfamiliar with logic and associated philosophical areas to read, because there are some fairly technical discussions. However, the reader should persevere, for this is a most important area of investigation. Dr Levinson is not content to describe what is going on; he is quite prepared to express his own views about the various developments and solutions which have been proposed. No one should come away from this book without being stimulated by it. N F Blake
LIDYD, Susan M, Roget's Thesaurus of English words and phrases, Harlow, Longman, 1982 (4th imp. 1983), £8.95. Whenever I reach for my rather battered copy of Roget's Thesaurus I marvel at the ingenuity of the mind behind this indispensable compendium, while at the same time cursing my ageing
110 grey matter for its increasing inability to recall (or think laterally to find) the mot juste. I suspect that in this I am not alone, and that is a comfort in itself, for it instantly reminds me that I am in the company of thousands, nay millions, who have blessed the creator of this treasure hoard. This new edition includes well over 20,000 additions or relocations and has many new headings and terms drawn from modern subjects, while outdated material has been excised. Altogether easier to use, backed by the extensive and versatile resources of the Longman Lexicographic Unit, this new edition will maintain, and indeed enhance, the untarnished reputation of its illustrious predecessors. Yes, it's time I pensioned off my old edition and caught up with the new arrival (see intruder 59 n., posten·on.ty 120n., and incomer 297 n.). Now, what was that synonym I was looking for .... ? J D A Widdowson
MacGILL, Patrick, Lanty Hanlon , London, Caliban Books, 1983, 312pp., £9. This is Patrick MacGill's first comedy-novel of Irish life, introducing Lanty Hanlon, christened with potheen because the beadle was out of water at the time and spirit was plentiful. Lanty Hanlon was born in Ballykeeran, "the most envied parish in the land", where they peeled _potatoes with their knives and had paraffin lamps. Putting one over its neighbour, in typical blason populaire style, Ballykeeran would jibe that Ballyroon peopl~ used their fingers and rush-lights instead of knives and lamps. Lanty Hanlon had imagination, that could not be denied, and narrated incidents testify to his greatness. His swansong was the founding of the Ballykeeran Development Society which had good fortune- mainly on alien subscriptions. Approach this story with a credulous mind, and be amazed at the enjoyment which can be yours! W Bennett
MASON, Tony, Association Football and English Society 1863-191.5, Brighton, Harvester Press, 1982, 278pp., £5.95. Working men in late Victorian England were always concerned about their leisure times, and how they could spend the few hours when they were not at work. By 1900, a considerable minority of the male population spent at least some of their leisure time either playing or watching sport. The game which attracted these most strongly during the months from September to April each year was association football. Most historians are agreed that it was in the Victorian period that the separation between work and leisure first became clearly established. A preoccupation with two main issues first prompted the author to begin work on this book. First, how far was football in this period a working-class game? Was it developed by other social groups and in some way taken over by working men? These considerations led directly to the second major issue. How far was the game of association football professionalised and staged by a new breed of tertiary sector entrepreneurs who saw mass leisure and especially professional sport as a medium for getting rich quickly? Was the soul of the game perverted by the need to create a spectacle which would attract the largest number of paying customers? In the present atmosphere of greed and big-money signings and transfers, the second question
111 ------
is particularly relevant. Concern with both the issues recurs constantly throughout the text, an excellent piece of social analysis. This widely acclaimed book is both valuable and informative, well researched and established as a standard work in the field. Not only for readers interested in football, it should reach out to the widest possible audience with its focus on leisure and social concerns. I was engrossed by this scintillating history of football from beginning to end, and reading about the matches brought a new kind of respect for the game. W Bennett
McCONVILLE, Brigid and John SHEARLAW, The Slanguage of Sex, London/Sydney, Macdonalds, 1984, 208pp., £8.95. This is one of the most interesting books ever put together. It lists, alphabetically, hundreds of slang words and phrases which are concerned with sexual activity (due to the paucity of words with appropriate meanings in polite usage). Some of these words are familiar, some not; some are funny, others offensive. It is amusing to note that some virtually acceptable insults (like "prat" and "pillock") do, in fact, have sexual meanings. It is fascinating to see the range which the book covers. Some of the terms mentioned go back to the eighteenth century or beyond, and are still in common use (although some are slightly changed in meaning), but there are also many terms which have been coined very recently. Most of these newer expressions are used by the gay community, especially in the USA, to refer to activities not normally encountered in "straight" sexual activity. Even innocent-sounding phrases have mind-boggling meanings. It is of particular interest that whereas the majority of insulting (even disgusting) terms are applied to women by men, positive and powerful terms are applied by men to other men (or, more usually, to themselves). This "double standard" is, alas, obvious as one browses through this colourful and otherwise amusing book. J Dickenson
METCALF, Fay D, and Matthew T DOWNEY, Using Local History in the Classroom, Nashville, American Association for State and Local History, 1982, 284pp. Local history has become so much a part of curriculum development during the last decade that two professionals in this subject have prepared this manual to meet the needs of teachers in the classroom situation. Whilst being urged to use local history sources and techniques for student projects in classes of secondary and college levels, teachers are not offered training in their use. From the material presented here, teachers can develop a continuity of local history courses and incorporate local history projects in these and other classes. In three parts, the book first describes skills and techniques used in the study of a specific place's history, its local resources and material culture. The second section suggests ways that local history can be used in studying a particular topic- such as family histories and economic, social or political history. The third part focuses on three approaches to teaching: the chronological, the topical, and the cultural-journalism methods.
112 Practical guidance on preparing course activities for students and assessing their work is valuable in that the students' projects can be co-ordinated with local historical societies and museums. Although the accent is on the relation of local history to the United States' regional history, some attention is paid to local history's relation to world history. Sample forms for documenting interviews, photographs and other data are included, and the volume is commendably compact. W Bennett
MISH, Frederick C: see HANKS
MITCHELL, Bruce, Old English Syntax, 2 vols., Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1985, 1080pp., £140. These two large volumes represent a massive achievement on the part of Dr Mitchell. He has been working on Old English syntax for many years now, and many of the points raised in these volumes have been prefigured in a stream of articles. The syntax is organised on a traditional basis, using traditional terminology. This is a sensible decision, since so much of what has already been written in this area uses this terminology and since there is insufficient evidence to suggest that a more modern framework would have produced more significant results. Instead of proceeding by issuing a definitive statement supported by a mass of examples, the book is more in the nature of a running dialogue with other studies on Old English syntax. In many respects it is more a statement of the current state of knowledge than a definitive pronouncement. To understand many of the points one needs access to a large and sometimes rather recondite library, for Dr Mitchell obviously feels that there is no need to reproduce material which is satisfactorily presented elsewhere. It will therefore be somewhat difficult for those who come new to the subject to get their bearings, for some of the previous arguments and discussions are alluded to rather than discussed in full. Equally, some of the supporting material must be sought for in other publications. In view of the length of the book as it stands, these decisions are sensible enough. In the framework of a short review it is not possible to comment on points of detail. But the whole work is a masterly exposition of a difficult subject. In it Dr Mitchell gives witness to his usual robust commonsense. While he is not prone to suffer fools gladly, he is always willing to accept his past mistakes and to learn. His book represents his, and our, ongoing knowledge. In it he corrects many faulty assumptions and shows only too frequently how often editors and others have failed to pay sufficient attention to syntax in their work. He tries to pay due regard to the differences between verse and prose, and he constantly bears in mind the nature of the data, written as it is at different times and places. Inevitably it is very fragmentary. This is an outstanding piece of scholarship which should be found in every serious library. Together with Campbell's Old English Grammar, it will form the basis of all scholarly work on Old English language for many years to come. We are all very much in Dr Mitchell's debt. N F Blake
MOORE, Terence and Christine CARLING, Understanding Language: Towards a Post Chomskyan Linguistics, London, Macmillan, 1982, 225pp., £17.50 hardback, £5.95 paper. In the wake of the Chomskyan revolution in language study, many scholars have voiced their dissatisfaction with the desire of Transformational-Generative grammarians to make linguistics
113 into an explanatory science. Terence Moore and Christine Carling carry this sense of disquiet a stage further here by proposing the abandonment of the fundamental tenet of modern linguistics, namely that language or linguistic knowledge is best studied as an independent and selfcontained system. The first pan of the book considers Chomsky's theory of grammar and what the authors see as the divergence of linguistics from language. In Pan II they make a number of suggestions leading to a post-Chomskyan linguistics. Although tentative, these ideas are grounded in the fact that "variability is a key concept in understanding how language operates". The authors conclude: "Limited but satisfying explanations for the workings of language are much more likely to emerge from a problem-based approach that examines specific questions of language acquisition and use in relation to the purposes, beliefs, expectations and experience of language users." Anyone who works with language and has wrestled (successfully or not) with the more recondite of the various theoretical approaches will say amen to that. J D A Widdowson
NEHLS, Dietrich, Studies in Descriptive English Grammar, Heidelberg, Groos, 1978, 114pp., DM17. The series Studies in Descriptive Linguistics aims to cover the latest developments in the description of natural languages, with particular emphasis on the requirements of teaching. It is therefore a series of particular relevance to students, teachers and devisers of teaching material. The present volume contains six articles by various authors concerned with the preferred (by the series) grammatical and semantico-syntactic levels of language and one in the increasingly important fields of discourse-pragmatics. The first six articles treat of such problematic (for the foreign learner) areas as the English article system, complex verbal structures and split infinitives. There is no attempt in the selection of articles to impose a unified approach: D A Lee, for example, uses a generative approach in his useful account of modal auxiliaries, whereas D Nehls uses a structural-functional basis in his analysis of the system of tense and aspect in English. This eclecticism suggests the sensible view that the prudent teacher of a language would undoubtedly use whatever means descriptive linguists provide, disregarding polarities and polemics, to clarify the intricacies of a language for the benefit of the foreign student, and on this basis, the present volume may be confidently recommended to teachers and to, at any rate, linguistically competent learners. K Reah
OATES, Phyllis Bennett, The Story of ~stern Furniture, illus. Mary SEYMOUR, London, Herbert Press, 1981, 253pp., £8.95 . This handsome and attractive book presents an entirely new outline of the development of furniture styles from ancient Egypt to the present day. Written with the general reader in mind, but also an essential basic text for students of furniture design, it represents excellent value for money. The history of furniture is traced in ten carefully planned chapters from the early designs of Egypt, Greece and Rome, through Byzantine, gothic, Renaissance, baroque,
114 rococo and Palladian styles, to neo-classicism, nineteenth century diversity, aestheticism and reform in the modern period. Impressive illustrations, at once attractive and functional, complement a clear and readable text. Folklorists will note that the wheel comes full circle in the account of the revival of hand-crafted furniture with which the book ends. A select bibliography and index complete this highly informative survey. J D A Widdowson
Old Hampton, Hampton Hill and Hampton Wick, comp. by members of the Borough of Twickenham IDeal History Society, Nelson, Hendon Publishing, 1982, 65 black and white plates, £2.90. The selection and description of the illustrations in this book are the work of Frank Atkins, Peter Chaplin and Gerald Heath (Hampton), Margery Onon (Hampton Hill) and Paul Barnfield (Hampton Wick). The pictures are almost entirely taken from the private collections of the authors - who are to be congratulated on their research. Hampton, Hampton Hill and Hampton Wick were all pan of the Anglo-Saxon parish of Hampton. The name is believed to have been derived from the Anglo-Saxon words meaning " the settlement in the bend of the river", aptly describing the location of the first stage of Hampton's development where Hampton Coun Palace and Home Park now are. The growth of Hampton after the Norman Conquest took place about a mile upstream where the Town came into being- and downstream where the hamlet or "Wick" developed. Hampton Hill, the name change from New Hampton taking place in 1890, was a distinct new village to the nonh of Hampton which has seen considerable change this century and the arrival of many commuting parishioners with work in the city. Most of the plates show the attractive suburbs in their village "glory" before the Local Government changes brought amalgamation with Twickenham in 1937 and Richmond upon Thames in 1965. No small tribute goes to Hendon Publishers who are adept at producing these glossy records of England's towns and villages, their professionalism complementing the fine research work of these local historians. W Bennett
OPLAND, Jeff, Xhosa Oral Poetry: Aspects of a Black South African Tradition, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Studies in Oral and Literate Culture, 1984, 303pp., £25. This is the first detailed study of Xhosa oral traditions, and is imponant for that reason alone. The examination of praise poetry, of the role of the imbongi, and of the relation of poetic utterance to politics is valuable and interesting in its own right. However, Professor Opland goes beyond these specific considerations to explore the wider implications of his research. Drawing on his previous work on Anglo-Saxon poetry, he is able to compare the place of poetry in broadly similar societies and to assess the imponance of oral tradition in such a social context. Funher, he is able, in the case of the Xhosa people, to note the impact of written language on oral style: this aspect of his work may usefully be compared with the experience of other peoples undergoing the transition from oral to literate culture, for example the Chukchi of the far north-east Soviet Union, whose traditional oral culture both influences and is influenced by their first novelist, Yuri Rytkheu.
115 Such methodical and disciplined study of Xhosa poetry, combined with such astute and stimulating observations on oral traditions and their place in society, yields a book that is both unusual and demanding. It will interest a wide range of people working in different disciplines. G Cawthra
PERKINS, Elizabeth M, A Tree in the Valley, Bognor Regis, New Horizon, 1982, 172pp., £5.25 . Those of us who live in South Yorkshire know that "the city of Sheffield is framed with the most beautiful landscape anyone could wish to see". Elizabeth Perkins thinks back to the thineenth century when the Mayfield Valley was pasture and woodland known as the Forest of Riveling and was in the township later known as Upper Hallam. The author can imagine how the inhabitants of that time had to work- receiving wages only enough to buy meals and ale. Six days did they labour, and "on the Sabbath Day they would rest and look at what their labours had achieved and sing praises to their God''. This book sings much praise to the author's God, with a sprinkling of the quiet hours of Patience Strong thrown in at appropriate times. The author invites you to many walks in the Mayfield Valley to visit the "old homesteads" still occupied by descendants of the family tree. The Marsden Family Tree assumes capital prominence in the book, with five generations of Marsdens intenwined with the Fox and the Broomhead family tree. This catalogue of family history, structured walks and chronological dates of rites de passage, however, suffers somewhat from its rather uninspiring style. Interesting, perhaps, to relatives and friends of the Marsden dynasty, a published book should also hold the general reader's interest. Even so, the photographs are interesting because of their relation to period dress, and the large sized typeface is easy on the eye. W Bennett
PLATT,], H WEBER and M L HO, The New Englishes, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984, 225pp., £12 .50 cloth, £5.95 paper. When is a New English not a New English? Are all new Englishes different because of differences in background languages and cultures or have they some things in common? Questions such as these are asked and answered in this book. The authors may not have satisfied everyone with their answers, but they have shown the diversity, the systematic nature and the legitimacy of some of the New Englishes. The extensive bibliography reveals the debt owed to authors from countries where the New Englishes are spoken. Thought-provoking and erudite, this book will be invaluable to teachers of English Language and Linguistics. W Bennett
PROCTER, Paul: see HANKS
RAVENSDALE, J R, History on your Doorstep, ed. Bryn BROOKS, London, BBC, 1982, 152pp., £4.50. This book concentrates on patterns of change which have taken place over the decades and centuries in houses, villages, towns and cities. Why have some villages remained villages whilst
116 others have disappeared or grown into towns and cities? This is neither a source book nor a do-it-yourself guide, for what is offered is something of the flavour of what passes when explorers of local history meet and exchange experiences. Local history follows a general pattern of change from open fields to enclosed land, from village to town to city. Wherever you live this pattern of change is still visible, and all you need is a receptive eye, informed research and a little patience to discover the History on Your Doorstep. W Bennett
REES, Nigel, Babes and Sucklings, London, Allen and Unwin, 1983, 89pp., £1.50. In the best-selling tradition of his books Graffiti, Eavesdroppings and Foot in Mouth, Nigel Rees now presents a selection of junior bans mots- a child's eye view of such grown-up matters as sex, religion and life in general. Babes and Sucklings is a delightful view of parents, pets, royalty and such subjects as breastfeeding as they appear to the young. A London mother submitted this gem: ''Just after I had weaned my second baby, his 3-year-old brother burst into the room one day, stared at my top half and asked: 'Are you keeping those in case you have another baby?"' You will need some mirth control for Babes and Sucklings- it's a laugh a mtnute. W Bennett
ROGERSON, J W, Anthropology and the Old Testament, Sheffield, ]SOT Press, 1984, 127pp. This book was published first by Blackwell's in 1978, and it has now been reissued in paperback by the ]SOT press whose willingness and ability to make books of this nature more widely available are very commendable. In his book Professor Rogerson attempts to show how Old Testament scholars have taken hold of ideas and concepts in related areas like anthropology and folklore and applied them to their own scholarly field. In doing this they have often either not understood fully how the concepts were used in the field in which they were first introduced or realised that the concepts are themselves now outdated in their original field. Hence it is implied that Old Testament scholars are not making full use of the help which allied disciplines have to offer. Inevitably the book has a somewhat negative aspect, because it tends to focus on the misunderstandings of biblical scholars. But it also has a more positive side, for it continually stresses how valuable the concepts and insights generated in neighbouring disciplines could be. Because of this approach, this is a work which could be read with profit by most scholars, for it will make clear to them how easily they become trapped within their own prejudices and attitudes. Although the examples refer to biblical scholarship, they could easily be paralleled from other academic areas. Naturally because the book is so short, Professor Rogerson does not have time to explain the bases of related subjects in any depth, and so he is forced to focus on one or two ideas from these subjects. But this may be a virtue in that the book is able to make its point more clearly precisely because the examples are not laboured or lost in a mass of detail which might be difficult for others to wade through. This is a stimulating study, which can be read with profit by those in most academic disciplines. N F Blake
117 ROWLAND, R N G, comp., Acton as it Wfls, Nelson, Hendon Publishing, 72 black and white plates, .£2.80. This selection of photographs illustrates places and personalities from the history of Acton over several hundred years. The history of Acton is long, the name Actone (the farm by the Oak Trees) being first recorded in 1181 when it appeared in St Paul's Domesday. The character of Acton until late in the nineteenth century was largely agricultural, with modern industry arriving in the twentieth century at Acton Vale. These photographs are a valuable piece of local history which enables the London village, swallowed into the Borough ofEaling in 1965, to retain its identity as the "washtub of London" (Plate 55). You can find out why Acton was given this nickname by buying this fascinating book. W Bennett
ROWSE, A L, Shakespeare's Sonnets: A Modern Edition with Prose Versions , Introduction and Notes, 3rd edn., Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1984, 311pp., .£20 hardback, .£7 .95 paper. The views of Professor Rowse on Shakespeare and the Elizabethan period in general are well known already by reputation, if not in detail. He has claimed to unravel several problems in the Sonnets such as the identity of the Dark Lady, though his views have not won widespread acceptance. They are restated here with their usual vigour. The edition contains a short introduction, text with facing translation, and an occasional note. The notes are more historical than linguistic or literary. The translation is usually quite literal, and sometimes it may well prove difficult for an inexperienced reader to know how the translation was arrived at. For those who wish to be steeped in the controversies of the Sonnets this may be a good book, but the reader will find no guidance in it to those other authorities who have written on them. N F Blake
SAVILLE-TROIKE, Muriel, The Ethnography of Communication: An Introduction, Oxford, Blackwell, 1982, 290pp., .£15 hard cover, .£6.95 paper. Intended as an introduction to the ethnography of speaking, this book is organised in such a way as to answer the question "What does a speaker need to know to communicate appropriately within a particular speech community, and how does he or she learn?" Thus the text deals with such topics as varieties of language, the analysis of speech events, the psychology of communication, and the acquisition of communicative skills. Deeply influenced by the work of Hymes, and, to a lesser extent, other innovators such as Sherzer and Gumperz, the book introduces the student not only to basic concepts but to a wide range of relevant ongoing research. Clear, readable, well-organised and with an excellent bibliography it is a first class introductory text. G Bennett
SAMPSON, Geoffrey, Liberty and Language, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1979, 25lpp., .£5. 75. This review is by now something of a postscript on a remarkable book already widely praised for its spirited and uncompromising challenge to Chomsky's linguistic and political theories
118 ,------
which have been so influential in both fields for almost three decades. Geoffrey Sampson finds it hard to accept that Chomsky's politics followed from his linguistics, and here many would agree with him. He rightly asserts that "Chomsky is entitled to argue for his political views on their own merits .... But he is emphatically not entitled to claim that these views, which have a long pedigree and had been considered and rejected by many before Chomsky espoused them, must now be re-evaluated in the light of fresh suppon derived from novel theories of language and psychology which the average citizen is not equipped to follow and must take on trust." But it is with alternative meanings (and ramifications) of the terms creativity and freedom that Geoffrey Sampson takes issue specifically: "It is so very easy to agree verbally with Chomsky's central slogans, while failing to notice that the fine print on the contract defines those slogans in such a way that one has committed oneself to the very reverse of what one intended." As with I A Richards' early attack on Chomsky in One Word More, no-one who reads Liberty and Language will rest easy until he has re-examined his allegiances to Chomsky, whether linguistic or political. J D A Widdowson
SCHUCHARDT, Hugo, The Ethnography of Variation: Selected Writings on Pidgins and Creoles, ed. and trans. T L MARKEY, intro. by Derek BICKERTON, Ann Arbor, Karoma Publishers, 1979, xxii, 152pp. The work of Hugo Schuchardt (1842-1927) is best remembered for his vigorous attack on the neogrammarians of the late nineteenth century. Yet in many respects he was a remarkable pioneer in the field of pidgin and creole studies, an achievement recognised only a century later in the work of DeCamp, Bickenon, Stewan, Dillard and Bailey amongst others who, in Bickenon's words, have established "the concept of a creole continuum" and "the genetic relationship of American Black English to an antecedent creole"- concepts already foreshadowed by Schuchardt. The eight anicles presented in translation here are unabbreviated, apart from some of the longer and less relevant notes. The translation itself poses serious problems since Schuchardt's prose is "an impenetrable tangle of Schachsatze", but T L Marky has succeeded in rendering the originals into accessible prose, dense though the material is, and we are indebted to him for making these early insights available for an English-speaking readership, not least because they reveal a remarkable mind at work over a period of some thirty years, grappling effectively with the most intransigent of linguistic problems: a remarkable collection which amply repays the reader and corroborates the truism that there is nothing new under the sun. J D A Widdowson
SORNIG, Karl, Lexical Innovation: A Study of Slang, Colloquialisms and Casual Speech, Pragmatics and Beyond, II:5, Amsterdam, John Benjamins, 1981, 117pp., H£1.38/$14. In all the flurry of linguistic activity during the past thirty five years it seems that plain, ordinary words have been surprisingly neglected in the scramble to produce often elusive all-embracing theories of language as a whole. Happily, the solidly grounded European basis of lexical studies remains undaunted and, as in this interesting little study, is now turning its experienced
119 attention to the beckoning delights of neologism. Ranging widely over a notoriously difficult field, Kark Sornig succeeds in opening up not only many neglected highways but also many fruitful byways. If the overall impression is one of diffuseness and a lack of precise focus, this is remedied by the detailed table of contents which is as a lamp to the reader's pleasant travels. But the real bonus is in the copious examples quoted - a rich store indeed. J D A Widdowson
SPENDER, Dale, Man Made Language, 2nd edn., London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985, 250pp., £5.95. It is good to see Dale Spender's challenging and thought-provoking book back, for it is concerned to show how, in today's society, language is "man made". At every level language is dominated by men and male concerns, she argues. Public meetings are dominated by men, and so is private conversation. Men talk more, interrupt more often, and will "cut out" any rival conversational initiative. In these context, women are merely passive "feeders" of lines and subjects. The field of language study also is dominated by men. The majority of linguists are men and they give male names to the structures and functions of language. Likewise, though the terms "he", "him", "mankind" are assumed to have universal application, in fact they merely ignore women's contribution to human affairs. Other examples abound. Dale Spender believes that language and naming are vitally important. Language is not only a way of describing the world as it is, but how it is believed to be, and how it may be. By naming women and female concerns derogatorily, the culture devalues women. This book has a very positive message. Women, until now a "muted" group in our society, must begin to create new words and new meanings. They must take the language back from men. J Dickenson
STCLAIR, Leonard L, and Alan B GOVENAR, Stoney knows How, Lexington, University Press of Kentucky, 1981, 149pp., $13.50. Stoney St Clair is a master storyteller. Born in 1912 to the family of a miner in the hills of West Virginia, he contracted rheumatoid arthritis when he was four and spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. His parents taught him to read and write at home, and while he was in the hospital he taught himself to draw. At ttfteen years of age, Stoney joined the sideshow of the Cole Brothers Circus as a sword-swallower and a year later, on the road, he met the famous tattooer August Coleman who started Stoney on his career with a tattoo machine and some good advice. Stoney travelled for more than twenty years with circuses and carnivals, but in the winter he always opened a tattoo shop. Came the spring, and Stoney was back with the circus; "I had the sawdust in my shoes" he said. Mter 1950, Stoney did not want to go back to the circus, for now "they bring out the women in evening gowns and they sing a few songs for you". Stoney became a year-round tattoo shop operator, visited during the last seven years of his life by folklorist Alan Govenar. After the two became friends, Stoney and Govenar agreed
120 r------
to "make a book" about Stoney's life; Stoney knows How is that book, a record of Stoney's spirited oral reminiscences. The book tells a great deal about the old-time ways of the circus and carnival, and equally about the history of an ancient folk an like tattooing. Yet, its real focus is on Stoney, a man easy to know and easy to like. The reader gets a hard look at a hard life described as only one who has lived it could describe it. Stoney says in the book: "I think I have my own style in drawing tattoos." He also has his own style in talking - hard-hitting, straight from the shoulder and straight to the "ass" if needed. The colloquial style goes well with the racy exploits of Stoney who lived life to the full until his sudden death in 1980. W Bennett
SWINFEN, Ann, In Defence of Fantasy: A Study of the Genre in English and American Literature Since 194.5, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984, 253pp., £6.95. Ann Swinfen begins by pointing out that writers who specialise in fantasy are often forced to present their work as children's fiction. The genre, however, merits much wider and more serious consideration. Rather than being childish, fantasy is ageless; rather than appealing to limited interests, it often broaches matters of perennial concern. Nor is the genre escapist. At its best, it can be used to explore problems in philosophy, religion, politics and social organisation. This is the basic "defence" of the genre which the title of Ann Swinfen's book speaks of. The best chapters are therefore those which directly illustrate this central argument. In chapter 7, for example, the author discusses the religious and philosophical ideals underlying the work of C S Lewis, Leon Garfield and Ursula Le Guin, and in the following chapter deals with the political and social analysis in work by John Christopher, Russell Hoban and Richard Adams. Her detailed consideration of these six novelists does indeed constitute a defence of the fantasy novel. The earlier chapters are perhaps a little less satisfactory, partly because of the classification system employed to organise them. Novels are categorised, according to the element of fantasy that distinguishes them, into those about "Thlking Beasts", "Parallel Worlds" (time-shift novels), "Secondary Worlds", transformations, and changes of scale, power or size. Of course, the classics of the genre, such as The Lord ofthe Rings or the Narnia books, contain several of these elements, and so tend to be discussed several times over in rather fragmentary manner. At other times, the need to handle a large number of texts under a single heading means that discussion is reduced to plot-summaries and brief evaluations. These minor criticisms apart, I found this a very readable and interesting book, which deals with a neglected genre very thoroughly and with style and enthusiasm. It provides a comprehensive reader's guide to a genre too long underrated and consigned (like the folktale) to the nursery, for which it was not primarily designed. G Bennett
TAFT, Michael, Blues Lyric Poetry: A Concordance, 3 vols., Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, Vol. 362, New York and London, Garland, 1984, xxxi, 3150pp., $300. After an initial period of Luddite suspicion, computer concordances in the humanities have now come of age. This breakthrough is due in no small measure to the pioneering work of
121 Professor Michael] Preston, Director of the Center for Computer Research in the Humanities at the University of Colorado at Boulder, who is general editor of this series. The scholarly world is equally indebted to Garland Publishers for their farsightedness in their support of these ventures and in making these concordances available on fine quality paper, handsomely bound, as is essential when one consideres the frequent use and handling of such volumes in libraries and archives. This latest addition to the series represents a massive achievement by any standards, and amply demonstrates the extraordinary usefulness of such concordances, not only for folklorists, ethnomusicologists, literary scholars, students of American history and Mro-American culture, but also to linguists for whom all concordances offer exciting prospects for research into the nature of language in its many forms. Dr Michael'Thft has succeeded in drawing together over 2,000 blues lyrics, commercially recorded between 1920 and 1942. Written and sung by black performers and originally intended for a black American audience, these songs constitute a unique and representative collection of the blues tradition in the period between the first and second world wars. Over 3 50 singers are represented here, and what is more, each song has been transcribed personally by Dr Taft -a monumental task in itself, and one whose notorious difficulty is acknowledged by all who have attempted transcription from electronic recordings. The ultimate test of the concordance of course lies in the accuracy of the transcriptions - something that time alone will bring to the proof. The three volumes, each over 1000 pages in length, present the material, as is usual in such works, alphabetically by keyword, revealing both the constant features of the blues lyric tradition and also many intriguing insights into the genre and its expression - a study of verb forms alone would be fascinating in itself, for example. In a concise but very informative Preface, Dr Taft introduces the work, refers the reader to further discussion in his Blues Lyric Poetry: An Anthology (N.York, Garland, 1983) and explains his methodology. There follows a full discography of the recordings, and volume III ends with a Ranking Frequency List and an Index. For me, the most convincing aspect of the concordance is to be found on pp.3031-3036 where the author's integrity and honesty are revealed in the listing of indecipherable keywords - a very small number when one considers the enormous throughput involved. Like every transcriber, I wonder what those singers were articulating, but at least some mystery remains for others to solve! J D A Widdowson
TANNEN, Deborah, Conversational Style: Analyzing Talk Among Friends, Norwood, New Jersey, Ablex, Language and Learning for Human Service Professions, 1984, 188pp., £24 hardback, £15.95 paper. On the face of it, nothing seems easier than to base one's PhD dissenation on the conversational interaction of one's own friends. In practice, nothing turns out to be more difficult. For those of us who have attempted this task, Deborah Tannen's book makes fascinating reading. The thesis of which this is a rewriting, was based on conversation between the author and five friends recorded at a Thanksgiving dinner six years previously. The advantages and pitfalls of this methodology are well illustrated, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. Deborah Tannen's
122 l ------·-- -
discussion of her difficulties in turning friends into data is very honest, and a must for anyone who would follow her example. What machine to use and where to place it? How much to play back to the participants and how to use the playback? How much private understanding to incorporate into transcriptions and analysis? At what stage to ask permission to publish? - all these questions loom large for the researcher, as they did for Deborah Tannen. One of the most elementary and vital among these questions is whether the writer should admit her closeness to the data, writing simply in the first person about what "I" said or meant, or whether she should attempt to distance herself from her material and write as impersonally as possible in the third person. Deborah Tannen is an honest person who prefers the direct approach: from this initial decision spring both the strengths and the weaknesses of her book. For example, in writing this review I am able to make statements like "Deborah Tannen is an honest person who prefers the direct approach" because of this decision. The personality of the author necessarily shines through for she is her own best informant. At times the book reads like a confessional, citing instances where her headlong approach to social interaction has plainly astonished or scared the person to whom she is directing her attention. Her introspective analysis of these occasions leads her to distinguish two (opposed) conversational strategies which she terms "high involvement" and "high considerateness" interactive styles. At the Thanksgiving dinner, three participants preferred styles at the consideration end of the spectrum, three at the involvement end. Where each group talked together, conversation was easy, satisfying and without misunderstanding; when the styles crossed, hiccoughs in the smooth progression of interaction necessarily occurred. Because the author is able to identify herself as a typical "high involvement" strategist, she can not only elucidate the surface features of the style but also explain its mechanics and explicate what sort of effect it is supposed to create. The aim of high involvement is to make the respondent feel special, to generate a cheerful and exhilarating sense of noise, enthusiasm and spontaneous fun, to ensure that talk never slackens or- God forbid! - fails long enough to produce SILENCE. Hence high involvement strategists rely on devices such as personal topics; machine-gun questioning; rapid throwing out of ideas, statements, notions, queries, observations; conversational overlap; shouting down of others and persistence in making oneself heard; fast pace, mutual self-revelation; exaggerated non-verbal and paralinguistic signals. Deborah Tannen uses observation, introspection and analysis to produce a first-class description of the features and motivation of this style. She cannot do the same for the "high consideration" strategists. This is because, as she confesses, she did not stop talking long enough to listen to them, and secondly because, even when (during the playback of the tapes) she asked these people to explain their style, she still failed to understand it, so different was it from what she was accustomed to. It is here that the weakness born of the initial decision to use the first person begins to reveal itself. First of all, if the author had opted to describe herself as "D.T." rather than "1", it would have been necessary to rely less on intuition and more on careful analysis of surface structures to explicate the "high involvement" strategy. It would have been easier therefore to follow the same analytical principles in looking at "high consideration" strategies, and she could have used cross comparison to arrive at a better description of this style. Secondly, I fear that she shows a lot of prejudice in favour of her own interactive style (which a more distanced approach would not have let through). This reveals itself even in the term used for the style - who is to say that considerate speakers are not "involved" with others or with the interaction? Again, the author makes constant references to the "expressiveness" of the "high involvement" style - to one used to a more
123 sedate pace this "expressiveness" seems like mere noisiness (my prejudice!). Naturally we all bring our prejudices to any analysis of conversational style because we all bring our prejudices to conversation. Personally I am grateful to Deborah Tannen for giving such a vivid account of a style which (I think) is alien to my own. I say "I think" because without analysis one cannot be sure: clearly Deborah Tannen for instance found the analysis of her own part in the Thanksgiving dinner a revealing and chastening experience. I would like to make two final points which follow from these observations. First that the book fills the reader with curiosity about what sort of speaker one is oneself, an enthusiasm for going out and doing one's own fieldwork and analysis, and an understanding of an interactive style often found intimidating by the uninitiated (I have, for example, myself complained bitterly in such company that "No one would talk to me." Now I know that the fault is mine- "Too backward in coming forward" as they say round here). Secondly, while being a serious contribution to conversational analysis, the book has some of the vital human interest of a novel. By the end one really feels one knows the participants. My heart bleeds for poor baffled "Chad" and for "Sally", the only Brit, whose quiet voice is lost in the noise of the "rambunctious crowd": it goes out too to the loud but contrite author who has to reveal all her mistakes and faux pas. It seems irrelevant, even perhaps disparaging, to say that I could not put the book down: nevertheless it is true and meant as a compliment. Because it is both a serious investigation and a personal document, it provides the ideal introduction to discourse analysis. It should make many converts to a most fascinating field of linguistic study. G Bennett
1DDOROV, Tzvetan, Symbolism and Interpretation, trans. Catherine POTTER, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1983, 175pp., £12.50.
The title of this book, though a literal transl~tion of Todorov's own title, "Symbolisme et Interpretation", is slightly misleading, for it could be taken to imply concern with a wider subject than the actual topic of the book, which is largely restricted to a consideration of verbal symbolism in relation to the production, reception and interpretation of discourse. Readers unacquainted with Todorov's work should perhaps go first to his earlier book, translated by Catherine Potter in 1982 as "Theories of the Symbol", in which Todorov discusses the contribution of the German Romantics and Freud, as well as that of St Augustine and the classical rhetoricians, whose achievement he returns to in the present work. In Symbolism and Interpretation Todorov argues, through a consideration of verbal symbolism, that the production and reception of discourse are aspects of a single phenomenon which cannot be successfully examined as if it consisted of two distinguishable processes. He therefore seeks a reunion of the traditionally separate disciplines of rhetoric and hermeneutics, presenting his case by means of an interesting reconsideration of the tradition of patristic exegisis, in which he gives particular attention to the interpretative theories of St Augustine. Todorov traces the modern tradition of philological exegisis to its origins in Spinoza's "ilactatus Theologicus" and considers the work of the main nineteenth century French and German philologists, before ending with a consideration of contemporary interpretative strategies, particularly those emerging from the work of Marx and Freud (modern developments, for Todorov, in the tradition of patristic exegisis) and those of, for instance, Levi Strauss or RomanJakobson (which Todorov
124 relates to Spinoza's procedures). The author considers the continued co-existence of irreconcilable interpretative strategies to be bound up with the copresence of collectivist and individualist ideologies and with corresponding forms of social organisation: his own position, that of one involved with both types of interpretative strategy but committed to neither of them, seems to him to be representative of western intellectuals of his generation, who can be characterised, he asserts, as embodying, "the suspension of choice and the tendency to understand everything without doing anything." Todorov's intention is, "to remain objective, insofar as possible. I have no new "theory of the symbol" or "theory of interpretation" to propose .... I have tried to establish a framework that makes it possible to understand how so many different theories, so many irreconcilable sub divisions, so many contradictory definitions, can have existed - each one including (this is my hypothesis), a measure of truth, but a truth which has emerged only at the price of bracketing off other aspects of the same phenomenon .... I have tried to understand, and if possible, maintain, the complex and plural." It is doubtful whether there exists in England the kind of readership implicitly postulated by Todorov's work. Concerns which in France still may be addressed to a notionally broad, albeit small, reading public, in England are likely to evoke response from a few specialists only. In the absence of a more appropriate audience, Todorov's work will be valuable in English if it encourages some of our practitioners in linguistics to pay more attention to the history of their study and to take the theoretical and social implications of their work more seriously; it may also perform a useful sanitary function if it discourages a few of our professional literary critics from too deftly reducing modes of enquiry well established upon the continent into the usual insular spatterings of modish jargon. However, I would not wish praise for Todorov's work in an area where recent English scholarship has been weak to appear to imply that "Symbolism and Interpretation" is beyond the reach of criticism: whilst Todorov is probably familiar with I A Richards' "Philosophy of Rhetoric" (or Paul Ricoeur's account of it) and acknowledges a debt to William Empson, his bias towards the language of objectivity and detachment makes him seemingly unaware of the imponance to his theme of the practice of the very distinguished twentieth century critics of literature working in English - I am thinking particularly of figures such as Yeats, Lawrence, Eliot and, within the academies, F R Leavis, D W Harding, H A Mason. It is not only theorists whose work is of theoretical importance. What is at issue is which modes of enquiry and critical discussion can most fruitfully connect the comprehension of discourse with the conduct of life. Todorov's dear-minded detachment may entail a kind of social paralysis, though to say this is not to imply any disrespect for Todorov, nor incomprehension of the pressures he is resisting when he states his intention, "to understand, and if possible maintain, the complex and the plural." S E Clarke
VESTERGAARD, T, and K SCHRODER, The Language of Advertising, Oxford, Blackwell, 1985, £19.50 hardback, £7.50 paper. Whether we like it or not, modern advertising permeates most areas of our existence, and it does affect the way we think. In its most insidious forms, it plays on our ideas of class and sex roles, and reinforces our prejudices, especially those in our subconscious. The most important consideration of the adveniser is to get the consumer to associate the product with a panicular image he wishes to project. This book examines the linguistic content
125 of advenisements, and how this carries the message of the panicular image to the consumer in the most effective way. The authors are very keen to involve the reader in examining advenisements him/herself, and to recognise the coven meanings behind the oven message. This is easy with the more blatant advenisements, but it is fascinating to look at the apparently more innocuous examples and unravel the manipulative language. J Dickenson
VICKERY, Roy, ed., Plant-Lore Studies, Mistletoe Series, Vol. 18, London, The Folklore Society, 1984, 261pp., £6.50. This volume comprises papers read at a joint conference of the Botanical Society and the Folklore Society held at the University of Sussex in April, 1983. As might be expected, it is a somewhat eclectic selection, which considers topics as diverse as the linguistic, anistic and folklore aspects of tares in the biblical parable, and the Victorian "Language of Flowers". Many of the papers, unfonunately, are both shon and lightweight; others are unduly descriptive. More serious papers, however, may be found - work on wild plants as famine food in eighteenth century Ireland and Scotland (by Susan M Drury); the pragmatics of classification problems (by Brian Morris); and the use of plants in systems of verbal control (by J D A Widdowson). A volume of conference proceedings can only be as interesting or scholarly as the papers submitted, so it is hardly the editor's fault that the volume is ultimately bitty and disappointing. It does, however, suggest that it is time that the Folklore Society took a bold step into the twentieth century and sponsored work into topics folkloristic rather than "folksy". G Bennett
VINER, D), The Thames & Severn Canal, Nelson, Hendon Publishing, 1982, 55 black and white plates, £2.60. First published in 1975, this book focuses on a canal which commands an affection among enthusiasts which few other canals can match. The T. and S. (as it is affectionately known) has always possessed character, and its route traverses one of England's most attractive regions, the Cotswold hills. This survey captures some of the atmosphere and character of the Thames & Severn canal by the use of historical photographs; the times during and after its working life are shown to great effect. This is in no sense a history of the Canal or a detailed guide of the route, but rather a rare opponunity to bring the Canal into focus during the last years of the nineteenth and the early years of this present century. Most of the photographs reproduced here are over fifty years old, and have not been published before. The printing is glossy and pleasant both to look on and feel, with the explanatory material accompanying the plates helpful and succinct. A most attractive book from the Curator of the Corinium Museum, Cirencester, which will appeal to many. W Bennett
126 VINER, D ], Transport in the Cotswolds, Nelson, Hendon Publishing, 1981, 44 black and white plates, .£2.50. This album has been gathered from the rich source of material which awaits any researcher who has a keen eye and enthusiastic feelings for the Cotswolds. The volume has been produced as a companion to its predecessor and could be read in conjunction with that: Old Cotswold Photographs (1977). The theme of historic transport photographs has been adopted in this latest book because of the wide range of material available and the growing popularity of the subject. Transport in the Cotswolds is particularly fascinating in its photographic appeal, for we are viewing in its pages a way of life which has passed almost totally from view. Nostalgia is a popular pastime in this present age when phenomena come and go so quickly. W Bennett
VROOMAN, Nicholas Curchin and Patrice Avon MARVIN, eds., andJane GUDMUNDSON and Wayne GUDMUNDSON, photographers, Iron Spirits, North Dakota Council on the Arts, 1982, 116pp., 86 plates, $10.95. This is a visually stunning documentary record of the folk art of the German Russian Catholic community of North Dakota. The photographs pay tribute to the art of the blacksmiths who created the iron grave crosses, the "Iron Spirits" of the title, and the text honours the community whose tradition it expresses. The subject matter is first introduced by a set of eleven very beautiful photographs of the countryside and the crosses as artefacts within a landscape. There next follows a personal account of growing up in a German Russian Catholic community, then a selection of quotations recalling the funeral customs of the past (the latter accompanied by more pictures of the crosses). Another section presents the work of individual craftsmen through photographs and the testimony of surviving friends and relations. All this textual material is taken directly "from mouths of men" and is quoted apparently verbatim without undue editing or tidying up. Lastly, a scholarly study of ethnicity and religion puts both oral testimony and pictorial documentation into context. Altogether a valuable - indeed covetable - book. G Bennett
WATSON,James, and Anne HILL, A Dictionary of Communication and Media Studies, london, Edward Arnold, 1984, 183pp., £15 hardback, £5.95 paper. "Communication" has become a hurrah word, its function being claimed as a panacea for all the problems which beset the human race. Communication skills are taught in schools and colleges, but rarely get beyond such basic practices as how to get by in the world of work. Occasionally a book is published which treats communication as an area of study rich in rewards of the mind and senses. This dictionary is such a work, recognising communication as the ultimate metaskill and the discipline from which most other disciplines derive their base. Knowledgable access to the specialist terminology of communications and media analysis is well presented with great clarity and good cross-referencing. Anyone wanting to look up the
127 effects of the media will find entries like: media effects; mass media effects; influence of the mass media, all leading to the detailed entry, effects of the mass media. This dictionary is a pioneer in the serious study of the ever-expanding communication terminology; both students and educators will be helped by a volume that comes to grips with facts and theories expressing human experience. W Bennett
WHALE, John, Put it in Writing, London, Dent, 1984, 151pp., .£6.95 . Based on the author's weekly series for the Sunday Times magazine (September 1983 - April 1984), this book has a lively and entertaining approach which makes the reader want to Put it in Wn"ting. John Whale puts good writing within the reach of everyone by taking brief passages from first class modern writers and using them to show how you can write vividly yet within the conventions. Using examples from some of the best writing in English over the past four hundred years he backs up his argument that writing with humanity does not mean misunderstanding and lack of clarity. The thirty four chapters cover topics like planning before you write, overcoming writer's block and punctuating according to the pauses you want; advice is given about words to avoid, "rules" to ignore, and how to present clear, rhythmic and variable work. You are invited throughout to free yourself from misconceptions, trusting your own speech, ears and reading in order to produce writing of value. The lively, entertaining, yet constructive approach that John Whale uses in Put it in Writing means that this book will appeal to all who welcome guidance and encouragement in their writing projects. It is a pleasure to read and, like the author, I too believe that "there is no way of learning to write so effective as observant reading." So- write engagingly, be confident in sounding like yourself, communicate well, and always keep this book with you. W Bennett
WILBERT, Johannes, ed., with Karin SIMONEAU, Folk Literature of the Ge Indians, UCLA Latin American Studies, Vol. 44, Los Angeles, University of California, 1978, 653pp. It is only in recent years that the folk literature of South American Indian peoples has become more widely known, largely due to the work of such anthropologists as Levi-Strauss. Even so, the great wealth of this literature has remained for the most pan unexplored and underexploited. This important volume, the fourth in this pioneering series to be devoted to this topic, brings together for the first time no less than 177 narratives which admirably complement Levi-Strauss's epic work The Raw and the Cooked. The collection comprises most of the texts available in print for the Cayapo and Timbira groups of the northern Ge Indians of eastern Brazil and, for the first time in English, gives access in a single volume to narratives originally published in French, German and Portuguese, as well as English, between 1914 and 1968. Linguistic difficulties are inevitable in the presentation of such texts, and the collecting and editing methods of the authors represented are equally diverse. What is more, apart from those collected by Lukesch (published in 1968), the narratives lack contextual information. Nevertheless, the parallels with folk narratives from other cultures are remarkable, and
128 comparison is facilitated by the grouping of the tales under the headings: Origins (i.e. creation of the cosmos and the world), Animals (in which the armadillo, the turtle and the tapir figure prominently), and Adventures. Each tale is followed by a summary a.nd a list of motifs, and indexed by narrative, topic, and distribution by group, as well as alphabetically, in the indexes. A work of meticulous and painstaking scholarship, this collection is a fine exemplar for future studies. J D A Widdowson
WILBERT, Johannes, ed., Folk Literature ofthe Selknam Indians, UCLA Latin American Center Publications, Vol. 32, Los Angeles, University of California, 1975, 266pp. The material presented in this volume was collected by Martin Gusinde, a Catholic Priest, during a series of expeditions to Tierra del Fuego beginning in 1918, and was originally published in the first volume of his three-volume work Die Feuerland-Indianer (19 31-7 4 ). His work rescued a valuable ethnographic record of a people whose history was believed to extend over several thousand years but was then fast approaching extinction- indeed only 276 Selknam indians were thought still to be alive at the time of his first expedition. The t.tfty nine narratives are wide-ranging in theme, though primarily mythological. They are presented with motif and type references, a useful glossary and a bibliography. J D A Widdowson
WOODEFORDE, John, Farm Buildings in England and Wales, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1983, 150pp., illus., £7.95. Lucid and succinct, John Woodeforde's Farm Butldings in England and U/ales constitutes an introduction to the subject which also offers some observations on the current prospects for traditional farm buildings. The book is divided into two sections, Part I being an outline of · the main phases of farming history and agricultural building from early times to the present day and Part II consisting of sixty eight line drawings illustrating, with brief commentary, the main types of farm building (including regional variations) and their historical evolution. In Part I Mr Woodeforde draws on a wide range of printed sources and also on his own observations made over a period of years; his fluent and easy style reflects his familiarity with his subject, and the generalisations necessary in a book of this sort are appropriately qualified with brief reference to particular instances. Part II is distinguished by instructive line drawings by Mr John Penoyre, co-author of the Observers' Book of Architecture. In 1972, R W Brunskill in his Illustrated Handbook of Vernacular Architecture observed: "there is scarcely a single traditional farm building type which can be employed or even adapted to contemporary farming methods .... stone tile will not be replaced much longer and stone walls will eventually crumble; the multi-purpose steel and asbestos shed will replace the farmyard and its attendant buildings. The process is in its early stages, but before long the evidence will disappear." Writing in 1983, Mr Woodeforde feels able to remark: "Today there is a swing back to conversions, and farmers with a legacy of buildings from the past increasingly refuse to be
129 ____ _j embarrassed by them, seeking to repair and adapt rather than automatically order something new. Thus it is not hard to find farm stables sheltering milk-cooling equipment and granaries, soft fruit and potatoes; ancient corn barns have regained a variety of agricultural functions such as housing combine harvesters, grain dryers and workshop equipment; eighteenth century cow houses, with or without the original stalls, may actually contain cows ...." It is to be hoped that Mr Woodeforde is right and that the barbarous destruction of irreplaceable agricultural buildings encouraged by central government during the 1960s and 70s is becoming itself a thing of the past. As an introduction to an area of study in which much still remains to be done, this book can be recommended as a lively, intelligent and scholarly work of popularisation. S E Clarke
YOUNG, David, Introducing English Grammar, London, Hutchinson, 125pp., £4.95. This book is written for the many post-school students following courses in English Language, literature or linguistics who find they are expected to be familiar with basic grammatical concepts related to the description of English. Many have never been taught these, have failed to understand them or have never had to put them into practice. This volume is carefully structured and designed to build up students' confidence and give them a positive approach to grammar. Diagrams are well integrated with the text with exercises for every point, and the whole is attractively presented. W Bennett
130 CENTRE FOR ENGLISH CULTURAL TRADITION AND LANGUAGE PUBLICATIONS LORE AND LANGUAGE The journal of the Centre for English Cultural Tradition and Language was established in 1969 and is published twice a year. It includes articles on all aspects offolklore and language, notes and queries, book and record reviews and many other items of concern to all who share an interest in language and traditions etc. Each volume has an index. Current Subscription: Vol4 Nos. 1 and 2 (1985) Individual Subscription £8.00 Institutional Subscription £10.00 Back Issues: Vol.l Nos.1-10 Quly 1969- Jan. 1974) each number £0.75 Vol2 Nos.1-10 Quly 1974- Jan 1979) each number £1.50 Vol.3 Nos.1- 5 Quly 1979- July 1981) each number £2.00 Vol.3 Nos.~10 Qan. 1982- Jan. 1984) each number £2.50 FOLKLORE RESEARCH REGISTER This annual register of research in folklore and related disciplines is designed to improve communications between researchers at all levels. FOLKLORE RESEARCH 1984-85 compiled by Derek Schofield (1984) £2.00 CECTAL OCCASIONAL PUBLICATIONS 1. CASTLETON GARLAND, by Geoff Lester, Paul and Georgina Smith (1977) £0.40 A descriptive study of the Garland Ceremony held on 29 May each year in Castleton, Derbyshire. 2. CHRISTMAS GREETINGS, by Paul and Georgina Smith (1976) £0.60 An illustrated examination of variety and changes found in Christmas customs. 3. SPEAK SOFTLY: Euphemisms and Such, by Vernon Noble. (1982) £3.50 A descriptive account of euphemisms in English, with an extensive annotated glossary of their forms. 4. MORRIS AND MATACHIN: A Study in Comparative Choreography, by John ForresL (1984) £3.00 CECTAL RESEARCH GUIDES 1. TRADITIONAL DRAMA, by G Smith, P S Smith and J D A Widdowson (1977) £0.50 The suggested areas of investigation include performance, disguise, costume, attitude of performers and audience, and relevant background information on informant, performers and community. 2. CECTAL TAPE ARCHIVE HANDBOOK (in preparation) 3. BALLAD AND FOLKSONG, by Mary Ellen Brown and Paul Smith. (1982) £1.25 The Guide explores four distinct but hierarchically overlapping areas: community/ group singing traditions; participants in the tradition; individual songs; specific contexts of performance. CECTAL FACSIMILES 1. MORRICE DANCERS AT REVESBY, Introduction by MJ Preston, M G and P S Smith. (1976) £1.50 Reproduced from the manuscript in the British Library. 2. 'A PETYGREE OF THE PLOUBOYS . . , ' Introduction by Paul Smith Reproduced from the manuscript in the Lincoln County Archive (forthcoming) 3. Rev. J Hunter, THE HALLAMSHIRE GLOSSARY, Introduction by J D A Widdowson and P S £4.50 Smith (1983) CECTAL BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND SPECIAL SERIES 1. BALLADS IN THE CHARLES HARDING FIRTH COLLECTION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF £5.00 SHEFFIELD, A descriptive and indexed catalogue by Peter Carnell. (1979) 2. CHAPBOOKS AND TRADITIONAL DRAMA, by M J Preston, M G and P S Smith Part I, Alexander and the King of Egypt. (1977) £1.50 Part II, Chrisunas Rhyme Books. (forthcoming). 3. AN INDEX TO CECILjSHARP, 'THE MORRIS BOOK'(5 vols 1911-1924), E C Cawte. (1983) £1.75 4. SOCIAL HISTORY AND INDUSTRIAL CLASSIFICATION, (2 vols) £7.00 A Classification Schedule devised by the SHIC Working Party (1983) CECTAL COMMUNITY STUDffiS SERIES 1. GRENOSIDE RECOLLECTIONS, by Harold Wasteneys, ed. J D A Widdowson (1980) £3.50 CECTAL CONFERENCE PAPERS SERffiS 1. ASPECTS OF LINGUISTIC VARIATION, ed. Steve Lander and Ken Reah. (1981) £2.50 Proceedings of the 1980 CECTAL Conference on Language Varieties. 2. LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND TRADITION, ed A E Green and J D A Widdowson. (1981) £3.50 Papers on Language and Folklore from the 1978 Conference of the British Sociological Association. 3. ENGLISH HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS: STUDIES IN DEVELOPMENT, £11.()() ed N F Blake and Charles Jones (1984) 4. PERSPECTIVES ON CONTEMPORARY LEGEND, ed Paul Smith (1984) £8.00 Proceedings of the 1982 Conference on Contemporary Legend All prices include postage, inland and overseas (surface mail). Overseas subscribers are asked to make all payments in STERLING. If this is not possible please add the equivalent of £1.50 to cover bank charges. Please make all cheques payable to 'The University of Sheffield'. Orders, material for publication, items for review, and all other enquiries should be addressed to: CECTAL Publications, Centre for English Cultural Tradition and Language, UniversityofSheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN. (0742-78555, exL 6296).